Possible hidden malware?

I am posting this thread for a friend of mine who I will call Pat who doesn't want to post his or her concern at this forum. Pat would like to know if the members at this forum know if large sites like Beliefnet.com and Bravenet.com use trojans or other forms of malware or spyware that get around traditional anti-spyware scanning programs and if they do, how does a computer user protect their computer from such malware. In Pat's situation with Bravenet, he or she found out that a message board buddy's blog site(which Pat later found out was hosted by Bravenet) that Pat had visited had been tracking Pat's website activities eventhough Pat regularly scans his or her computer with anti-spyware programs. In Pat's situation with Beliefnet, Beliefnet has blocked Pat from being able to log in to their forum. Pat has not been officially banned from Beliefnet nor has Beliefnet given Pat any explanation as to why he or she is being blocked from their forum.(Also, Pat has emailed Beliefnet about the situation, but nothing has been done to correct the problem.) However, about the only reason why Pat could possibly think of as to why Beliefnet has blocked Pat from being able to log into their forum is because Pat has visted "adult" sites on occassion. But that reason doesn't make any sense because Beliefnet has a section where sexuality is openly discussed(and any and all types of topics are discussed).

But getting back to the main topic of this thread, does anyone at this forum know anything about Beliefnet's or Bravenet's tracking methods? I also wanted to mention that Beliefnet now has new ownership and maybe that had something to do with Pat being blocked from Beliefnet's forum.

http://rangescc.org/2007/12/07/467/

http://community.beliefnet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5197

Any help would be appreciated.