YOUR AD HERE , AND HERE, AND HERE

Your Ad Here. And Here. And Here
How a web of middlemen is hijacking the placement of online ads — and cashing in
Woe
unto the Web surfer who visits http://www.easycracks.net. The site, popular
with curious teenagers, offers free code used to unlock bootleg copies
of everything from Windows XP to video games. But click a link to
download a pirated program, approve one pop-up window, and secretive
programs install themselves on your PC. Then this “adware” generates
endless pop-up ads from well-known companies such as AT&T , eBay ,
and Internet phone service provider Vonage Holdings.
It’s one
example of how some questionable characters are hijacking the placement
of online ads as big companies pour billions into Web marketing. On
Apr. 4, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer filed fraud charges
against Internet marketing firm Direct Revenue LLC for allegedly
sneaking adware onto millions of PCs. Direct Revenue calls the lawsuit
baseless.
The gravy train starts with big advertisers. The companies
they hire, such as Yahoo! and Google Inc, tally the clicks the ads
generate and charge accordingly. But to juice the returns, those
outfits sign up partners who distribute the ads in return for a fee,
and those partners sign up other partners. With each layer vying for
more locations to showcase lucrative ads, there’s an incentive for
someone along the line to deliver them via surreptitiously installed
programs. Says Ed English, chief technology officer for antispyware
products at security firm Trend Micro Inc. : “We’re seeing new trick
after new trick.”
An analysis by computer security firm Sana
Security Inc. of San Mateo, Calif., shows how such a scheme works. At
easycracks.net, users who want to download codes to obtain unauthorized
copies of Microsoft Office 2000 are asked to install a type of
software, known as ActiveX controls, offered by Dutch firm E.C.S.
International. But approving the installation causes at least 16 other
pieces of adware to download. None ask for permission to install
themselves on PCs, according to Sana. They quickly deliver as many as
five pop-up ads per minute.
That setup could generate substantial
income. Mike Friedman, business development manager for E.C.S., says it
pays easycracks up to 30 cents per installation of the adware programs
on U.S.-based PCs. So for each PC loaded with 16 programs, easycracks
could earn up to $4.80. In turn, E.C.S. makes money from brokers who
pump ads through its adware. Friedman admits his company’s user
agreement does not clearly disclose that 16 pieces of adware will
download onto PCs. E.C.S. is changing the agreement, he says, and as a
result of BusinessWeek’s inquiry it is investigating easycracks.
Easycracks, whose Web site says it is based in Armenia, did not respond
to e-mailed requests for comment.
Big advertisers say it’s difficult
to track their ads. “They put your name all over some pop-up ad,” says
eBay spokesman Hani Durzy. “As we become aware of them, we take action
to get them to stop.” But analysts say companies are only beginning to
actively police ad networks. Harvard researcher Benjamin G. Edelman
says a Vonage ad traveled through as many as eight subdistributors
before appearing on the PCs of users who visited easycracks.net. Vonage
spokeswoman Brooke Schulz says the company immediately notified its
online ad agency, a unit of ad conglomerate Arnold Worldwide Partners,
after it was contacted by BusinessWeek.
In a separate study, Edelman
shows how ads purchased for placement on Yahoo and partner sites by
companies such as Cablevision Systems Corp.  were also redistributed
until they showed up as pop-ups. According to Edelman, Yahoo became
blind to the trail of its own ads. One partner, Ditto.com, presented a
Yahoo ad through another site, NBCSearch (not affiliated with the TV
network). That company passed it along to one of its own partners.
(NBCsearch and Ditto.com did not respond to requests for comment.)
Sometimes, the ads showed up in pop-ups from spyware programs. In a
prepared statement, Yahoo says it “takes the quality of its search ad
distribution network very seriously. We are carefully investigating the
claims that have been raised.”