spying on you

[phillip p smith]

I was on reverse flow thread and a message in green came up saying "two people are spying on you. Click here to see who!    Is this a virus?

 

[seenred]

I haven't seen anything like that...but it sure sounds like some kind of virus or spyware to me.  I'm pretty suspicious of that kind of thing.

Red

 

[JckDanls 07]

I haven't seen anything like that...but it sure sounds like some kind of virus or spyware to me.  I'm pretty suspicious of that kind of thing.

Red

:yeahthat:

 

[dls1]

 
I was on reverse flow thread and a message in green came up saying "two people are spying on you. Click here to see who!    Is this a virus?

I haven't seen that message and doubt that I will. Also, I don't know about the word "Spying", but the message may have something to do with the fact that there are constantly 6 "Trackers" or tracking companies on the site. There were 7 for quite some time but 1 disappeared a couple weeks ago around the same time a fake anti virus message popped up for several people.

The number of trackers seems to me to be extremely high for a site such as this when compared to sites such as Google and Amazon with 0 and Yahoo with 1. FYI, the current trackers are,

- Facebook Connect

- Google Analytics

- Google Adsense

- Comscore Beacon

- VigLink

- Quantcast

Be safe.

 

[phillip p smith]

I did not click on it but I sent a message to the moderators about it!

 

[weedeater]

When I saw this post I knew that it rang a bell with me.  Took a little while to find it but it is an add on the SMF site.  May be one of those adds that if you hoover over more than a second or two it opens up that numerous folks have complained about before.   Below is the info in the add.  If you click on it they are selling stuff.

~~ (2 people spied on you) www.safemonitorapp.com Free tool that shows you who's spying on you.

Just looked for it again on this page and found it in another form that says the "NSA is spying on me.  Click to BLOCK them" Link ends up at the same place as above.  Probably other forms as well.

 

[dls1]

 
When I saw this post I knew that it rang a bell with me.  Took a little while to find it but it is an add on the SMF site.  May be one of those adds that if you hoover over more than a second or two it opens up that numerous folks have complained about before.   Below is the info in the add.  If you click on it they are selling stuff.

~~ (2 people spied on you) www.safemonitorapp.com Free tool that shows you who's spying on you.

Just looked for it again on this page and found it in another form that says the "NSA is spying on me.  Click to BLOCK them" Link ends up at the same place as above.  Probably other forms as well.

Interesting, Weedeater. Thanks. When you say it's an add on to the SMF site, would that be an indication that it's sponsored by SMF?

A little info on Safe Monitoe App,

"Safe Monitor is a browser extension created by WebAppTech Coding LLC, this plug-in shows tracking cookies which are added when surfing the Internet. Notice that while this browser add-on is functional it's developers are using various misleading tactics to trick computer users into using their program. The homepage of this website uses a fake "Norton Secured" badge and makes false claims that this add-on is used by 100,000 users. Moreover, when installed on user's computer Safe Monitor will show unwanted ads and will track one's Internet surfing. This plug-in causes browser slowdowns and may lead to serious privacy issues, furthermore computer users should be aware of the fact that clicking on the ads shows by Safe Monitor may easily end up in installation of malware or viruses.

This plug-in causes in-text and interstitial ads (shows 1-5 per website), search engine ads (up to 3 text ads) and full screen pop-up ads. Safe Monitor tracks IP addresses, unique identifier numbers, operating system versions, Internet browser versions, visited website URLs, search queries entered in search engines. Developers of Safe Monitor claims that this browser add-on will show you who is spying on your, however it seems that the real spy is the Safe Monitor App itself. Using this browser add-on is not recommended, if your have installed it it's recommended to remove this adware as soon as possible."

 

[weedeater]

 
Interesting, Weedeater. Thanks. When you say it's an add on to the SMF site, would that be an indication that it's sponsored by SMF?

A little info on Safe Monitoe App,

"Safe Monitor is a browser extension created by WebAppTech Coding LLC, this plug-in shows tracking cookies which are added when surfing the Internet. Notice that while this browser add-on is functional it's developers are using various misleading tactics to trick computer users into using their program. The homepage of this website uses a fake "Norton Secured" badge and makes false claims that this add-on is used by 100,000 users. Moreover, when installed on user's computer Safe Monitor will show unwanted ads and will track one's Internet surfing. This plug-in causes browser slowdowns and may lead to serious privacy issues, furthermore computer users should be aware of the fact that clicking on the ads shows by Safe Monitor may easily end up in installation of malware or viruses.

This plug-in causes in-text and interstitial ads (shows 1-5 per website), search engine ads (up to 3 text ads) and full screen pop-up ads. Safe Monitor tracks IP addresses, unique identifier numbers, operating system versions, Internet browser versions, visited website URLs, search queries entered in search engines. Developers of Safe Monitor claims that this browser add-on will show you who is spying on your, however it seems that the real spy is the Safe Monitor App itself. Using this browser add-on is not recommended, if your have installed it it's recommended to remove this adware as soon as possible."

I think it is an advertiser on this site and not directly related or sponsored by SMF.   I would assume that revenue paid by the advertisers is used to help support the site.  If the link is as your post describes then I think SMF might want to look at whether they want this on their site.  Just my humble opinion and that and a couple of bucks might get you a cup  of coffee.