My Zango Page
 

OK, I started it... Please edit, add or delete anything you don't like. The Back Link will send the surfer back to the page that sent them. If they have gotten rid of Zango, they will stay on the page with the code. If not, they will be sent back.

I know we need more quotes and we need more trusted sites to list. And, I wonder if even mentioning Zone Alarm is going to be bad. Since I don't use it, does it default to blocking cookies? If it does, we don't want to mention it.

Here is the start...I spent all of 2 minutes working on it so you won't hurt my feelings with changes. Oh yeah, I own adwaresucks.com and intend to place the page there. Anyone is free to use the code that I will have for you that will send Zango users to the page. Never will that page be changed until a majority decides it should be changed.

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Warning
You have been sent to this page because your PC has been infected with ZangoSearch. We are a group of website owners that believe it is time for you to take your PC back.

According to Zone Alarm, a well known anti-adware program, "Zango is attempting to monitor user activities on your computer. If allowed it may try to track or log keystrokes (user input), mouse movements/clicks, Web sites visited, and other user behaviors."

We, as a whole believe this is a scourge that needs to be fought at the grassroots level. While taking over your PC browsing by Zango is not illegal, we believe in your right to be informed. When you allowed this toolbar to be installed on your PC, you inadvertently agreed to allow Zango to do this to you.

Below, you will find detailed instructions on how to remove this insidious piece of software. Once you have completed this process, please click the “Back to the Page you Visited" Link below.

OK, lots have looked and I see no changes. I will put this up ASAP
But, still make changes as you see fit. And I will work on it a bit more

Looks good to me. If I have any suggestions I'll let you know, but for now it covers all my concerns... which, being a hippy, isn't much anyway. ;)

Thanks for taking the time to set up this sort of thing. It's a real time and stress saver for me to know someone trustworthy is willing to create a single service operating point we can all use. |thumb

Thanks virgohippy
I have it setup and ready except a few items. I need to get the script that will do the redirecting and the "Back to Previous Page" code. I am probably going to ask Sparky to do something to the server that will do it just incase someone has javascript disabled.

And, I am getting a graphic made of adware with a circle with a line through it. And a little one that people can display on their sites if they want to. No link will be required for that. It just may help with the surfers knowing that you do not support adware. I will also be contacting as many sponsors as I can think of asking that they do the same.

Even if only 20 or 30 percent follow the instructions, signups should go up for everyone.

There won't be any exit links at all. This is going to be safe and secure for everyone to use.

Great stuff Jim |thumb |thumb

Just an fyi
The page is up and being tested. We may be able to give it to everyone tomorrow. :)

This is a page I set up yesterday. I detect zango in the header using php redirect them to this page.

http://www.thumbdetective.com/infect...goinfected.php

Okay you yankee boys know best but I think "We, as a whole believe..." should be "We, as a whole, believe..."

I am not a lawyer but I watch "Law and Order". I might replace 'insidious' with another adjective. Up to that point it appears you were making wise choice of words.

Good work Jim.

You are probably right Chop
The page is now pretty :) I will fix the wording tomorrow and give anyone that wants it the htaccess file that will make it work.

OK, here you go... http://www.adwaresucks.com/zango/
You can pick up the htaccess file here.
http://www.adwaresucks.com/zango/zangohtaccess.txt

Use it if you would like. I will make a few changes but nothing that will ever hurt your traffic.

Major Geeks is a pretty trusted source of information for all types of malware, including adware. The link is to their malware support forum. Lots of good information there including suggestions on prevention.

I like what you're doing very much, Jim, along with that fact that you're actually doing it. Reminds me of the Royal Bank of Scotland commercials. :)

One thing I'm wondering about is opening the "your computer is infected" message in the current browser window. I'm thinking it may cost us some lost surfers (and signups).

Here's what I'm thinking. I've visited many sites that show me messages telling me that my computer is infected and offering to scan it for free or making some other 'removal' pitch. I always close those windows without ever accepting their free scans or clicking any of their links.

Now, I'm surfing on a Mac so I know for certain their messages are all bullshit, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who's kind of conditioned to close those "your computer is infected" windows.

I know we're not offering to scan their computer or trying to sell them anything. But I'm thinking that not everyone will read closely to see what we're acually saying. For me, once I see the "your computer is infected" message, I just close the window from the keyboard.

So I'm wondering if it might be better to open the adwaresucks page in a new window instead. That way the surfer can return to the site he came from even if he does not want to remove the Zango software, or just closes the page before reading it all, or reads it but is scared to try doing the things we tell him to do. Right now the only choice is to remove the software or keep getting sent back to the adwaresucks page (if I'm reading that htaccess file correctly).

Some surfers may even get angry at the originating porn site that keeps redirecting them to the adwaresucks page. I don't have Zango installed to test this, but it seems the htaccess setup would keep bouncing the surfer back to the Zango page every time they hit their 'back' button too. Eventually, some surfers may just close the window.

I know the idea is to try to "force clean" the Internet of all Zango software, and in theory I like that idea. But I wonder if trying to force the surfer to take action now will work against us. Some surfers will be focused on porn, not computer repairs. All the surfer has to do is close the window and go find their porn somewhere else.

Anyway, I'm wondering if opening the "you're infected" page as a popunder might work better, so they can see it after they've found the porn they were looking for first. We may lose one signup that way, but we may keep or gain a bookmarker too.

Just something I wanted to put out there for consideration.

Simon - one thing that Jim is going to put into place is customizable pages, so LOR surfers will hear from me that their system is infected.

Another thing is that I have to assume that these surfers that are infected are useless to me as far as sales - I'm thinking that this thing will take over any & all affiliate codes & replace them, so why bother letting them surf the site?

The customizable page thing could help a lot, particularly with more well-known sites which have recognizable personalities attached to them, and sites with a loyal following. I'm not sure how much good it will do for other sites though. I've closed "you're infected" windows that were highly-customized to match the site, so that's never worked for me yet. Granted, if I saw a custom message on LOR or another well-known site, I might think twice.

I was going to mention that we seem to be assuming a "these surfers are completely useless to me" attitude about this, and I'm not sure that's the case. Maybe it is though, and we need to just force them all to either clean their computers right now or leave and go somewhere else.

But I wonder if there's not some third alternative that's worth considering. I guess it sort of seems like we're telling the surfer "you are not welcome here" (with that infection). I'm thinking some of them will only get the "you're not welcome here" part of the message.

Right now, you can't get to LOR if your system is infected, so even if they click the back button, they'd go right back to the Zango page once they clicked on the link again.

Jim's getting some stats together for me (and you) since I put this on LOR yesterday afternoon. I'm really hoping that the number is small because I hate to turn away traffic. But, if the number is big, then it might be good as well as we'd be helping people get this shit off of their systems.

The reason I didn't make it a popup was exactly what you said, nobody really believes it. Right now, Sparky says there are about .8% of surfers infected so, it really isn't a lot. Here is my thinking, if they are infected and you allow them to check out your site anyway, they are going to think you are screwing with them when sooner or later zango pops up...not zango. I think a popup claiming they are infected will just be closed and they will think again, you are screwing with them.

I made it generic so people really do believe what we are telling them. Hell, by the time they get there, they have got to be wondering what the hell has been happening anyway.

You are right about the only choice being remove it or move along. But some of the things I have been reading makes this even more important. There are children using these PCs that have been infected that are having these popups coming up when they use a search function. And, back to what I was saying, you are going to lose bookmarker if you do allow them on your site and zango pops up.

You guys can do anything you would like with the page I made. And even changed the htaccess code of you would like. If you would like to steal the page and use it another way, go for it. If you would like to redirect to a different page, go for that too.

I am going to keep searching for a "real" removal tool that would make things much better. I am also going to start working on the 450 other adware programs as I have time.

All I have really done is I have given everyone the tools to educate their surfers. You guys can do anything you want with it.

I'll use my reality LL as a test and watch my stats for a few days and post changes, I'll get that code going once I fully wake up or take a nap hehe

I also am gonna infect my stats running dont care about PC with zango and keep it on it for about 5 or 6 days and surf my sites at different times and know which sponsors are affected - and I don't think it would be good to post in public which ones

Oh yeah...as long as you don't mind a text only page, I am willing to make a page that looks like your site. All you will have to do is send me the body tags and I will give you a new url.

What I would really like to do is place a list of websites that are using the page. So the surfer knows we are united. But again, I don't want any exit links.

I want to come up with a counter that will count the number of people that have removed zango on that page. But that is something I have to talk to sparky about :)

Jim, consider enbedding code in the html to count instead of using a counter. Since Chris is a master, it would be best for him to do it but I do have some code in my age verify script that I could modify for you.

Good idea Chop...
I would really love to see the amount of people that hit the page and the number that uninstall zango.

I threw it on LOR yesterday & looking at the stats, about 250-300 people hit my site & got redirected to the page, so hopefully some of them are reading it & taking it seriously.

I have seen estimates ranging from 0.5% to 3%, but whatever the real figure, let's not forget that Zango is only one of more than 20+ scumware operations. Another way to provide some perspective is that we pay only 1% for things like "free" trading scripts which might otherwise cost hundreds of dollars.

I know we want to be doing something, but I cannot escape the feeling that this particular route risks us taking our eyes off the ball. Even if we can persuade a percentage of surfers to clean their PC's - and not damage ourselves in the process - we are unlikely to do much more than scratch the surface of the problem.

According to Business Week, scumware is a $2 billion a year industry and even if that is exaggerated and of course it includes mainstream business, these people are only middlemen: the actual value of the traffic which is being stolen is far higher.

IMO the only serious way to attempt to tackle this issue is by punishing the sponsors who are scumware customers and/or who turn a blind eye to affiliates who are. And that means not only pulling links from such sponsors, but by saying so publicly so that they can see what their activities are costing them.

I haven't taken part in the Zango discussion because frankly I don't have anything useful to contribute. But I do know how to edit an .htaccess file so I added the code to both we-r-sex and Quantum Porn and will be putting it up on the rest of my domains later.

Thanks to Jim and the rest of you who have a clue and are taking the initiative to do something about this.

Can we just send you a link to an existing style sheet?