The Most Insidious Pop-Up I Have Ever Seen

Well, this one takes the cake:



When it popped under the Drudge Report, it immediately prompted you to install its ClockSync adware software. None of the subtle "Click here" or any of the other fake system update stuff you've seen in other ads mocked on this site. No, this is straightforward hijacking of your Web browsing experience.

Damnation and ruination upon you, Whenu.com. I curse your very existence, and hope the FTC and your local state attorney general act upon your complaints soon.

Update: I corrected the spelling of whenu.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Spyware

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch recently covered the scourge of spyware. As per the Post-Dispatch's usual, it's a for-dummies version of what you should already now.

Remember this simple tip: never, ever download the product offered in a pop-up ad. Think it looks safe? Safe stuff doesn't get advertised for download. Never in a pop-up ad.

Step 1: Run Away

Here's a bit whose ultimate purpose is only hinted at by the titlebar:



Title: 1: Take the TRUE compatibility test!

Ladies, this looks like the color storyboard from a cheap thriller, wherein the innocent, naive woman first meets the bad guy and thinks he seems nice. Run away, now. Also, buy a gun and carry it on your person, not in your purse.

Spyware Simulation of the Day

This is getting to be a daily event, isn't it? Another day, another spyware company tries to trick novice users into downloading their particular spyware as a system update or whatnot. Today, we have a company with an ad designed like a console window (also known as the command prompt):



I mean, come on. People stupid enough to fall for this don't know what the command prompt is and don't get the metaphor.

Kudos, though, to the technological experise these guys demonstrate. The file list is animated, although you cannot see it in the screenshot, with a rotating list of spyware and virus threats that may be installed. Undoubtedly, this company didn't include any of its filenames because the poor stupid user hasn't installed them yet.

Blue Screen of Dumb

Today's fake System Upgrade brought to you by an unknown assailant:



System downgrade is more like it. What kind of idiot makes an ad for his or her software and models it after the Blue Screen of Death?

Someone without any graphics tool outside of Microsoft Paint, I reckon.

Compelling Argument

ZEDO offers this compelling argument:



Why, I would be a fool not to click an ad whose image was broken! Nothing says quality like an annoying AND broken pop-under ad!