Adware That Installs Smart Tags

Who is pushing this?

[tedster]

I got an email from a client recently, accusing me of placing advertising links on selected words on their site. The links, of course, are not in my code and not visible to most visitors.

Nevertheless he sees them with his IE6, and they don't use "squiggly lines", they use regular blue links -- very insidious. I explained the issue to him, that he had picked up some adware hidden in a download. He says he hasn't downloaded any programs for a long time.

This is the first I've heard of a smart-tag clone in adware. Does anyone know who might be pushing it? The ad links he found so far target the phrase "personal information" and go to an online background checking company.

[Brett_Tabke]

Yes it's quite common. Ezula does (Yellow Links), and TopText does (blue links). This is what makes these companies so insidious, they resell your keywords. Adaware will remove both.