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SpyDeleter.com
We haven't seen this product being marketed yet but it bears posting here simply because it belongs to MailWiper, Inc. and the website www.spydeleter.com is the www.mailwiper.com website. Since it was just registered a couple of weeks ago, my guess is that Rob Martinson is trying to change the name of his product SpyWiper to SpyDeleter. Perhaps SpyWiper is bringing up too much bad publicity in searches? This is also registered under spydeleter.net and spydeleter.org.
http://www.state.ga.us/cgi-bin/pub/corp/corpsearch?corpid=0400150
According to the Georgia registry, the address is 4780 ASHFORD DUNWOODY RD.,#102, ATLANTA , GA 30338.
After filing a complaint with ICANN, I noticed the registry phone number has been changed to 678-990-5635.
Whois information:
Registrant:
Spy Deleter Inc.
PO Box 500517
Atlanta, Ga 31150
US
Registrar: DOTSTER
Domain Name: SPYDELETER.COM
Created on: 22-DEC-03
Expires on: 22-DEC-04
Last Updated on: 07-JAN-04
Administrative, Technical Contact:
Admin, Host postmaster@spydeleter.com
Spy Deleter Inc.
PO Box 500517
Atlanta, Ga 31150
US
888-888-8888 (bogus
phone number)
Domain servers in listed order:
UDNS1.ULTRADNS.NET
UDNS2.ULTRADNS.NET
UPDATE: As of February 2nd, 2004, spydeleter.com is an active site with content advertising the product SpyDeleter. Initially when it was registered on 1-2-04, it redirected to mailwiper.com but quickly removed the redirect. Looks like Rob Martinson is making an attempt at changing the name of SpyWiper to SpyDeleter.
UPDATE: On March 12, 2004 I received an email from a person who stated they purchased SpyDeleter and it rendered their IE browser inoperable. The same day a posting appeared in a forum stating that their browser was hijacked by an advertisement for SpyDeleter. Looks like they're following in the footsteps of SpyWiper.
UPDATE: SpyDeleter hijacks now seem to be more active than SpyWiper hijacks. If you have been hijacked by SpyDeleter, please download CWShredder at http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/cwshredder.zip and run it. If you still experience problems after that, download HijackThis from http://www.spywarewarrior.com/files/hijackthis.zip and post the log file at http://spywarewarrior.com for assistance in removing it.
UPDATE: The notorious history of Rob Martinson, CEO of MailWiper, Inc., and the man behind the SpyWiper and SpyDeleter browser hijackings: http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/2004-08-12/cover.html A long, but very informative article which contains Rob's history, his prison terms for drug possession, his spamming days, previous and pending lawsuits against him, and his mug shot. A must read!
SpyDeleter is becoming as big a problem with browser hijacking as SpyWiper was, judging by the number of complaints I'm receiving about them and postings in forums. One user whose homepage was hijacked by them through the default-homepage-network.com server provided the URL to the hijack. I was able to go to the page to take a screen shot even though the page is in my restricted zone. Although the ad doesn't state that it's from SpyDeleter, the download link points to spydeleter.com.
IMPORTANT
UPDATE: Great
news!! It seems all our hard work has paid off! The FTC has
brought a case against Seismic Entertainment. Hopefully this will
be the downfall of these notorious companies and an example to
those currently practicing unethical internet marketing. Read the
case here:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=124892&threshold=3&commentsort=0&tid=123&mode=nested&cid=10471703
News articles and public opinion
can be found here:
http://netrn.net/spywareblog/index.php
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/tech_spyware_dc
http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showfast.html?article=45220
http://www.sacbee.com/24hour/technology/story/1719298p-9530248c.html
http://news.com.com/FTC+takes+aim+at+alleged+spyware+distributor/2100-7350_3-5403438.html?tag=cd.top
http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/10_8special2.htm
http://www.thewmurchannel.com/news/3794373/detail.html
PDF versions of the case can be found here: http://www.cdt.org/privacy/spyware/spywiper/
For all those who have been victimized by these companies, this is the day we've been waiting for. Let's keep our fingers crossed that justice will be done.
This website will be updated regularly with any new developments. Anyone wishing to contact me for inquiries or to relate their experiences may do so at nomorespyware@yahoo.com.