You sure Homestar Runner desktop buddy is kosher?

Just saw on the "Way Off Base" links today the Homestar Runner Desktop Buddy.

I'm an HR fan, so I decided to give it a try!

Good thing I had adequate spyware protection - it tried to register a BHO (Browser Helper Object) for "Gifts4Free". Now Google doesn't bring up anything relevant about "Gifts4Free", but it doesn't seem on the up-and-up.

Anyone not as paranoid as I am would have this nice Gifts4Free BHO on their system - and not even Google can find out what it does...

There is no normall uninstall for the Desktop Buddy either - you have to go through Add/Remove Programs (OK so no big deal, but it was a little worrisome after finding what it tried to do.)

Just a heads-up...you might want to remove the link. Or maybe I'm just being paranoid.

 

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=42729

A new spyware baddie coming into the scene?

 

Ah yes, it was "Give4Free". My alarm at encountering this particular piece of nastiness must have overridden my memory cells.

But Google still turns up no relevant results.

Sounds like something's coming down the pike, looking at the link you posted.

I note that it also left a "Give4Free Plugin" folder in Program Files, which was hidden! Legitimate programs do not leave hidden folders behind on uninstall.

 

Just visited google. 2000+ links there now. Not sure how relevant they are to this nasty.

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=give4free&num=20&hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=lang_en&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&safe=images

Bazza
===

 

Hmm...still doesn't seem to contain anything relevant. Those are all links TO www.give4free.com, not discussing about what it is Give4Free actually does.

It seems to be some sort of low-end advertising website, which makes me even more wary.

 

Read this thread again.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=42729