There are some pushy buggers around on the internet. If webmasters aren't installing viruses and trojans without your knowledge, script kiddies are bombarding you with pop-ups full of viagra and casino news.

Then there are scripts that create pseudo links to other sites in order to create traffic. And if clever scripts fail, there are social engineers, the ones who make you lose your senses and trick/bore/wear you down into clicking on "Yes, download this unknown program" just to make the annoying message box go away. And let's just add porn, woven sneakily into the whole rich tapestry of online ugliness.

Put the whole sorry lot together and you could end up with something unexpected like this on your screen:



I would like to politely ask social engineers at hardcore porno site, IsMyMovie to run along and re-write their code, so it doesn't look like they are forcing me to install a video codec that may or may not kill my computer.

Kill my computer?

Am I being harsh? Maybe it is a terrible misunderstanding and the codec is kosher? OK. Let the reader decide.

For a start, I didn't find their porn site while browsing the internet from a darkened room. I found their link in my Awstats. According to my statistics, they have been sending traffic to my site. Oh really! Show me the link! There is none. I am sure Google would love to know they have been duped as well!

And then, there's the impossible loop they set up, trying to force me to agree to download their VideoAccessCodec.

Luckily on a Mac, I am sort of immune to PC viruses, so after 3 dances through their loop, rather than close the browser, I pressed OK.

As an unsocial person, it killed me to do as they wanted, but I wasn't too suicidal, because I knew my browser and / or operating system would end the stupidity. I clicked Yes, and as expected, the inbuilt security in the browser warned me that I was being forced to download an application. Did I want to really really proceed?



I didn't feel predisposed to loading an exe file on my computer and I canceled.

Watch out

After Googling, I came up with a series of warnings about the VideoAccessCodec trojan virus bad boy. It ain't good. Had I been on a PC and in a hurry to view some porn, I could have been in trouble.

If you are angling for a new computer for Christmas , perhaps you could seal the deal by saying "Yes" to download unknown programs!