Zango Caught in Lies About MySpace?

An anonymous reader writes to mention that Zango's still under suspicion for problems on MySpace. ZDNet has the story, discussing rumours of multiple accounts, paid Zango hawkers, and mass emailings. From the article: "Boyd posted some choice snippets from the email, like this: 'Zango is fairly new with myspace sites and it took me some time to see what works and what doesn't ... more profitably, *go to a bunch of your friends* who have popular profiles and pay them (it's up to you so much. One of my partners said 5$..maybe offer to split the money with them?) to put a zango video into their profile through your site. This will give you hundreds of extra installs a day (this probably works even better than having them on your actual site).'"

What this is all about

[Kesch]

So apparently Zango makes some crappy adware toolbars. Then they get video's to link back to the Zango website and bring up installers when they try to play. Webmasters can sign up and push Zango crapware in return for $$$s per install.

This is where that mangled piece of English in the summary comes in. That piece is from an email where Zango reveals there evil scheme to the Zango pushing legions. In the email, Zango tells its associates to target kids and make it easy to embed Zango vids in their MySpace profiles. Then all their friends come, have the installer pop up, and let it through so they can see the cool new video.

There, just in case you were confused after trying to read only the summary like I was.

Decoded summary

[Frenchy_2001]

A spyware company called Zango (formerly 180 solution) has been caught trying to infect user's PCs through an automatic download triggered by a video. Their latest scheme is to post and encourage to post those videos on myspace pages.

As the user base of myspace is not that tech savvy, they click "yes" to the pop up that ask if they want the software installed (presented as required to see the video, or even automatic when the video try to load, i'm not sure) and they find themselves infected by the spyware.

It seems some emails proving that scheme have been found.

Re:Seriously...

[Miniluv]

Sadly no. MySpace seems to have achieved critical mass, and I know a disturbing number of otherwise reasonable adults who've become hooked. It combines everything they want: a profile, pictures, messaging, hooking up with people they haven't seen in years, and horny teenage girls.