digg

Join DiggAbout

Discover the best of the web!
Learn more about Digg by taking the tour.

Cashing In on Naive BitTorrent Users

torrentfreak.com — BitTorrent sites are overloaded with ads for malware ridden BitTorrent clients and paid tutorials that promise to quadruple your download speed. They try to lure naive users into downloading their products with catchy phrases such as “Breakthrough Information Will Have You Downloading Torrents Up To 475% Faster”. It’s time to take them down.

Bury
show profanity settings
expand all
  • jakash, on 02/29/2008, -3/+155Why do people give noobs so much grief? I know I'm probably going to get dugg down now but we were all n00bs once upon a time, and some people are genuinely much slower and need more help. Besides, while they're new is the best time to teach people about how it is important it is to seed :D
    • urbandistrict, on 02/29/2008, -9/+16I think it's because many people don't know the difference between a newb and a lamer. While some newbs can be lamers, many newbs are progressive enough to figure things out on their own. It's are duty as progressive human being to give lamers ***** for being just that, lame.
      • MaynardJK, on 03/01/2008, -2/+12Man I see some ***** up spelling and grammar on this site, but "are" vs. "our"? Come on now.
        • urbandistrict, on 03/01/2008, -1/+5LOL guilty. I would use the defense that English isn't my primary language but my Spanish isn't much better. Does this make me a lamer?
        • renegadeafk, on 03/01/2008, -0/+3Your English is much better than a lot of native English speakers online.

          lol u r such a lam3r jk lol
    • JMilton, on 02/29/2008, -13/+1Only because some kid wants to download music from the internet doesn't mean he should steal his father's credit card to do so. And yea, we all were noobs at some point of our lives. Does that mean we should have been ripped off for free stuff?
    • ShBm, on 02/29/2008, -6/+22I don't even know what ads look like anymore. Firefox/AdBlock Plus/Filterset.G updater. There ya go, newbs. No more tricks. Surf in peace.
      • xsquirrel378x, on 02/29/2008, -20/+8adblock users are selfish, how much of an inconvience is it to keep a couple ads on the sides of your browser so people have money to maintain their sites?
        • Tazmaster, on 03/01/2008, -2/+17Ads only generate revenue if you click them, which is something I will never do. I don't even click sponsored links in google results. So for a person like me, the ads are needlessly intrusive and distracting.

          There are other ways to support a site if you choose to. Donate money or buy stuff from their store, for example.
          • xsquirrel378x, on 03/01/2008, -2/+6"Ads only generate revenue if you click them"

            not true. a lot of ads are cost per impression (CPM).
          • nmnnotmyname, on 03/01/2008, -1/+6CPM ads don't make money unless its one of those huge sites with an extremely large amount of visitors. But that deserves the question, do they need the ads?
        • InsaneMachine, on 03/01/2008, -1/+1Well if you really want to know, i keep my adblock on hide ads, not remove ads. Because I have never clicked on ads, nor will I.
        • kamisama, on 03/01/2008, -2/+2Well from the moment you can get my isp to loose the preposterous data limit on my connection, I will loose adblock. But I don't want to download 1mb + flash ads with a limit of 12gb a month. If you want to call someone selfish, go complain with my ISP. Ow, and I'm probably already paying more in a month that you do, for probably unlimited access, so don't tell me there are probably other alternatives, and that I'm just being cheap.
        • scyon, on 03/01/2008, -2/+1A sucker is born every minute. However, there are many people that are not suckers. These are the people who use Adblock Plus.
    • blorguehad, on 02/29/2008, -5/+0yeah well we all are noobs in some matter, im a noob in aerospace technology, i don't know s**t. I don't want to help anyone at this point, i figured things out on my own, nobody held my hand, so why should i care if ppl are too dumb to surf teh netz? ShBm is right, Firefox ftw.
      • zongamin, on 03/01/2008, -2/+1Stupid analogy - you are not flying a spaceship that you know nothing about.
    • Schmidtopolis, on 02/29/2008, -2/+20Online natural selection.
    • norman619, on 02/29/2008, -3/+10I'm sorry but the people who fall for these things are pretty stupid to begin with. There is such a thing as common sense. I had enough of it when I was a noob to spot a scam.
      • adooga, on 03/01/2008, -0/+2Agreed. I don't remember falling for any of that kind of stuff and it's been around a long time, in one form or another.
    • meshman, on 03/01/2008, -4/+2I'm on a few private torrent sites and live and breathe Usenet. I was looking for different torrent sites and found one that offered access to millions of torrents for like, $12/yr. Sounds like a deal so I signed up. (I'm thinking this is a paid torrent service ala newzbin for the newsgroups) They send me a package of utilities like uTorrent and that's it. Well I already have this stuff but maybe it's pre-loaded with something tha directs me to the torrent sites. Well the freaking installer crashes. I email them and they send me a new link to a crashing installer. After scouring their 'members' area and finding like, nothing, it finally dawns on me. There's no torrents here. Just guides and links to free software that doesn't work that I can get anywhere.

      Yeah, I was stupid but the site itself was extremely misleading. I've got the image of newzbin.com in my mind while I'm looking at this and signing up for it (newzbin freaking rocks). I scanned my machine and nothing was implanted, they just mislead people to get your $12 and they're pretty good at it.
      • zongamin, on 03/01/2008, -0/+3Why the hell didn't you do some research before you signed up?
    • trueinfinite, on 03/01/2008, -0/+2i think that's the point of this article, to help nubs and inform them.
    • my10cent, on 03/01/2008, -1/+2Its the same reason they give un-experienced people grief when it comes to jobs, this world has become so obsorbed and busy that there is no tolerance nor patience for beginners.
    • Ryosen, on 03/01/2008, -2/+1Cause there's a sucker born every minute. Each time that second hand sweeps to the top, like dandelions up they pop, their ears so big, their eyes so wide, to buy their brand of genuine malarkey, God bless and love them. But don't be sad or hopping mad or cause a scene. Cause there's a sure-as-shooting sucker born a minute, but ma'am you may have been the minute in between.
    • aetherboy, on 03/01/2008, -1/+0Why do people give noobs so much grief? Because its profitable. There are TONS of suckers out there and what better way to get a boost in traffic than by writing an article just for them on Torrentfreak. Torrentfreak's decision to refine the ads they show is great for users but make no mistake, they are doing this to "polish up their brand" and increase their value. A win-win if you will.

      Personally, I always enjoyed the less knowledgeable folks being around. They stumble on all the crap and then complain about it, and it helps me know what to avoid because I do research and have a close eye to spotting this kind of crap. Plus they make me look smarter ;)
  • Audacitor, on 02/29/2008, -0/+25Hmm, so the major torrent sites will change their advertising habits whenever TF points out how much they suck? I wonder what else TF can get them to do...
    • sporg, on 02/29/2008, -0/+5 Im sure Im not the only one who has developed selective vision which automatically blocks out the sides and top of torrent sites. Who falls for that crap anyway?
  • HydrogenOxide, on 02/29/2008, -5/+13So, how would a mac user running Transmission optimize speed?
    • jonohull, on 02/29/2008, -0/+21Get more seeds.
    • signal15, on 02/29/2008, -0/+33Just download and install my new technology. It is guaranteed* to increase your speed by 800%.

      * Not a guarantee.
    • Jeffler, on 02/29/2008, -0/+17Send $20 to my paypal account and I'll tell you all about it...
      • lcmatt, on 02/29/2008, -0/+13$20! I have a one time never to be seen again offer for only $9.99 with a free E-Book, but it doesn't stop there, if you sign up now for our one time never to be seen again offer you'll also receive a free *yes free* copy of uTorrent.
        • Schmidtopolis, on 02/29/2008, -4/+2Your offer intrigues me, and I'd like to subscribe to your magazine.
        • nmnnotmyname, on 03/01/2008, -3/+1...
          I've seen someone do that already today, except with a newsletter.
          I detect another one of "I see what you did there" types of phrases on the horizon.
    • jocamero, on 03/01/2008, -3/+1I'm a Mac user but I still have an XP box that I run uTorrent on. Supposedly a Mac version is in the works (private beta?) The speeds of Transmission just can't compare.
    • zongamin, on 03/01/2008, -0/+3Transmission is fine.
    • atarzwell, on 03/02/2008, -0/+0Kill yourself.
  • AmishRefugee, on 02/29/2008, -12/+54Its called natural selection. Those not smart enough will not survive
    • TheAkolyte, on 02/29/2008, -8/+4This is anything but natural
      • girlpirate, on 02/29/2008, -2/+6some might argue that as humans we are part of nature and anything we do is indeed natural. The stupid must be culled from the herd, this is how its done in the age of technology.
        • Wildthing, on 02/29/2008, -5/+1Some athletes aren't as smart as you. Should they be weeded out too?
          • deviantsteve, on 03/01/2008, -0/+2Intelligence has nothing to do with sports. Athletes have pointed that out already.
          • skinjester, on 03/02/2008, -0/+0there are different kinds of intelligence. athletes possess a greater degree of kinesthetic intelligence than the baseline human.
          • girlpirate, on 03/05/2008, -0/+1I like that it is assumed that I think everyone with less intelligence than me should be weeded out. I dont even think Im that smart, I do have common sense though. and since when did strength negate intelligence? there are strange words in my mouth that I certainly didn't put there.
        • jlroettger, on 03/01/2008, -1/+1like the same way i'm weeded out from playing sports?

          yup.
      • norman619, on 02/29/2008, -1/+2Someone needs to retake biology and actually pay attention the nth time around.
        • TheAkolyte, on 03/01/2008, -1/+1That was more of a smartass comment then an actual observation.
    • Pawlzors, on 02/29/2008, -3/+3Hahahaha best comments ever. And also, why would we care about idiots that get trapped in those things.... God, there have always been naive people and there will always be. And there will always be people to make money on them, what in hell do you want to do about it ?
      • norman619, on 02/29/2008, -1/+3As the old saying goes, "A fool and his money are soon parted."
      • NJank, on 03/01/2008, -1/+2"And also, why..."

        Noobs get infected. Infected PC's join botnets. Botnets fill our inboxes with spam. or are used for DDS'ing. or do distributed hacking of encrypted files with credit card, personal info, etc.

        While I can ignore some of that, I have to pay in one way or another for all that spam. That sucks.
    • whatthefu, on 03/01/2008, -3/+3Yeah I mean because computer literacy is definitely a direct example of one's overall intelligence and ability to be competent in life.
      • dannyboy3020, on 03/01/2008, -1/+6This is Digg...where internet tough guys are dugg up, and rationality is ignored.
        • nmnnotmyname, on 03/01/2008, -3/+1Rationality has to end somewhere....
          but honestly, to n00bs, GIYF
      • hello2usir, on 03/01/2008, -0/+6Computer literacy no -- but the ability to recognize or at least suspect when you're being scammed (and then avoid it) is absolutely a hallmark of intelligence.
    • topace3000, on 03/01/2008, -2/+4Just like when burglars come into your house, shoot you, and steal your stuff. BAM! Natural selection at work, bro!
  • muniak, on 02/29/2008, -11/+20I think scams and stuff like this are good. If someone is stupid enough to fall for it, let them and let them learn a lesson from it.
    • dannyboy3020, on 03/01/2008, -1/+5That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. In that case, why don't we just let giant corporations run amok; taking advantage of consumers who are unable to defend themselves? These injustices are intolerable.
      • insanebrain, on 03/01/2008, -3/+4- "taking advantage of consumers who are unable to defend themselves?"
        Welcome to the real world.
      • cliffski, on 03/01/2008, -3/+1these arent corporations, they are pirates and criminals. No suprise, most torrent sites are run by big time criminals who pretend to be sticking it to the man. Does anyone think that thepiratebay do not sell the email addresses and other data? if so, you are as ***** gulible as they come.
        All torrent sites are about just 1 thing -> Money. And they dont care how they prise it out of you.
    • topace3000, on 03/01/2008, -0/+3Yeah man, just like bilking old people out of their money. It's all cool as long as they're not you.
  • hextic, on 02/29/2008, -5/+49***** the RIA...wait, this is about companies PROFITING from BitTorrent? Er... Uh... RP 4 prez!!!!
  • madeingermany, on 02/29/2008, -1/+4But if the ads are for News-servers they might actually be true ;)
    • ReelVideo, on 02/29/2008, -1/+3news server.exe
    • insanebrain, on 03/01/2008, -2/+1ads on a newsserver ?? where the ***** do you login ?
      • madeingermany, on 03/01/2008, -0/+3"ads are FOR News-servers"
        where the ***** did you learn to read ?
  • druckster2002, on 02/29/2008, -9/+31Sorry, but people who click on that ***** deserve what they get.
    • hextic, on 02/29/2008, -7/+10So your mom deserved the crabs she got?
    • madeingermany, on 02/29/2008, -0/+1But the non-noobs should really be thankful: If all those torrent sites had no revenue at all they wouldn't be alive.
      And if you run AdBlock, etc it should really not bother you at all - so where is the problem?
    • dannyboy3020, on 03/01/2008, -1/+2How so? They don't know any better. Does that make them deserving of this than any other person?

      It's not like they are intentionally attempting to be scammed. They simply are UNAWARE.
    • hello2usir, on 03/01/2008, -0/+1Well if you're going to participate in something like file sharing, then you should probably do some damn research before you jump headfirst into it. The internet's been around long enough now where people are well aware of the dangers. Yet many just don't take the adequate steps to inform themselves on how to prevent falling victim to them. This is absolutely 100% their fault, meaning yes, they do deserve what they get.
      • Vagari, on 03/03/2008, -0/+1Right, they should do research... And instead they find a bunch of misinformation and *****. And then get infected and make the Internet a pain in the ass for the rest of us (and we have to fix our relatives computers... again)... Yes ***** them all.... /sarcasm
  • VacaN, on 02/29/2008, -4/+4I hate leeching noobs.
    • ganlet, on 02/29/2008, -2/+2We were always "noobs" once upon a time and people who are new at things like filesharing tend to seed alot because they forget that the program is open and they just leave it running.
      • nmnnotmyname, on 03/01/2008, -0/+2But a lot of those "noobs" go through a semi-intelligent phase, but don't give back to the community (People who turn off the application after downloads are done)

        Most people count that as "noob".
  • shadownode, on 02/29/2008, -3/+4Meh, let the slowbies subsidize the rest of us.
  • CATSCEO, on 02/29/2008, -2/+11Note to n00bs: Don't download ***** that experienced pirates don't use.
  • actorboy, on 02/29/2008, -4/+15Yes. God forbid bittorrent should be associated with nefarious practices.
    • insanebrain, on 03/01/2008, -1/+1ha. . . ha. .. . . (although you are right)
  • xsquirrel378x, on 02/29/2008, -1/+6it seems harder to fall for this ***** than not to. for anyone new to bittorrent all you would have to do is type in bittorrent clients and look at the wikipedia. anyone stupid enough to download closed source software without knowing anything about it deserves to be exploited. its not rocket science, learn about the software you install on your computer before you use it.
    • skinjester, on 03/02/2008, -0/+0the n00b won't make a distinction between open & closed source software, and even if they did its not like they're going to read the source code or god forbid, compile it. Equally likely the true n00b is oblivious to the joys of wikipedia. As far as installation goes - you're talking about people who don't get the idea of a filesystem, so even a successful software install can't be taken for granted.

      on the plus side, with humor, and by showing practical applications of the technology, people can lose n00b status pretty easily
  • sleepyjjk, on 02/29/2008, -2/+4Funny thing is, I bet they could find these "helpful guides" for free on Bittorrent.
  • CovardeAnonimo, on 02/29/2008, -11/+3i hate to be the devil's advocate, but...

    unless is public domain, or something that the download was outhorized by the creator, dowloading from bittorrent is essentially ilegal. in this case, why bother that trackers are participating in scams ?
    • BoneheadFarker, on 02/29/2008, -2/+4Because these scams involve infecting unsuspecting users with spambots that will send you 10 million emails for "F R E E C ! @ L I S!!!!!". That's why.
    • nmnnotmyname, on 03/01/2008, -1/+1Because you can't spell authorized.

      You have no idea how much PD crap and various other things (Linux distributions, I'm a-looking at you.) are actually on Bit torrent. When i was a noob, I used bit torrent just for websites that offered it as alternate download (OC-Remix, looking at you...) but soon realized it had just about as much apps and games than eMule. (And at that point if I needed/wanted a piece of software for any reason, i relied on Bit torrent for that too.)

      I hardly use bit torrent for illegal stuffs anymore. (Actually, I used it for some illegal things, but it was mostly stuff you could no longer find on the market... ... ... okay okay, i didn't buy Photoshop >_>)
    • cliffski, on 03/01/2008, -1/+1I can assure you that the same people who go out of ther way to report torrent sites and file hosting sites with illegal content go out of their way to never interfere with the well known scam sites. In fact we like them, because they remind people that downloading copyrighted stuff means you have to trust a bunch of criminals to provide an exe for your PC, which is pretty dumbass no matter which site you got it from.
      You really think every exe file on thepiratebay is legit and not uploaded by people who write keyloggers? Dream on.
  • SausageSmith, on 02/29/2008, -0/+5But is this not normal behavior in a capitalist society, though - whether it's the dodgy torrent client, a pointless insurance scheme that nobody truly needs or the ***** mail you get through the post telling you you just won 10 billion bucks? how does the saying go - "there's a sucker born every minute"?
    As much as I despise the people who do this, I can't stray from thought - "YOU IDIOT" to those who fall for it. I find it hard to sympathize with those who seem this naive and disconnected from the ugly truth of reality.
    There's ALWAYS gonna be sharks ready to capitalize on human stupidity. My advise? wise up.
  • DestroyFascism, on 02/29/2008, -0/+1Shareaza.....the client that is copyright laden with malware and is in fact a stolen identity? or - the real Shareaza that works like a charm and downloads the right stuff fast...
    • nmnnotmyname, on 03/01/2008, -1/+0I remember when i used to use Shareaza. That was a freaking cool client.

      (I wonder why i stopped using it...)
  • dhollister, on 02/29/2008, -5/+7Irony? The purveyors of illegal/immoral activities are upset that other illegal/immoral activities are being done using their software.

    Digg me down, but hey, you can't deny that the parallel is comical.
  • aznedy, on 02/29/2008, -0/+3How do I get a piece of this action?
  • rdsworks, on 03/01/2008, -0/+3What happened to the good old days when you had to have a brain to download? Mirc, newsgroups, even eDonkey took some sort of computer knowledge to get going, now my dad can go to torrentsomething.com, search and its 90% of the time gonna work.

    No wonder so many people are being sued for useless file sharing... because it is so damn easy! I say let these sites exist, let the idiots pay smart computer user's to fix there computers!

    digg me down, just a guy, tired of people asking him how to use "that Torrent thing"
    • aprestia, on 03/01/2008, -0/+2haha, ironic you should mention your dad, when i first started reading your message i immediately thought of MY dad, who did all my music downloading for me back in the mid-late 90's cause he's a computer guy and im not (plus i think he was afraid of what i might download)

      apart from that i can't say i agree with your overall post - part of the amazing thing about internet technology developments is that what once was viewed as something that only the most well educated techno freaks could take advantage of is now available to anyone, anytime
  • imnotjohnlong, on 03/01/2008, -2/+2Im not digging this

    let the jackasses who really think these work click the links so the sites can get some cash to battle their respective lawsuits
  • bctrainers, on 03/01/2008, -0/+8AdBlock Plus is always a good thing to have! :)
    • nmnnotmyname, on 03/01/2008, -1/+2ABP rocks. (And its not a 30 day trialware-peice-of-spyware-crap)
    • NanoStuff, on 03/01/2008, -0/+21st rule of AdBlock: ... I forget
      2nd rule of AdBlock: Don't talk about AdBlock!
  • theseed, on 03/01/2008, -0/+5The adblock plus plugin for firefox will get rid of most picture based ads and banners though not text based ones. I can't recommend it highly enough
    • nmnnotmyname, on 03/01/2008, -1/+1It can also disable the execution of Javascript files based on wildcards. That is awesome.
  • mRIpX, on 03/01/2008, -1/+3torrentfreak spam
  • aprestia, on 03/01/2008, -0/+1I'm glad they gave props to the BTjunkie guy, that's always been my favorite torrent site, if nothing else it's a lot more organized that a lot of them, plus it has lots of good quality torrents and good user comments. Personally I can't imagine anyone being so stupid as to fall for such a scam, but my bank tellering days taught me that even quite intelligent people do fall for the most retarded things, and they really are just innocent victims.
  • grapesofbaath, on 03/01/2008, -1/+1This is a prime example of what my old man used to call "the stupid tax."
    Just using public trackers for illegal content is already setting you up to pay the stupid tax anyway. It's true that you have to "know people" to get on a good private tracker though. Fortunately my e-penis is so big I have to carry it out in an e-wheelbarrow.
  • digitalpencil, on 03/01/2008, -0/+1TBF, & i'm aware it sounds a little harsh, but these ads fund the trackers we use everyday so let the ignorant download the junkware.
  • slick519, on 03/01/2008, -1/+0I dunno, i think it is important for people less inclined to get phished like this. it creates a cloud of shiat and whatnot that will protect the nonlazy and punish the stupid from RIAA lawsuits and whatnot.
  • topace3000, on 03/01/2008, -1/+3Man I'm such a 1337 pirate. I download everything with so much ease and shiiiiit the internet is MY bitch yo. These noob fools deserve what they get, survival of the fittest am I right? The internet belongs to US, the basement-dwelling mass-pirating nerds of the world, not your everyday schmoes who have yet to torrent more than a few albums. *****, some of them have probably never even stolen music in their lives, what gives them a right not to have malware on their computers?
  • skinturtle, on 03/01/2008, -1/+1why do people have this desire to make more and more and more money regardless of much they've already acquired?

    Mankind really has become similar to the scum they believe they came from.
  • chris1012, on 03/01/2008, -3/+1That's the second time i've been to TorrentFreak.com and noticed the digg count was at 666. :S I don't bother with torrents, rapidshare and newsgroups are the way to go. Torrents scare me.
    • cliffski, on 03/01/2008, -1/+1and downloading an exe from rapidshare is SO SAFE.
      Gimme a break. you ar trusting an anonymous 3rd party to provide executable code that you run on the same PC you do internet banking on?
      hahahaha.
      • chris1012, on 03/02/2008, -0/+1umm wtf are you talking about? Do you even know what rapidshare is? And what makes you think I do internet baking on my PC? stfu n00b.
  • askthequestion, on 03/01/2008, -0/+1silly users.
    believing in catchy phrases.

    http://uk.gizmodo.com/spam.jpg
  • muhadeeb, on 03/02/2008, -0/+1Some of these torrent sites are like rotten meat, full of worms and parasite apps
  • Chadrew, on 03/09/2008, -0/+1 Just use Azureus or uTorrent.
  • lolo2007, on 06/23/2008, -0/+0The adblock plus plugin for firefox will get rid of most picture based ads and banners though not text based ones. I can't recommend it highly enough

    http://girls.paramegsoft.com/category/3/3
    http://game.paramegsoft.com/category/2/2
    http://game.paramegsoft.com/category/14/14
    http://girls.paramegsoft.com/category/4/4
    http://game.paramegsoft.com/category/13/13
    http://girls.paramegsoft.com/category/2/2
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.