Ruckus Ads Get a Bit Too Much...
Sunday, August 05, 2007
First off, I love Ruckus. It's a free service that allows college students to download and listen to unlimited song tracks. The catch? All files are DRM-protected, time-limited (but are instantly renewed), and you have to suffer-through a single banner ad in the player. Big deal.
As we all know, though, banner ads can have their own issues. In the past, I have seen Ruckus ads try to run JavaScript, open new windows without user interaction, and run shady "You've Won -" offers. Ho-hum.
So what's new? Zango content. In particular, a steamy banner advertising:
"Anna Nicole Smith Lesbian Bathtub Sex Part I"
...classy. This is a new one to my knowledge -- porn offered by Ruckus ads?
The yieldmanager ad redirects to zango.com where, not surprisingly, the user is presented with thumbnails of several supposed porn movies featuring the late Anna Nicole Smith, with the caveat that an install of Zango's adware is in order. Being rather opposed to the stuff myself (both Zango and porn, that is), I let the ad recycle. H&R Block. That's respectable.
Needless to say, care is in order. I wouldn't be surprised to see a rogue AV scanner in there sooner than later, and sneaking IFRAMEs and exploits has been done with shady affiliate networks in the past...
- Nexus7
posted by David @ 1:47 PM,
