Say NO to Hackers updated 10-12-2007
http://www.saynotohackers.com/BerryBall

Why upgrade to iSimplify?

I've had this service for almost a year and a half now. I would NEVER be without it. It has saved my butt many times when a trojan comes waltzing in with an unsuspected email attachment or website URL link.
BUT, they are changing the subscription plans. We have been running the iSafe plan which includes anti-virus, anti-spyware, and a firewall. And that plan will still be available at the same cost.  But now they have a lot more protection available in iCare (which includes iClean plus iSafe) , plus iDefend which is a identify theft protection service also, but it costs  more too. If you are an ISA you need to log in to your account and click on "New Service Overview PDF's" and print out all six of them. And go to  here  for how the changes will affect you financially. If you are an ISA you need to sign up at least one computer for the iSimplify plan to keep your residuals at max. 

The link at  http://www.saynotohackers.com/BerryBall  tells a lot about the program. The blue banner entitled "The Internet Risk - view presentation " is a good short discussion of why this is needed.  An  better more meaningful short presentation  can be found at www.invisusdirect.com  where it says Step 1 "view service presentation". But don't sign up there as corporate will get credit for your signup. Please go to http://www.myinvisusdirect.com/BerryBall for the sign up if you choose to tryout the service. I don't know why they don't put the good presentation on our affiliate page. 

  click on the banner and download your FREE scan.

You will be amazed at what if finds that your present security software isn't seeing.
*The free scan downloaded from the net scans only for spyware and does not remove 
anything from your computer. If you order the free CD you get a fullscan and removal 
with a 1 day free trial. BUT, the cd will not contain the most recent updates. The purpose 
of the free scan whether from the net or CD is to show you there is stuff on your computer, 
lots of stuff, that simply doesn't belong there. 

Purchase
If you'd like to purchase this  program (which you need to do in order 
to get rid of the items it found if you did the net scan) go to http://www.myinvisusdirect.com/BerryBall and click on the "subscribe now" button near the top.  The five and Free program signup is on the same page.
Essentially if you sign up five other people your subscription is free, but you don't get credit for any more than that. You need to become an ISA to make money on more than the five people. 

Resellers - Learn how to both get your own subscription 
paid for and how to make money reselling the program  here. 

We all absolutely need this! Now you can get the same security protection the big boys and  large corporations use. 
You have no idea of the state of affairs today regarding hackers and lack of computer security from the standard security programs. See these articles from different sources explaining the state of affairs today.
Go to here for some good journalism stories on cybercrime that will amaze you. 

You MUST see and listen to the "WHY we need this"    here. 

Why do we need this?
Tired of being hacked at E-Gold, PayPal,  and even E-Bullion if you lack a cryptocard? Had your credit cards charged lately without your knowledge? Tired of programs that claim to remove the trojans and keyloggers from your computer but don't? I recently got hacked for a large sum at one of my ebullion accounts the day before I got my cryptocard to protect it. An account I had not yet used for anything, except to receive a single deposit into.
I was using Zonealarm Security Suite, as well as Spyware Nuker and Registry Mechanic and Window Washer.  None of these caught the keylogger who captured my information as I logged in to purchase the debit card for the account that NO ONE else knew I had because I had just taken the account  out.  Two hours later it was cleaned out. It caused me to start exploring the security issue as I surely didn't believe anyone inside ebullion did that and I THOUGHT my computer was protected. I found out it wasn't!

I was sent a new security program from Invisus recently from a gal who went through a similar experience, also did the research, and solved the problem. 
It's not just software but something far more, updated several times a day, not weekly or monthly, explained further paragraphs down. When I did the free scan with it,  I was amazed that I had SEVERAL keyloggers and a password cracker still on my computer that my current security software had not found nor removed; 70 infected files in all.  When I scanned my laptop it found over 800 items that ZoneAlarm and Spyware Nuker missed, (my daughter had been using my laptop to download music files on our vacation trip - free music downloads are just loaded with spyware). That was the spyware scan; when I used the anti-virus scan it found no less than 50 viruses on my computer with some dating back to backup files stored as long ago as 2001. This is an amazing tool. 

FREE Scan for YOUR computer
Click on the Invisus security scan banner below to download your free scan.  

Test your computer's vulnerabilities right now. The FREE Scan tests for hacker tools, spyware, trojan horses, and other dangerous hacker programs that may be on your pc. It's FREE! Click on the banner pic above.

It will download the test scan file and then you need to click on "start the scan" and it will show you how much spyware your computer contains that your current security programs are not removing.

When you complete your scan, highlight each item it finds with the mouse arrow and on the right it will tell you the type of threat, the threat level, where it comes from, a description of the threat - how it will harm you, and how to deal with it - remove or quarantine.

The free scan says it has found the malware items on your computer and you need to buy the program to remove them. The truth is; the free scan only scans for spyware in the "quick scan" mode but it DOES remove these items also if you get the free cd.  So when you buy the program and do a  "thorough" scan it will find a few more spyware items and then scan for viruses at the same time, but you won't see the big list it found on the free quickie spyware only scan because they've already been removed during that scan.  

My sad story
You can view the things it found on my computer  here   ; sadly it's quite a list and this was just the spyware scan; another 50 items came up on the anti-virus scan . I have also included the pages it takes you to that describes each threat, how it works, and the specific files on your computer that are infected. 

The real "WHY" this is a necessary
Go here to see and hear  an eye opening slide show about internet security. 
This is an excellent presentation regarding how little security the standard security software (such as ZoneAlarm, McAfee, Norton, and Spyware Nuker) provides. He tells about how easy it is to hack into your computer, including programs you can buy on the net to hack into other computers. My son actually used a keyloger program he downloaded off the net to access his sister's chats, emails, passwords for all the places she wasn't supposed to go, etc. 
I was appalled at how easily he did that. The presentation talks about how your computer is taken over as a zombie computer and is used by the hacker to distribute child pornography, send out emails to anyone in your address book or his, as well as accessing all your account information for any banking and business you do on the net.
DO NOT FAIL TO WATCH and LISTEN TO THIS PRESENTATION.

Costs
The Invisus Security System  charges by the month for each computer you use it on, ($15 for the first and $10 for each thereafter)  and if you recruit 5 active customers it is free (that's five customers per active computer & you don't get paid more unless you become an ISA).  It removes keystroke loggers, spyware cookies, adware, trojan horses, RATS - remote access tools, Back Doors, Password Crackers, and more. You can also become an ISA (Independent Sales Agent) and make money selling the product; that costs $220 and annual renewal is $99, and includes making money off your downline. Go to here for the explanation of what that entails.

Don't want to pay $15/mo??? 
Go to  here  for  the True Costs of Shrink Wrapped Security.

Tech Support
A biggie with this Invisus.com  is the unlimited excellent support. Ever try to get a question answered at Adobe or Microsoft? If you could handle the hour hold time and ever got to talk to a real person the first thing they do is empty your wallet before you ever get to the question. These guys respond by email right away and are accessible by phone, at no cost.  And I am not going to leave you hanging either. Both my immediate and silver uplines are already on my case with training sessions. There's a reason this company has a 94% retention rate.
The Invisus program is like no other out there and they have a support system that makes it work. 

Testing tech support with a real case.
A few days after I bought the program I took on a big problem, probably by allowing the firewall to open a link I shouldn't have.  I somehow downloaded a mean and difficult-to-get-rid-of virus. I found I could not use any of the browsers. I could open a browser  (Internet Explorer, Netscape, AM Browser, and Mozilla Firefox) and go to a website but if I had to login to that website as soon as I put in my login and password, an error message occurred and the browser closed down.  The virus was Troj/Goldun-EE and was located in the file C:/WINNT/System32/CsdDriver.sys  which of course is not a windows file. Invisus.com found it right away and flagged me to it but would not remove the virus. I even tried quarantining it and then deleting it from quarantine but it would not do that either. I used the VOIP skype system to call tech support (www.skype.com ).  Use the 6210 number and not the 6211 number which is an automated answering service that doesn't recognize the dialpad on skype. 
They sent me a file which I opened which gave them access to my computer. I watched this guy Nathan download his bag of about 14 tools on my computer and proceed to try and eliminate the virus; after two hours he failed and turned it over to his supervisor. It was a stubborn critter. After two more hours his supervisor turned it over to another man for yet another hour. We finally got the problem resolved and the virus eliminated but I'm sitting there thinking how much this is costing Invisus.com to do this. The tech support was free, except for the skype call at 1.7 cents a minute for about 20 minutes spent on the phone during the duration of the issue. I figured I paid for my whole year's subscription right there in that one incident. Norton or McAfee or ZoneAlarm would have emptied your wallet in that time period. Kudoos for Invisus tech support and they even followed up by email the next day to make sure things were okay.

A word from the CEO of Invisus
(This was written to clarify just how the Invisus system works 
and the nature of the security business as a whole.)
For the benefit of all, please allow me to explain some important information about how our incredible service works.  Hopefully this will be helpful to everyone. 

There is no such thing as perfect security.  Never will be.  No single anti-virus, anti-spyware, or other security program can or will stop everything.  Hackers are always a step ahead of security companies.  Thousands of new viruses and spyware programs are released by hackers every month.  The best technologies, like Sophos, update daily, even several times daily, and then catch and remove 99% of them.  For the toughest viruses, manual intervention is required.  That’s why we offer unlimited support.  That’s also why Norton and others charge for the support.  They and others know that their software can’t stop everything – and virus removal via tech support by the minute has become a huge revenue source for them.  Our business model is different, and much better for today and the future.

Sophos catches and removes many viruses that others do not.  
Others might catch one or two here and there that Sophos won’t remove (not very often, but it can happen).  That’s the nature of security today – and will always be.  Other programs are simply not the best overall packages out there.  They are not good enough for our subscribers.  Again, you just need to make sure you have the best technology, then rely upon the company’s tech support team to help out where needed.  Does anyone provide better support than INVISUS?  Absolutely not.  Not even close. 

We’ve developed “Best Practices” for security checkups, virus and spyware removal.  When it comes to getting the help you need, we’ve spent years developing our systems and processes – and I’d stack our service up against anyone else.  We take care of pesky viruses and other security threats within 30-45 min. on average.  Where some Trojan or virus, or hacker tool sneaks past our technologies, we have an entire toolbox of 3^rd party tools and programs that we can use to find the root of a problem and get you cleaned up and locked down.  Sometimes this process takes hours.  But we don’t quit.  Avast, as an example because it is freeware, is on our list of programs we may use if necessary to take care of some problems.  But, Avast is near the bottom of the list – because there are much better tools that quickly solve the problems in 99% of the cases.  It doesn’t help us out in the vast majority of cases. We’ve got years of experience with many thousands of tough cases.

So, in an imperfect world where hackers work 24X7 writing the next great virus and looking for new ways to break into computers, we provide our subscribers the best technologies you can get, and we back that up with the best technical support on the planet – at no extra cost.  The Geek Squad is a nationwide tech support chain through Best Buy.  They made over $2 billion last year repairing home computers.  Consumer Reports just released the results of a study they did that shows Americans spent $8 billion in the last 2 years just repairing virus and spyware damage alone.  If freeware, or any other software was perfect, why is everyone spending so much fixing virus and spyware problems?  Everyone will need help with their computer at some point with security problems, an average of 2 times a year.  The SECRET is in the kind of service and support you get when you have a problem.  This is where we shine like nobody else does.  Like I said before, I’ll stack up our best practices and our team here against any other service in the world. 

Hopefully you will understand that this is the nature of security today and in the future and is not unique to us.  And above all, I hope you understand that security starts with great technologies, and ends with great tech support.
Best regards,
James Harrison
CEO, Co-Founder
INVISUS  

INVISUS Solutions ( the Invisus newsletter) 
will be sent directly to your computer each month through the INVISUS BigFix program – just like the Security Alerts are sent to you now. You will see a small notification appear in the lower right hand corner of your screen with a link to Solutions. INVISUS Solutions is an extension of our ongoing campaign for Internet safety. It’s your new monthly Cyber-hood Watch security report. Each month in Solutions we will share with you the difference this community is making. We will discuss how we can all do more to stay safe – and what’s coming around the corner with new ways to protect you. Every month, we’ll share with you how best to take advantage of INVISUS software and services with regular tips and tricks.

Invisus Software Video Tutorials
Link is found in the Invisus Solutions newsletter above on the left.
You can also save the link in favorites to view anytime.
Here you can watch tutorials that show you how to run different functions of the INVISUS software. You can pause, rewind, or fast-forward the tutorials as needed.

How is the Invisus program different than Norton or McAfee or Avast, 
or Panda or ZoneAalarm or others?

THE INVISUS DIFFERENCE

System Tools (the four items described next). 
This is a very powerful part of the package. In addition to just finding and removing spyware, viruses and providing an unbeatable Firewall, it allows you to do things no other program can. System Tools provides additional protection from spyware and malicious software.

My PC Explorers
Note: My PC Explorers are for Advanced Users. My PC Explorers lets you explore and manage key elements of your system. The different My PC Explorers allow you to view and modify settings on your computer that are normally hidden and difficult to change. My PC Explorers are very powerful. With My PC Explorers, you can find out what applications are currently connected to the internet, find out what programs automatically start when windows starts, see and modify which applications are changing your Internet settings, and much more.

My PC Checkup
My PC Checkup helps tighten computer security. It updates your computer settings to recommended “best practices” security levels. My PC Checkup thoroughly scans your computer for over 1000 different settings, suggests recommended changes, and then allows you to execute the recommended changes. Please Note: Settings that are changed by My PC Checkup cannot 
be undone using Anti-Spyware. The first time you run My PC Checkup, there may be many recommended changes. Subsequent My PC Checkups will find fewer changes to suggest. Anti-Spyware is self-tuning, and when you also use Active Protection, it helps keep your computer secure.

Privacy Tools (history cleaner and secure file eraser).
These tools provide features that protect your computer and files from privacy invasions.

The History Cleaner 
The History Cleaner is a privacy tool that removes all Internet History usage logs and 75 different activity histories from the most popular windows and Internet applications. History Cleaner, which works like a Windows cleaner, allows you to delete your Web browsing and search history, Windows temporary folders, and your search history. In addition, you can select to erase the history stored by many popular applications, such as Real Player, Windows Media Player, Quicktime, Winzip, ICQ, and MSN Messenger.

The Secure File Eraser 
The Secure File Eraser is a powerful deletion tool that ensures the complete destruction of any files you wish to remove from your machine. The Secure File Eraser will completely remove all traces of any documents, images, music, movies, or applications you wish to remove from your computer.

Read why my upline likes Invisus.  

What you get
Go to http://www.myinvisusdirect.com/Office/Product.aspx  to see what the whole package consists of: desktop firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware, patch management, security alerts, and FREE unlimited expert technical support.

FAQ
Be sure and read the very thorough FAQ at http://saynotohackers.com/faq.php?id=berryball 

Purchase
If you'd like to purchase this  program (which you need to do in order to get rid of the items it found) go to http://www.myinvisusdirect.com/BerryBall and click on the "buy now" button at the top.  The five and Free program signup is on the same page.

Add another computer
If you are like me and most others, you will experiment with one computer first and when you see the results on that one then you will want to add this protection to more computers in your home or business. 
Here's how you do that.

1. Go to www.invisusdirect.com
2. Click on the login link and input your login ID and password. If you don't know your password click on the forgot password link. I don't ever remember inputting a password and I think I got a generic one sent to me when I clicked on forgot password that I then changed to a good one when I logged in.
3. Click on "My Account" on the left.
4. Then click on "My Own Subscriptions"
5. Select how many ADDITIONAL subscriptions you want, not total , but additional. Below that it shows how many TOTAL subscriptions you have. 
6. Go to the bottom and click on continue and it should take you through to completion.

Testimonies
Send me your story to post. How many spyware issues and how many viruses did  the Invisus.com  security system find on your computer that your regular security software did not find?

Spyware's threat is getting nastier. Infection rates are on the rise, in part thanks to the surging popularity of social-networking sites like MySpace.com.

That's the assessment from a leading vendor of anti-spyware software, which released the latest quarterly update of its State of Spyware report. In order to keep its software up-to-date against the latest threats, the Colorado-based company constantly tracks the creation of new spyware—the programs that become embedded in computers and track users' Web-surfing habits and generate annoying pop-up ads (see BusinessWeek.com, 7/17/06, "The Plot to Hijack Your Computer").

"We're finding that the social-networking sites like MySpace are turning out to be hotbeds for spyware," CEO Dave Moll says. "People are creating multiple profiles, and the links on their sites will take you to sites that will either download or drive-by download adware and spyware."

High infection rate
It doesn't help that many younger users aren't sufficiently cautious about where and how they surf the Web, Moll says. "They're not looking out for danger in quite the way that more skeptical adults do," he says. "Kids on MySpace and sites like it act as though they are in a safe youth-only environment, and as a result their behavior is less cautious, and that is something that is being preyed upon by all kinds of Internet villains. And we think spyware creators will be the most aggressive in exploiting that."

To date, XXX's researchers have identified some 527,000 malicious Web sites, an increase of 100,000 from a year earlier.

Overall, Molls says, 89 percent of consumer PCs are infected with some kind of spyware, a rate not seen in a year. And, on average, home computers contain 30 individual spyware programs.

A glimmer of good news : Businesses are cutting instances of spyware. XXX audited 19,480 businesses in 71 countries, most in the U.S. Infected PCs in business environments had 19 pieces of spyware on average, versus 21 a year ago.

Spyware creators are also employing a wider arsenal of weapons. They're piggybacking on other, more malicious types of programs such as rootkits, a type of program that conceals itself, and keyloggers, which record a user's keystrokes on a PC.

Additionally, Spyware creators are exploiting the popularity of Internet video clips to convey their nasty cargo. A Trojan program called Zlob masquerades as a video-decoder program intended to be an update for Microsoft's Windows Media Player. Users may come across a video clip they'd like to see, and on clicking a link are given an error message and a link to install a new version of the player software. The user's browser is then redirected to a download site that gives them a program that includes the Zlob Trojan, which in turn downloads more spyware and other malicious software programs.

The Plot To Hijack Your Computer
They watch you surf the Web. They plague you with pop-up ads. Then they cripple your hard drive.
Consumers have strong opinions about Direct Revenue's software. "If I ever meet anyone from your company, I will kill you," a person who identified himself as James Chang said in an e-mail to Direct Revenue last summer. "I will f------ kill you and your families." Such sentiments aren't unusual. "You people are EVIL personified," Kevin Horton wrote around the same time. "I would like the four hours of my life back I have wasted trying to get your stupid uninvited software off my now crippled system." 

Sifting through a stack of customer complaints in June, 2005, a Direct Revenue employee decided to tally the most frequently used words of aggression: "die" (103 times), "f------" (44), and "kill" (15). Douglas Kee, then Direct Revenue's chief of quality assurance (QA), ribbed colleagues in an e-mail that with all the death threats, it was a "good thing QA sits farthest away from the entrance."

According to angry consumers and the New York State Attorney General, Direct Revenue makes "spyware." These programs track where you go on the Internet and clutter your screen with annoying pop-up advertisements for everything from pornography to wireless phone plans. Spyware can get stuck in your computer's hard drive as you shop, chat, or download a song. It might arrive attached to that clever video you just nabbed at no charge. Web security company McAfee Inc.  estimates that nearly three-quarters of all sites listed in response to Internet searches for popular phrases like "free screen savers" or "digital music" attempt to install some form of advertising software in visitors' computers. Once lodged there, spyware can sap a PC's processing power, slow its functioning, and even cause it to crash.

This explains the vitriol aimed at Direct Revenue. The company, located in a loft above a clothing boutique in New York's hip SoHo district, has been a pioneer in a seamy corner of the booming Net advertising industry. Although it is small by some corporate standards, having generated sales of about $100 million since its start in 2002, its programs have burrowed into nearly 100 million computers and produced billions of pop-up ads.

Direct Revenue's swift rise illustrates the intertwining of spyware and mainstream online marketing. The Web is the hottest game in advertising, but what's rarely acknowledged is the extent to which unsavory pop-ups boost the returns. Here's how it often works: Sellers of advertising, ranging from giant Yahoo! Inc.  to much smaller networks, recruit clients, tally the clicks their ads generate, and charge accordingly. But then Yahoo and the other advertising companies sign up partners that distribute the ads beyond their own sites in return for a fee, and those partners sign up other partners. Down the line, a big piece of the business winds up in the hands of outfits like Direct Revenue, which disseminate the ads as pop-ups and share revenue with their more mainstream partners. Some advertisers say their messages have appeared in pop-ups without their permission. Others seek out pop-ups, and Direct Revenue frequently sells ads directly to such advertisers.

Spyware rakes in an estimated $2 billion a year in revenue, or about 11% of all Internet ad business, says the research firm IT-Harvest. Direct Revenue's direct customers have included such giants as Delta Air Lines and Cingular Wireless. It has sold millions of dollars of advertising passed along by Yahoo. And Direct Revenue has received venture capital from the likes of Insight Venture Partners, a respected New York investment firm.

SPREADING STRATEGY 
Many of those impressive ties have frayed or ripped apart recently as Direct Revenue has struggled to fend off a lawsuit filed in April by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. The state court action alleges that Direct Revenue crossed a legal line by installing advertising programs in millions of computers without users' consent. Shining a light on the shadowy spyware trade, the suit asserts that the company violated New York civil laws against false advertising, computer tampering, and trespassing.

This article is based in part on more than 1,000 pages of Direct Revenue's internal e-mail and other documents included in court filings. BusinessWeek has reviewed additional documents and interviewed dozens of industry insiders, including 12 current and former Direct Revenue employees and executives.

The company denies any wrongdoing. In a filing in June, it calls the Spitzer suit "much ado about nothing" and defends its past practices as "commonplace" in the industry. It calls its programs "adware" and says it has notified consumers when putting the programs on their computers. It insists that some of the methods Spitzer assails "were long ago changed." And it argues that by accepting its ads, consumers get popular software applications free of charge that otherwise can cost up to $30 apiece.

In the wake of the litigation, Direct Revenue has shrunk in size, but it remains an important player on the spyware scene. Thousands of people still complain each month to Web security firms about new computer infections caused by Direct Revenue programs (although many users are baffled about what's causing the maladies). And a new generation of spyware purveyors of equal or greater potency is imitating Direct Revenue's strategies, infuriating customers, and threatening to taint the larger business of online advertising. Chances are you have some of their handiwork hidden within your hard drive right now.

SPAM KING 
Direct Revenue's origins trace the rise of what might politely be called one of the more freewheeling sectors of Internet commerce. The company's sales philosophy, according to current and former employees, was heavily shaped by Jesse Stein, a Wharton School-educated marketer whose successes before joining the company included selling VigRX, an herbal penile-enlargement supplement. VigRX may sound familiar because, to win customers, Stein inundated e-mail in-boxes with spam promoting the product. In 2003, when the ABC News  20/20 program identified what it said were the biggest online spammers, it featured VigRX and showed one of Stein's e-mails. He reveled in the notoriety. On his desk at Direct Revenue, Stein, now 36, kept a framed 20/20 screen shot of his VigRX spam, former colleagues say.

His eventual boss, Joshua Abram, came to online hawking from a different angle. His family has a rich history of public service. Abram's late father, Morris, was a civil rights activist in the 1960s who later served as president of Brandeis University and U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under President George H.W. Bush. Joshua's sister, Ruth, heads the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York.

In 1999 Joshua Abram helped start Dash.com, a benign precursor to later spyware operations. Dash attached an unobtrusive horizontal bar to the bottom of a computer user's Web browser. As the user moved around the Internet, Dash would note the sites being visited and offer relevant text ads inside the narrow bar. Dash went out of its way to ask users' permission to install the ad bar, and the company even shared its fees with consumers who made purchases. But Dash's tactful text ads drew relatively few clicks, and its fee-sharing became an administrative nightmare. As the Internet market imploded in 2001, Dash folded.

Abram, known for wearing stylish suits amid a sea of techie grunge, kept developing ad software with several colleagues. They joined a broad post-bust move toward treating customers with less respect. One of the new spyware variants he helped create was called VX2, which a former colleague and computer security professionals believe was named after the deadly, undetectable VX nerve agent. In 2002, Abram, a father of two and husband of a fashion-industry executive, started Direct Revenue. His co-founders were fellow Dash alumnus Daniel Kaufman and a pair of data-mining entrepreneurs from a company called Pipe9, Alan Murray and Rodney Hook. The next year, Direct Revenue did business with and then acquired Stein's online ad agency, forming a spyware powerhouse. Stein declined to comment. The four founders didn't respond to numerous inquiries.

By early 2004, Direct Revenue, with Abram as CEO, had settled into its SoHo loft, employing two dozen programmers and salespeople. Current and former staff members say the place had an informal, often cynical atmosphere. The unsophisticated computer users subjected to Direct Revenue's ads had a nickname among some staffers: "trailer cash."

Knowledgeable consumers can reduce the risk of spyware infection by using widely available security software and steering clear of free online goodies. Direct Revenue and its rivals -- companies with such names as eXact Advertising and Zango -- say they employ "user agreements" that notify individuals when they are about to download their software. But the agreements typically can be found only by clicking on links deep within separate legal agreements related to the online freebies. The documents tend to be lengthy and opaque. Large numbers of Internet users who lack adequate security software and fail to read the legalese make themselves vulnerable.

SPY VS. SPY 
Once embedded in your hard drive, spyware communicates via the Internet with the company that produced it. The company's computer keeps track of your online meanderings and sends you pop-up ads relevant to the sites you visit. The travel-booking sites Travelocity  and Priceline.com  have both been direct customers of Direct Revenue. People who picked up Direct Revenue spyware and then perused flights on Travelocity might find their screens obstructed by a pop-up for Priceline, or vice-versa. The travel sites say they stopped doing business with the company earlier this year.

Direct Revenue and other ad software creators struggle to balance an impulse to pump out waves of profitable pop-ups against the danger of enraging consumers who lose control of their computers. "Most of these companies can't overcome their desire to make the most money right away," says Sam Curry, vice-president for product management at Computer Associates International Inc. in Islandia, N.Y. 

From early on, a small group of programmers at Direct Revenue focused on how to protect their employer's programs once they were lodged in a computer, current and former employees say. The team called itself Dark Arts after the term for evil magic in the Harry Potter series. One of the biggest threats Dark Arts addressed came from competing software. The presence of multiple spyware programs can so cripple a computer that no ads manage to get seen.

Dark Arts crafted software "torpedoes" that blasted rival spyware off computers' hard drives. Competitors aimed similar weapons back at Direct Revenue's software, but few could match the wizardry of Dark Arts. One adversary, Avenue Media, filed suit in federal court in Seattle in 2004, alleging that in a matter of days, Direct Revenue torpedoes had cut in half the number of people using one of Avenue Media's programs. The suit settled without money changing hands, according to an attorney for Avenue Media, which is based in Curaçao. "This is ad warfare," explains former Direct Revenue product manager Reza Khan. "Only the toughest and stickiest codes survive."

In light of the Dark Arts stratagems, Direct Revenue management in early 2004 procured from its lawyers a modified user agreement that would supposedly be shown to PC owners. Within the densely written seven-page document was a declaration that Direct Revenue "could remove, disable, or render inoperative other adware programs resident on your computer, which, in turn, may...have other adverse impacts on your computer."

Abram presented the new agreement to his troops with an impudence befitting the Dark Arts crew. "It's a lawyer-approved license to kill," the CEO said in a February, 2004, e-mail. He urged some restraint because at the time potential investors were examining the company: "I would think twice about going too aggressively on the offense during [due] diligence." But he added: "Obviously, if we find someone is slaughtering us in the interim, we should not wait to counter."

"It was like a big game of Dungeons & Dragons," a current Direct Revenue manager says, and it was becoming lucrative. An ad software shop generally charges advertisers up to a penny a day for each computer that showcases its ads. A company with access to 10 million computers can make about $100,000 a day. With its "install base" soaring to more than 20 million computers by late 2004, Direct Revenue's annual sales rose 450%, to $39 million. Its four founders took home a combined $23 million, with Abram enjoying the biggest share: $8.1 million.

This cash geyser drew investors' attention. Insight Venture Partners, which has among its advisers Robert E. Rubin, former Treasury Secretary and now chairman of the executive committee at Citigroup , poured in $27 million, court filings show. Andrew J. Levander, a lawyer for Insight, says the firm's pre- investment due diligence "did not raise any issues concerning the lawfulness of Direct Revenue's disclosure and distribution practices." Rubin wasn't involved with the investment, Levander says. When Insight learns of complaints, he adds, it works with the company to address them.

Complaints were certainly not in short supply. "You have 24 hours to provide me with a removal tool for your piece of crap spyware program," Joe LoMoglio e-mailed the company in September, 2004. "Your pop-up ads popped up a few porn sites while my 6- and 9-year-old children were using the computer." Reached by e-mail, LoMoglio says the company "refused to respond."

As Direct Revenue surged in late 2004, its hyperactive sales force profited as well. Several top performers took home more than $300,000 apiece that year, current and former employees say, and a celebratory mood enveloped the fourth-floor ad-sales department. On Friday afternoons, employees opened bottles of beer, and Paul Nute, a top sales executive, occasionally blasted the pop song Everybody's Working for the Weekend.

Nute had a trademark line for corporate sales pitches, according to current and former sales employees. "It's like crack," he would say. "Once you try it, you'll keep coming back for more." Nute declined to comment.

By early 2005, Direct Revenue had notched deals with JPMorgan Chase, Delta, and the Internet phone company Vonage, according to former sales staffers and Direct Revenue documents. Cingular Wireless spent more than $100,000 a month at the peak of its relationship with Direct Revenue, current and former employees say. Direct Revenue put Cingular pop-ups in front of other phone companies' Web sites and news sites such as the one affiliated with tech magazine Wired. Vonage, meanwhile, was billed $110 for each customer that Direct Revenue delivered, according to a sales report from July, 2005. For that month, Direct Revenue billed Vonage for 287 new customers, or $31,570.

JPMorgan Chase confirms that it advertised with a Direct Revenue unit through the middle of last year, but says it was unaware of any spyware activity. Delta and Cingular declined to comment. Vonage didn't respond to inquiries.

NO MORE MR. NICE GUY 
By mid-2005, Direct Revenue had grown to more than 100 employees, and its practices were drawing public notice. Bloggers, invoking the right to be free of uninvited ads, singled out Direct Revenue. Benjamin Edelman, a prominent Internet consultant and spyware foe in Cambridge, Mass., tried to shame advertisers away from Direct Revenue by displaying on his site the names of companies that appeared in Direct Revenue pop-ups. Jules Neuringer, owner of Portronix, a Brooklyn (N.Y.) computer-service firm, says that during this period about a dozen of his small-business clients complained about Direct Revenue spyware. Of these, he says he "was never able to bring an infected computer back to pristine operating condition."

Direct Revenue insiders knew they were alienating consumers and even made tentative moves to clean up their act, court filings show. But when the result was fewer people getting stuck with its software, Direct Revenue pulled back from reforms.

In early 2005 the company was bundling its products with a file-sharing program called Morpheus, which users could download onto their computers. Morpheus required that Direct Revenue make its software easy to spot in a computer's "Add/Remove" panel, which is the registry where a user can find most legitimate software and delete it. Direct Revenue agreed at first but after a few months noticed that thousands of new users it gained via Morpheus were quickly deleting the ad software. Kaufman, a co-founder of Direct Revenue, sent an e-mail to colleagues in February, 2005, saying the company should drop the Mr. Nice Guy routine. "We need to experiment with less user-friendly uninstall methodologies," he wrote. The distribution agreement with Morpheus ended within three months.

MASS PARALYSIS 
The same ambivalence was evident in April, 2005, when Direct Revenue released a concoction known as Aurora. The program clearly labeled ads as coming from the company, a gesture designed to build credibility. But Aurora had powerful features that fought off competing spyware and security programs. The company also raised the number of pop-ups it sent users to as many as 30 a day.

Disaster ensued, as Aurora paralyzed thousands of computers. Matt Oettinger, who ran media operations at Fastclick , an advertising network that bought ads from Direct Revenue, found his home PC afflicted by Aurora, e-mails in court filings show. In June he ordered all Fastclick ads disentangled from Aurora. Branko Krmpotic, the managing director of Technology Investment Capital Corp. (TICC) , which had invested $6.7 million in Direct Revenue, also caught the Aurora bug and couldn't kill it, according to e-mails. Eventually, Direct Revenue had to send its customer support director to fix Krmpotic's machine. After receiving complaints about Aurora, Insight Venture, another major investor, told the company to remove Insight's name from the Direct Revenue Web site. Fastclick declined to comment; Krmpotic didn't return calls.

Even Aurora's creators fell victim as the program froze computers at Direct Revenue. One sales staffer, Judit Major, documented receiving more than 30 pop-up ads in one day, according to e-mails. Her computer crashed four times. "We are serving WAY TOO MANY pops per hour," wrote Chief Technology Officer Daniel Doman in a June e-mail to the company's brass. "If we overdo it, we will really drive users to get us the hell [off] their machine. We need to BACK OFF or we will kill our base."

By then consumer complaints were pouring in to Attorney General Spitzer's office. He filed suit in April, after his staff had hauled away 150 boxes of the company's e-mails. Spitzer alleges that he found numerous examples of Direct Revenue spyware downloaded with misleading user agreements or no disclosure at all. In many cases, the download was performed by a distributor on behalf of Direct Revenue, but company executives repeatedly conceded in e-mail that users were in the dark about how its programs got into their computers. This, Spitzer argues, amounts to illegal deception.

PERSISTENT HEADACHES 
A Direct Revenue spokesman, Michael Spinney, says the company is "mystified" by Spitzer's allegations. It cleansed its practices more than nine months ago, Spinney says, and now puts its name on all its pop-up ads. It also now makes its software available for deletion in a computer's Add/Remove Programs registry and has limited its use of distributors. Before these changes, Spinney asserts, Direct Revenue employed practices common in its industry. He wouldn't comment on Spitzer's individual allegations.

The anti-spyware activists and computer security firms confirm that Direct Revenue has dropped its most destructive programs, such as Aurora. But they emphasize that the company continues to cause serious headaches. Tokyo's Trend Micro Inc.  offers an online service that scans customers' troubled computers. In April it identified Direct Revenue's spyware as the culprit in 9,400 computer scans. That's down from 14,000 in January, but it represents a substantial level of annoyance. "Direct Revenue is still on everyone's top 10" of reviled spyware companies, says Anthony Arrott, Trend Micro's spyware research manager.

Deborah Maradei-Ugel, a loan officer in Santa Clarita, Calif., says she receives more than 20 pop-ups a day on her home computer as a result of Direct Revenue spyware. She complained to the company, but removal instructions it sent her are impossible to follow, she says. Her machine frequently stalls and requires restarting. "You hit your computer," she fumes, "but it doesn't help."

The way Direct Revenue describes its software during the download process remains vague and misleading, Edelman and other critics say. The company now bundles ad programs with Kazaa, an online service offering music and other digital content. Kazaa gives users a choice between a $30 version of its program and a free version labeled "ad supported." But few ordinary consumers would understand that ad-supported means they get separate software from Direct Revenue that will monitor them online and serve a steady stream of pop-ups, Edelman says. Kazaa declined to comment.

Direct Revenue has lost business and reduced its headcount to a couple dozen employees. The four founders still own 55% of the company, according to Spitzer's filing, and Abram is still seen around the office in his sharp suits. But he no longer serves as CEO. Sales gurus Stein and Nute have moved on to another Internet venture. Many major companies, such as Cingular and Yahoo, have severed connections with Direct Revenue. But the ads of others, including Vonage, continue to appear in Direct Revenue pop-ups. Insight and TICC remain investors.

Among Direct Revenue's alumni, pride over technical cunning mingles with regret for exasperating so many computer users. After waffling on the issue during a long interview, one former Dark Arts wizard sighs and sums up his version of the company credo with an elegiac observation by abolitionist Frederick Douglass: "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

Cyber-Crime Becoming More Organized
By Matthew Jones, Reuters
LONDON (Reuters)—Cyber scams are increasingly being committed by organized crime syndicates out to profit from sophisticated ruses rather than hackers keen to make an online name for themselves, according to a top U.S. official.
Christopher Painter, deputy chief of the computer crimes and intellectual property section at the Department of Justice, said there had been a distinct shift in recent years in the type of cyber criminals that online detectives now encounter.

"There has been a change in the people who attack computer networks, away from the 'bragging hacker' toward those driven by monetary motives," Painter told Reuters in an interview this week.

Although media reports often focus on stories about teenage hackers tracked down in their bedroom, the greater danger lies in the more anonymous virtual interlopers.

Although media reports often focus on stories about teenage hackers tracked down in their bedroom, the greater danger lies in the more anonymous virtual interlopers.

"There are still instances of these 'lone-gunman' hackers but more and more we are seeing organized criminal groups, groups that are often organized online targeting victims via the Internet," said Painter, in London for a cyber crime conference.

Typically these groups engage in ID theft, carding (the illegal use of bank cards) and so-called Botnet armies where hundreds sometimes thousands of computers are taken over and used to infect other machines.

HARD TO TRACE

Precise figures on the global cost of online crimes are hard to pin down, in part because some organizations prefer to keep quiet rather than publicize that their networks have been successfully attacked.

In other cases companies and individuals are unaware they have been defrauded.

The FBI estimates all types of computer crime in the U.S. costs industry about $400 billion while in Britain the Department of Trade and Industry said computer crime had risen by 50 percent over the last two years.

"Because crimes are committed online a lot of people still don't understand what is happening," said Painter.

A growing worry is that cyber crooks could target emergency services for extortion purposes or that terrorists may be tempted to attack critical utility networks like water and electricity.

Painter said there was a recent case in the U.S. where two young hackers inadvertently switched off all the lights at the local airport.

"There is no question the threats are varied and the perpetrators are more sophisticated," he said. "On the upside the response is also getting better."

Transborder co-operation on Internet crime was improving with a number of large multi-country raids demonstrating national enforcement agencies can work well together.

Painter said better detection and more successful prosecutions also needed to be mirrored by appropriate sentencing.

"In the United States certainly sentencing has become more significant in the recognition of the seriousness of Internet crime."

He said hackers were being viewed less as "playful villains" while organized cyber criminals were being hunted with the same vigor as physical crooks.

Spyware Horror Stories: Big city spy games
"One day, I received a phone call from a photography store in New York City. The merchant was calling to confirm an order on my credit card for a very high-end camera with all the accessories. It seemed a little suspicious to him that the order came online and the shipping address was in New York City but my billing address was listed in Pennsylvania. I cancelled the order and proceeded to call the credit card company; too little, too late. All of my cards had been fraudulently used in the past few weeks. After unsuccessfully trying to find out who had hacked into my computer, someone recommended XXX software. It so happened that I had unknowingly downloaded a Trojan horse and someone had been watching every transaction. Running without adequate spyware and virus computer security protection is an invite to disaster."

More stories can be found  here.

New October 2007 
The new plans - iClean ,iSafe ,iCare ,iDefend, ISimplify
First of all, the compensation plan has been changed as follows.

1-     For an ISA to receive residual compensation beyond the first level, they must have one i-Simplify subscription.  That subscription includes the bundling of our new i-Care service (which I had installed on Wednesday)  and i-Defend.  There is a discount on the set-up of only $20 if done by midnight Central on Sunday, October 14^th.  After that it’s $70.  The bundling of i-Care and i-Defend this way means that the $30 set-up for i-Defend is waived in any case.

2-    You then choose the Single Plan for 42.99 or the Family Plan for 49.99

3-    Any second or third computer not on i-Simplify receives the discounted rate for that plan.  
i.e..; the current plan we were all on is now being called i-Safe.  So if someone had two pc’s and one was on i-Simplify, the second one on i-Safe would be 9.99 a month.

4-    So here is a summary of comp plan changes going forward:

a-     Staying on i-Safe (current plan)
Quick Commissions for personal retailing
20% residual on 1^st level subscriptions
--------That’s It--------------------------

b-    Upgrading one PC to i-Simplify
Quick Commissions for personal retailing
20% residual on 1^st level subscriptions
---------PLUS----------------------------
Residuals paid levels 2 thru 7 (must be Silver for 7^th)
(these amounts will increase with new services)
RABS paid on promotions to QISA on your team
***New Team Bonuses:  YOU will be paid a commission
Anytime, anyone on your first three levels signs up a new
Subscription (any service).   5%- 1^st level, 3%- 2^nd level,
And 2%- 3^rd level.

So I encourage you to consider which is more appealing, a larger or smaller check.
Consider this:   Enrolling just 1 i-Simplify subscriber a month will pay you a $50 quick commission, and at the end of one year you will be earning over $100 a month on those subscribers alone.  

Why upgrade to iSimplify?

This email is going to every ISA I have an email for, even some who are not currently in my organization because I believe this is such a pivotal time for your future in INVISUS.

Over the last 24 months I have watched INVISUS grow from a small Managed Internet Security Company, to a company positioned to become a billion dollar powerhouse in several different industries over the next 36 months.
 

Take our new service iSimplify as an example.  This service covers four different industries, and from my current research, there is nothing on the market today that provides the kind of identity protection iSimplify does.
 

-          Security checkups

-          Virus/spyware/adware cleanup

-          Our proprietary Desktop Alert System "Envoi

-          Security Consultation Service

-          Professional Security Software

-          Daily updates

-          Automatic upgrades

-          Software support

-          $25K ID Insurance

-          PC Tune-up service

-          Full system optimization

-          Problem Diagnosis & Repair

-          Installation Assistance Service

-          PC Consultation Service

-          UNLIMITED EXPERT SUPPORT

 Plus we include:

-          Complete Identify Protection (not just your credit) includes medical records, Soc. Sec. files, and more

-          Entire family including your children are included. (Child identify theft is the fastest growing type of identify theft in America today. Your child's identify may be, being used right now by an illegal alien somewhere in the USA.)

-          Full identify monitoring

-          Full credit monitoring

-          Full identity recovery

-          The most comprehensive identify recovery service available anywhere.

-          Trained Professional who handle everything for you, available 24/7/365

-          And Full Legal Services through Legal Club of America, which include:

-          Unlimited initial phone consultations for each new legal matter.

-          Unlimited initial face-to-face consultations for each new legal matter.

-          Review of important legal documents (6 page maximum).

-          A free simple will with free annual update.

-          A web based free living will.

-          Assist members in preparing to represent themselves in small claims court.

-          Assistance in solving members' problems with government programs.
     (i.e. INS, Welfare, FEMA, Medicare and Medicaid)

-          Write an initial letter on the members' behalf when appropriate.

-          Make an initial phone call on the members' behalf when appropriate.

This is what each ISA (and our subscribers) receive when they upgrade to the iSimplify service.
 

I do want to clear up one question I keep hearing over and over.
 

You only need to upgrade ONE of your computers to the iSimplify service. The rest of your computers can stay on iSafe at the current discounted subscription fee.  
 

Each of you receiving this email has until Sunday night to upgrade for the discounted upgrade fee of $20.00.  After midnight the upgrade fee will go to $70.00.
 

Now if the above benefits are not enough to get you excited I want you to take a second to realize the income potential. 
 

By upgrading to iSimplify you are insuring that your income will also increase. Plus each time you personal protect someone with iSimplify you will earn between $8 to $10 dollars per month instead of your current $3.00.  Plus your generational commissions also are increasing from .60 cents on your second level to as high as $2.00 per subscription.
 

If you are serious about INVISUS, or maybe you are a leader who lost their focus because you needed higher income and had to focus elsewhere.  Now is the time for you to take a real hard look at what is going on.
 

Even if you can't get back engaged just yet, don't miss this opportunity to upgrade at the $20.00 discounted price.

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