MySpace Profile Tracker Software / Spyware: Not Recommended
There is lots of discussion on MySpace about profile tracking software, which is supposed to let you see who has visited your MySpace profile. This is not something you want to try to put onto your MySpace site.
First of all, profile tracking applications that do what they say they’ll do are actually a form of “spyware”. You’re “spying” on your visitors, right?
This spying provides an opportunity for a malicious coder to do some serious damage to your computer and to the computers of anyone who visits your MySpace profile page. That’s surely not how you want to treat visitors to your page!
On our publishing site, HowToPrimers.com, there are two articles on this topic:
MySpace Profile Visit Tracker Spyware
MySpace Profile Tracker Bulletin Scams Take Off
If you end up with spyware downloaded onto your computer as a result of clicking on one of these profile tracking scam bulletins on MySpace, the Zeno Search Assistant & Dollarrevenue Spyware Removal Instructions!! post at the www.PesosForPenguins.com blog may be of help.
May 11th, 2006 at 2:53 pm
I’ve posted a quick blip on what you all are doing on the site, and will continue to do so in the coming weeks!
http://www.pesosforpenguins.com/2006/05/11/staying-safe-secure-on-myspace/
You all really are doing a good thing!
June 15th, 2006 at 1:07 am
Hi,
I just have a question for you.
My friend sent me a bulletin the other day about a myspace tracker at www.myspaceviews.com and stupid me, I went to the link. It didn’t ask me for any information like my email or password, but it did just have a button that you were to click saying “enable the tracker”….so I clicked it, not aware of all these scams.
Would I have messed up my computer? Or my myspace? What do I have to do to “undo” what I did by clicking that button? Now the myspaceviews.com site doesn’t work anymore.
Please email me back when you can, as I am greatly concerned abou this.
Thank you
June 15th, 2006 at 10:08 pm
Hi Jen,
Their site seems to be down now, and I don’t see any articles about it. Apparently it just started. If it’s down now, it may not have been a legitimate site.
Here’s a blog post that describes how one person solved a very serious spyware problem on a computer:
http://www.pesosforpenguins.com/2006/05/09/zeno-search-assistant-dollarrevenue-spyware-removal-instructions/
Unfortunately, with there being no information available about myspaceviews.com, there’s no way of really knowing what clicking on their button may have done.
Kevin
June 16th, 2006 at 5:18 am
hi,
apparently a site called “myspaceballers.com” has the same thing. no data entry, just a button to “enable the tracker”. my girlfriend used it on my computer so i was wondering if it did anything too.
ian
June 18th, 2006 at 11:09 pm
Hi,
I feel really foolish after reading this, I should have known better, especially when the link (at www.nanostage.net/profiletracker.html) did nothing. All I could think of doing was deleting all of my cookies and temp files, but I feel like I’m still vulnerable. Are antivirus programs such as McAfee up to date on this? Even so, would something like McAfee be effective against this sort of spyware infecting our computers?
January 23rd, 2007 at 2:04 am
How can you be sure of one that actually works and doesn’t do that? Has anyone used one that actually works? and dang it. you can’t put “kinda” as your answer to if we’re human or not.
February 17th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
Hi Victoria: I looked briefly at one of the trackers. The problem is: if you don’t know that the tracker developer is trustworthy, then you won’t know if you’re putting reliable software or malicious software into your profile.
Also, MySpace is making changes to their profile editor that will in effect unprogram many trackers as soon as you save your profile. So, you could put in a tracker, then find that it suddenly stops working because MySpace has changed things.
Good idea about adding more options for the “Are you a person?” input!
Kevin
May 17th, 2007 at 1:02 am
I have posted an “updated” version of what I posted last year, with a few extra little tips… It seems that people are still falling for the tracker scams!
http://www.pesosforpenguins.com/2007/05/15/staying-safe-secure-on-the-net-a-few-tips/
June 21st, 2007 at 2:48 pm
How can you distinguish the difference between a scam, and a tracker that actually works well? I’ve just been going by what the site looks like, if it’s organized well, very understandable, and if it actually explains how the tracker works, individually for them. I don’t think I’d judging right, though…Are there ANY safe profile tracking sites? Thanks, Katie
November 25th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
Thank you for the info. I have chose NOT to get a ‘tracker’ because of what you posted here. It was so simple, by me doing a quick research on the internet to see if a ‘tracker’ was safe, I have saved myself a lot of time & heartache. I appreciate you putting this info here for free! GREAT JOB!
December 12th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
I almost downloaded the “tracker”… Thank God that I read all of the info on this page. Does this mean that people with the “tracker” on their profile can effect our computers??
Thank you.
December 19th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
Annie: unfortunately, a tracker is a software application, and you cannot tell in advance whether or not the application is malicious. You can set your web browser to warn you if an application is going to be run, and the browser will give you an opportunity to say you don’t want the application to run. However, many (or most) people have their browsers set to automatically let applications run. The creator of malicious software has a significant advantage in this case.