[OT] How did this scam get on the IMDb?
Angus Rodgers
come, when I just visited <http://uk.imdb.com/>, and did a search,
this message came up in red at the top of the screen?
"You are our 999.999 visitor, [sic]
Now online 15/March/2008 at 10:22 a.m.
Congratulations! - That's why you've been selected to win a car:
AUDI A3 - If selected, click here: www.selected.winner.co.uk" [sic]
The whole thing looks like text, but cannot be selected as text
using the mouse (at least not in Firefox). Also, it is linked
to a very long URL, which begins:
<http://tracking.adjug.com/Clicks/NEW_MSMQTracker.asp?Params=...>
IMDb is one of my favourite sites, and I've always trusted it.
Is this scam just the result of something unrelated that has
happened to my browser, or does it actually have something to
do with IMDb? Has anyone come across anything similar before?
Sorry again about the OT! What would have been a more appropriate
newsgroup to which to have posted this question (had I had enough
time to think about it)?
--
Angus Rodgers
(twirlip@ eats spam; reply to angusrod@)
Contains mild peril
Schrodinger
news:qu8nt3t4mlolkr4o9...@4ax.com...
I get it too after a search. Maybe IMDB don't have much control over the
adverts that appear, or more to the point - don't care...
Steven Campbell
> Now online 15/March/2008 at 10:22 a.m.
> Congratulations! - That's why you've been selected to win a car:
> AUDI A3 - If selected, click here: www.selected.winner.co.uk" [sic]
You couldn't have been visitor number 999,999 because I was 999,999 ;o)
I've seen this happen on a few sites recently http://uk.gamestracker.com/
being one of them. I just presumed it was an internal advert rather than
some sort of hijack.
Steven.
Colin Wilson
> come, when I just visited <http://uk.imdb.com/>, and did a search,
> this message came up in red at the top of the screen?
> "You are our 999.999 visitor, [sic]
If you use Firefox (and you should, if you're still using IE) you can
get a plugin called AdBlockPlus - works a treat :-)
Harry Stottle
"Colin Wilson" <REMOVEEVERYTHI...@phoenixbbsZEROSPAM.co.uk>
wrote in message news:MPG.2245fd2f7...@news.individual.net...
I'm using IE, without a plugin, and I did not get the pop up advert, nor
do I get pop ups from other sites, so it seems IE might be more advanced
than Firefox :-)
Steven Campbell
"Harry Stottle" <sorryspam...@nospam.uk.co> wrote in message
news:mJSCj.11256$%N1....@newsfe3-gui.ntli.net...
Harry it doesn't seem to be a pop up, but built into the website.
I have Google pop up blocker and IE 6 pop up blocker and I still get them.
Interestingly they don't appear at first but after you have searched they
appear shortly after.
Steven.
Archduke Dougut Reify
> Sorry to post about a non-bargain, but I urgently need to ask: how
> come, when I just visited <http://uk.imdb.com/>, and did a search,
> this message came up in red at the top of the screen?
>
> "You are our 999.999 visitor, [sic]
> Now online 15/March/2008 at 10:22 a.m.
> Congratulations! - That's why you've been selected to win a car:
> AUDI A3 - If selected, click here: www.selected.winner.co.uk" [sic]
<snip>
This is nothing to do with IMDB. They have ad space at the top of their
pages, this space is filled by ads fed from a marketing company and
rotated automaticly (Places like Tradedoubler, AdBrite, etc).
I have seen a lot of there "Congrats you are 1,000,000 visitor" type ads
about when I was marketing, they are not a 'scam' but just trying to get
you to sign up to their website/contest/whatever. Although saying its not
a 'scam' it is an 'un-truth' as its just a premade banner and will be
shown to 1000s of people over 100s of websites and all of them will be
the 999,999 visitor :)
If IMDB took more care over their ad spots they could easily filter out
this kind of thing.
Zimmy
the ad company, not from the site, who just provide space. They get paid
'per click' so they'll go to any lengths to get you to click on them, even
simulating a windows error message. Just don't click them and if you do, run
something like Adaware to get rid of the cookies, but don't worry too much
about them.
Z
"Angus Rodgers" <twi...@bigfoot.com> wrote in message
news:qu8nt3t4mlolkr4o9...@4ax.com...
Angus Rodgers
>Are you new to the web? These ads have been about for years. They're from
>the ad company, not from the site, who just provide space.
(Sigh.) No, I've been on the Net for 17 years, and I've seen plenty
of ads at the IMDb and elsewhere. But (a) this looked so amateurish,
and (b) I'd just visited an unfamiliar site (following a link given
by a stranger in a newsgroup) which had caused Firefox to behave in
a way I had never seen before - many of the little rectangles that
give "tabs" their name were jiggling around oddly! - so I already
had reason to worry that something might be wrong. The other site
had also caused a popup to appear, and had done something peculiar
with Java, as well. If I had been in less of a panic I might have
explained all this better! Sorry about the false alarm.
antonye
>
> (Sigh.) No, I've been on the Net for 17 years, <snip>
Given that Mosaic was released in 1993, Netscape arrived
in 1994 and IE in 1995, it must have been a rather boring
first couple of years for you...
--
Antony
Angus Rodgers
Surely you don't think that the Internet is the same thing as
the World Wide Web? Sure enough, you're on Google Groups, so
you probably don't even realise that you're on Usenet ...
Peter
<11b0463f-4821-471a...@c19g2000prf.googlegroups.com>,
antonye <ant...@ukrm.net> writes
>Angus Rodgers wrote:
>>
>> (Sigh.) No, I've been on the Net for 17 years, <snip>
Aye BUT do you remember the days before the Net I started wit a 300 bps
modem (self build) and I thought that was fast !!!!
>
>Given that Mosaic was released in 1993, Netscape arrived
>in 1994 and IE in 1995, it must have been a rather boring
>first couple of years for you...
>
>--
>Antony
>
>
>
>
--
Peter Glover
06 FLSTFI "FATBOY"
Angus Rodgers
<Pri...@privacy.com.uk> wrote:
>In message
><11b0463f-4821-471a...@c19g2000prf.googlegroups.com>,
>antonye <ant...@ukrm.net> writes
>>Angus Rodgers wrote:
>>>
>>> (Sigh.) No, I've been on the Net for 17 years, <snip>
>
>Aye BUT do you remember the days before the Net I started wit a 300 bps
>modem (self build) and I thought that was fast !!!!
Modem? Luxury! We had a tin can on a piece of string, and we had
to tap on the can in Morse code.
goo...@damage2000.co.uk
>
> Modem? Luxury! We had a tin can on a piece of string, and we had
> to tap on the can in Morse code.
>
Ah yes, well, we used to DREAM of having t'tin can we could tap with
t'Morse code...
*WE* used to have to look across t'road at Ceefax (or even "Oracle",
if we're going back 17 years..) on t'neighbour's TV using t'pair of
binoculars!
And yes, IMDB pop-up adverts (even if they are generated by their ad
clients) suck, you'd think they'd have higher standards.
--
Damage
www.blokey.net
"Heinrich. Your reign of terror must end."
antonye
> antonye wrote:
> >Angus Rodgers wrote:
>
> >> (Sigh.) No, I've been on the Net for 17 years, <snip>
>
> >Given that Mosaic was released in 1993, Netscape arrived
> >in 1994 and IE in 1995, it must have been a rather boring
> >first couple of years for you...
>
> Surely you don't think that the Internet is the same thing as
> the World Wide Web? Sure enough, you're on Google Groups, so
> you probably don't even realise that you're on Usenet ...
Heh, nice try sunshine but you don't get away with it that
easily. Note that I didn't equate "the net" with "the Web"
nor Usenet, I just commented that it must have been very boring
in those first couple of years as Usenet was still very much
in it's infancy back then with nothing like the volumes being
posted today (virtually no binaries given the lack of
bandwidth too) until the proliferation of (early) websites in
the mid-nineties. This happens to be when I started an internet-
related company and it's still going strong today.
Since you asked, I've been using Usenet since 1989 (although
my earliest recorded post in GG is 1994 as that was as far
back as Deja News went) but GG took the place of Deja and the
interface is a lot better than the old Netscape mail client I
used to use before upgrading to Thunderbird and not bothering
any more. Besides, I can use GG from the office and it synchs
what I've read when I get home.
So what did you do for those first couple of years, as you
still haven't answered the question?
--
Antony
Angus Rodgers
<ant...@ukrm.net> wrote:
>Angus Rodgers wrote:
>> antonye wrote:
>> >Angus Rodgers wrote:
>>
>> >> (Sigh.) No, I've been on the Net for 17 years, <snip>
>>
>> >Given that Mosaic was released in 1993, Netscape arrived
>> >in 1994 and IE in 1995, it must have been a rather boring
>> >first couple of years for you...
>>
>> Surely you don't think that the Internet is the same thing as
>> the World Wide Web? Sure enough, you're on Google Groups, so
>> you probably don't even realise that you're on Usenet ...
>
>Heh, nice try sunshine but you don't get away with it that
>easily. [...] So what did you do for those first couple of years,
>as you still haven't answered the question?
I don't know what you're on about! I wasn't "trying" anything.
You appeared to be suggesting that I couldn't have been on the
Net before 1993. Thank you for explaining that that wasn't what
you meant. I don't know what you mean about not answering a
question. The only question asked was "Are you new to the web?",
and I answered that. I don't see that it matters much what I did
before 1993; but, since you ask, I think my main interest was in
sci.math, and I'm pretty sure my first Usenet post was a question
about the meaning of "universes" in set theory. God knows why I
should be having to explain any of this, but are you happy now?
... Now you've got me curious, so I Googled myself. (It sounds
disgusting!) Google does have an archive of my first-ever post,
and it was made to sci.philosophy.tech (not sci.math), on 27
August 1992 (not 1991, as I imagined). It was indeed that one
about what "universes" are (so at least my ageing brain wasn't
playing tricks on that point). And I still don't know what a
"universe" is ...
Zimmy
> On 23 Mar, 11:35, Angus Rodgers <twir...@bigfoot.com> wrote:
>>
>> Modem? Luxury! We had a tin can on a piece of string, and we had
>> to tap on the can in Morse code.
>>
>
> Ah yes, well, we used to DREAM of having t'tin can we could tap with
> t'Morse code...
> *WE* used to have to look across t'road at Ceefax (or even "Oracle",
> if we're going back 17 years..) on t'neighbour's TV using t'pair of
> binoculars!
Ceefax?! Binoculars?! You don't know you were born!
*WE* used to have to TYPE TV listin's from t'free papers in t'ZX81!
Z