Cashing In on Naive BitTorrent Users
Written by Ernesto on February 29, 2008BitTorrent 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.
Last year we reported several times on the family of malware supported BitTorrent clients such as Torrent101, BitRoll, TorrentQ and GetTorrent. These clients promised ‘high speed downloads’ but actually installed a payload of malware onto the victim’s PC. It seems that our articles resulted in the desired response, with most torrent sites effectively banned their ads.
Recently, however, we have noticed an increase in ads for paid tutorials. A couple of months ago we posted about highspeedtorrent.com, a site that promised to boost download speeds up to 500% faster. Unfortunately they are still around, the only thing they have changed since then is their initial claim, they now promise a 475% increase in download speed.
The only thing these people are after is money from naive BitTorrent users, and they do this by advertising their ‘revolutionary’ tutorials on BitTorrent sites such as The Pirate Bay, Mininova and Isohunt, making thousands of dollars a month. Technically there is nothing illegal about selling something like this, but the absurd claims they make will only disappoint people who get tricked into paying up.
Luckily, most BitTorrent admins agree with this. The administrator of BTjunkie is the most active opponent perhaps, as he told us: “I don’t allow it on our site because it’s a scam. It’s like a bad infomercial for torrents.” He even went as far as complaining to Paypal and Adbrite to stop these people, so far without result. “I’ve had lots of backs and forths about this with Adbrite,” he said “They just keep telling me it’s not possible to permanently ban them unless you want to approve every ad that goes on your site.”
TorrentFreak contacted a few other admins, and they assured us that they will do everything they can to stop these ads from appearing on their sites. Pirate Bay’s Brokep told us: “We’re making sure they never comes back now, or I’ll tell Adbrite we need to kick them out.” We honestly hope that the others will follow this example, for now, this seems to be the only way to get rid of them.
The funny thing is, scammers are not only ripping off innocent BitTorrent users, they also rip each other off. Here is an email that the owners of fastspeedtorrents sent to a torrent site admin, pouring his heart out he wrote:
I own the site fastspeedtorrents.com. I’ve been trying to buy a flat rate ad on your site but it would always get declined. What happened was I bought the site highspeedtorrent.com and the person that sold me the site said that you were a main advertiser and to purchase flat rate ads. Well, something changed and I haven’t been able to buy an ad since I purchased the site. Then this person went and started a site called rocketspeedtorrent.com which is basically just a copy of a site that he sold me which he legally shouldn’t have done and now I see his ads on your site somehow.”
Poor guy…
Do you want those superfast downloads for free? Help yourself to some of our guides, hints and tips. There’s 20 more of the best right here.
All 100% free. Now that’s a guarantee.
Previously: RIAA Keeps Settlement Money, Artists May Sue
Next: BitTorrent Rip Off Sites, and How to Avoid Them
133 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
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[quote comment="300639"]That’s correct #17. Whenever I see people having trouble with the simplest things like unraring and mounting I always try to help them as best as I can. When they know what to do and see someone who needs help they’ll be able to help even more people, and the chain goes on.. I feel pretty good about it too, first time I downloaded something that was in rar’s I asked for step-by-step help. Everybody need help the first couple of times and then they’ll be able to help others.[/quote]
I try to do that but then people ask me what is ‘My Computer’ and then i give up.. some people just dont need to be on a computer..
[quote comment="300651"]People who fall for this shit are not noobs, they’re stupid. Two very different things.
If they loose a few bucks, they’ll learn their lesson and it won’t kill them. I think about ANY other issue related to P2P is more important than this one. And I read this freaking article about 20 million times on here already. If you have nothing to talk about, it’s ok to shut up. Especially if you’re going to wrap yourself in your preacher cloth and bitch about monetizing from torrents when half of the posts here are just padding BS (like this very post) to keep the revenue stream coming in.
Hypocrites…[/quote]
Wow get the fuck off the site then idiot, if you dont like it then leave, nobody is holding a gun to your head.
and just like evolution,these noobs
will either learn to be smarter p2p(if they survive) o got weed out by the scam,never to use p2p again.
however my concern here is that these scam will eventually employ hacker-turned-greedy to attack normal p2p users to the point they un-useable unless we are using part of thier software/subscription.
this scam is just like those mafiaa o riaa or wahtever u call them that sucks $$$,while 1 side pretend to fight on the side of “artists”,the other pretends to fight along side p2p users,both trying to make lot’s of $$$.
the recording industries failed/did’nt weed those riaa out when they r small,and now u have anti-p2p problem.this time we must act to weed out scamers that think they can profit on the side of p2p users while they r growing,else they grown into somting big,
It’s not just about noobs or pros,it about sharing,..for free n fair,and not paying.btw i’m just a noob too,n thanks to all that cared n wrote those guides n tips,it helps..
[quote comment="300649"][quote comment="300596"]advert on your site whilst i was reading this article….
Download speed slow?
accelerate for torrents download Speed up 100% and protect HD.
http://www.soft4kids.com
how ironic…
Gallus[/quote]
you need to sort out your adblocker then[/quote]
i havent got one on my work machine :P only just get away with having mirc on here
naivety deserves to be punished!
[quote comment="300656"][quote comment="300651"]People who fall for this shit are not noobs, they’re stupid. Two very different things.
If they loose a few bucks, they’ll learn their lesson and it won’t kill them. I think about ANY other issue related to P2P is more important than this one. And I read this freaking article about 20 million times on here already. If you have nothing to talk about, it’s ok to shut up. Especially if you’re going to wrap yourself in your preacher cloth and bitch about monetizing from torrents when half of the posts here are just padding BS (like this very post) to keep the revenue stream coming in.
Hypocrites…[/quote]
Wow get the fuck off the site then idiot, if you dont like it then leave, nobody is holding a gun to your head.[/quote]
As I mention, half of the stuff on here is BS, that leaves the other half to read. There’s such a thing called “critical thinking” fucktard.
trust is a fools game!
(..but Sharing is caring.)
Greedy downloading is partly what drives those ads. Sometimes people just aren’t happy. Never satisfied. Need more speed.
But I do agree with helping new users. It’s part of the game. If you’ve ever been flamed for asking for help, you’ll likely agree.
1337 fuxxors can go screw themselves.
[quote comment="300664"][quote comment="300656"][quote comment="300651"]People who fall for this shit are not noobs, they’re stupid. Two very different things.
If they loose a few bucks, they’ll learn their lesson and it won’t kill them. I think about ANY other issue related to P2P is more important than this one. And I read this freaking article about 20 million times on here already. If you have nothing to talk about, it’s ok to shut up. Especially if you’re going to wrap yourself in your preacher cloth and bitch about monetizing from torrents when half of the posts here are just padding BS (like this very post) to keep the revenue stream coming in.
Hypocrites…[/quote]
Wow get the fuck off the site then idiot, if you dont like it then leave, nobody is holding a gun to your head.[/quote]
As I mention, half of the stuff on here is BS, that leaves the other half to read. There’s such a thing called “critical thinking” fucktard.[/quote]
Your not ‘Critical Thinking’, your ‘Complaining about the website’. So please stick a dick in your mouth and shut up.
WOW seriously…
we were all noobs once. Some a little quicker in the learning department then others. No need to be a dick to them.
I wonder if someone was a dick to you back in kindergarden when you were learning about stuff.
Myabe your parents didnt teach you ’so you learned on your own?’ leet fuckin hacker u!
I can honestly say, I’m still a noob, but I have never clicked on any ads on any torrent site.
Why not look at it all the other way around?
There obviously *are* ways of making millions on P2P. Why not let those that know how to do it continue ripping stupid people off?
Did anyone mention Darwin? Those of us in the know don’t have to worry about it anyway so why bother?
@35
“I wonder if someone was a dick to you back in kindergarden when you were learning about stuff.”–m!chael jacks0n style ?
[quote comment="300656"][quote comment="300651"]People who fall for this shit are not noobs, they’re stupid. Two very different things.
If they loose a few bucks, they’ll learn their lesson and it won’t kill them. I think about ANY other issue related to P2P is more important than this one. And I read this freaking article about 20 million times on here already. If you have nothing to talk about, it’s ok to shut up. Especially if you’re going to wrap yourself in your preacher cloth and bitch about monetizing from torrents when half of the posts here are just padding BS (like this very post) to keep the revenue stream coming in.
Hypocrites…[/quote]
Wow get the fuck off the site then idiot, if you dont like it then leave, nobody is holding a gun to your head.[/quote]
Um…I was. Then I pulled the trigger.
Hello ernesto.First of all i think that your article is scaring people from clicking ads on torrent sites which is bad cause ads is the only way a torrent site can survive from the other hand YES a lot of torrent sites are showing ads that will harm your computer or make you pay for nothing the best solution for this problem is to have a guide of what people must avoid to click i know a lot of that and of course i do not use them on my site although they will bring be more $$$.If you wish i can make a list of bad ads and torrent sites that host this kind of ads so torrent community can ban these bastards.
Every one was a newb at one point, so lets not hate on them. but i do have to agree that some people just stay newbs forever, and those are the worst people, because they don’t care about anything but downloading. any hardcore torrent user should be involved in the fight against the RIAA and MPAA
nubs lol
Sorry, but I use a huge host file that blocks almost all adds. I know about host files cause i researched a way to block specific web sites. I know about port forwarding because I researched ways to increase my dl speeds. If you are to lazy to do some research you can only blame yourself. /L2 google
I can’t bear the hypocrisy!!! Ads for these very sites on TorrentFreak: http://img338.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tfhiponi7.png (First ad on the right of the page and others)
How can you let this happen?
haha. this site has adds?
[quote comment="300786"]Sorry, but I use a huge host file that blocks almost all adds. I know about host files cause i researched a way to block specific web sites. I know about port forwarding because I researched ways to increase my dl speeds. If you are to lazy to do some research you can only blame yourself. /L2 google[/quote]
i agree do some research learn about port forwarding. I also have an adblock host i see NO ads.
I dont understand why people trying to STEAL movies and music would PAY for a guide. If you want to get better dl speeds, why not type “bittorrent guide” into the search box of whatever torrent site you use. Besides, almost EVERY torrent site has a link on the front page to instructions on how to download and they usually 1. recomend a malware free client 2. give you some tips about setup and 3. link you to a page with real, in depth information on how to setup more advanced options.
The pirate bay has all this information linked from the front page.
This is what i use on both pc’s
http://everythingisnt.com/NoAdHOSTS.exe
I don’t use any anti-ad tools but I block a couple of ad domains, simply because they massively slow down surfing. I suffer from ad blindness anyway. If I notice an advertisement at all, it has more likely a negative effect on me than a positive. The collapse of the whole finance-by-ads model is imminent anyways.
[quote comment="300567"]i don’t really care about *SLAP*[/quote]
STFU, lackwit…
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