The article is this: http://www.wikihow.com/Download-from-Giveaway-of-the-Day
Basically, the article’s about this suspicious website called “Giveaway of the Day” which gives away random paid software for free. I’m not sure how this is legit or legal, but I did my own investigation into the website. The website passed a VirusTotal scan. On the page, there’s a download link that eventually expires (limited time only) that supposedly downloads the software that they’re giving away for free. I scanned the download which is a file called “setup” and has a weird generic key symbol. I was too scared to try it on my own PC so I did it on a virtual machine with the internet disconnected. It appears to try to download something (as it says “failed to connect” or something) and it’s probably some kind of key generator. I can’t confirm that the website is dangerous/fake but it’s pretty suspicious and this article shows users how to download the “free software” from it. Can someone take a look at this?
On the MyWot scorecard there are positive review from a few users who suspiciously do not have avatars and have suspiciously (I’m using that word a lot) normal usernames, then there’s other negative review that have 6-7 likes. https://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/www.giveawayoftheday.com
I have nominated the article for deletion as universally illegal, as sometimes illegally downloading stuff from the Internet can get you in big trouble.
Apparently, the software downloads through “Giveaway of the Day” are shareware and are, therefore, legal. Perhaps a little more Assuming Good Faith, careful consideration, and waiting for consensus would be in order before tagging such articles as nfd and placing discouraging notices on talk pages? (Note that once an article is tagged, it requires the special attention of at least one booster or admin, if not many, before a misplaced nfd tag can be removed.) I am not saying that anyone should be shy about placing nfd tags, just that they should carefully consider all the aspects of the situation as @NO-USERNAMES-AVAILABLE
was doing by asking for additional opinions before tagging.
I read his opinions, and thentagged it.
The MYWot reviews say the website promotes dangerous/scam software and has malicious links. The article’s also pointless. "W3i,LLC Company File version 1.85.0.0 (Anti-Virus protector) downloads Install Installation Utility became part of a package of downloads when I tried to open a file from my trustworthy sender. Microsoft offers to search for a file opener on the web. When taking Microsoft up on their offer, a tab opens on my browser that says it is Microsoft and has a list of file openers. I chose the free file opener and to make a long story shorter, I downloaded this free file opener which also included W3i, LLC. The W3i, LLC instantly begin to scan my computer, mind you, I was not allowed the option to decline this Anti-Virus protector nor any of the other free software downloads, neither was I allowed to abort the scan. I received two Trojans, one called Trojan.Gen is-ddrqs.tmp, the other Trojan.Gen is-ec400.tmp. The free downloads included in the free file opener came from a company called Freeze.com
along with some other free items (free games, free facebook utility, and so on. There was a “SpeeditUp Free” a "YouTooSetup-DropDownDeals-Silentinstaller 1-0458EXE, and a PC OptimizerPro Setup - New. After Norton blocked the Trojans I proceeded to remove these various softwares, and files from my program files, Documents files, distributed throughout my computer. " “Provided a false link for the download of a hard to find piece of freeware that redirected me to another site which promotes a Registry Cleaner program that you must purchase for effectual use. Page also contained a sneaky pop-up ad for another program that you must purchase that was able to bypass my Ad Blocker plugin for Firefox. Unsure of other site details, but the false lead & redirecting link make me very suspicious.” "Regularly promotes programs with adware, spyware, phishing and spamming ties. Any mention of said programs in the user comment section is censored. Also giveawayoftheday.com
apparently uses pornographic key words to rank higher in search results. If a person uses a google site search of site:giveawayoftheday.com and then add a key word or words, such as porn, rape, incest, animal sex you can see the search string and giveawayoftheday.com
results. Very disturbing. " "You can get good software from this site but you can get some real bad software as well. On the date of this post 09/13/10 they are offering a “premium software” that has invasive 3rd party malware / adware in it via BigSeekPro Pack Toolbar. The moderator(s) purposely delay user comments when they alert other users of bad software. Sometimes they choose not to publish reviews that expose the software publisher’s bad software or fake awards from the developer’s site. Their software offers are released at 2:00AM CST. I recommend waiting until they decide to release user comments before trying the daily product unless you know the publisher / developer. " “Almost all the so called " free software” from this site is scamware. Most of which is reseller converter / ripper spam. Audio, video, and document converter spam. Reseller converter spam is selling the same program with a different name. There must be over 100 chinese companies that sell the same spam under a different name. They want to sell you a different program to convert each file type @ $30…00 each! Nearly all these individual program are very buggy and will not work. And these fake companies offer no support. There are many freewares that convert every file types for free. You will think that you got something for free but, it is usually crippled. Or includes toolbars and browser hijackers and won’t work. If you don’t want scamware, malware, adware, system hijackers, do not visit this site!! You get nothing free here except malware. " "At times the site is very good. However, I, and others have noticed some companies freely get away with spamming the ratings and comments for their software. When this is pointed out to the GOTD team they’ll often moderate (block) any bad comments but allow the shill comments through. You’ll occasionally read comments from people expecting to be moderated out, that to their surprise got through. Of about 20 comments I put in, only ones praising the product got through, and none pointing out obvious spamming of ratings got through. I even made some purposely fake ones using the software ad copy and that was accepted. They also forced a stickr.com
addition, and even though people were complaining about it and asking how to remove it, my comment on how to do so was also moderated out. Use the site, but be wary of believing either the ratings or the comments. I’ve had to start researching the software to make sure it’s actually worth installing. Unfortunately, while I used to recommend this site, I now do so with a very clear warning to not blindly trust the ‘user’ ratings and comments. " "Give away of the day hosts loads of malicious software Look and see a page full of malware that give away of the day offers you! hxxp://mitchelldownes.co.uk/images/malware-giveawayoftheday.png And safeweb.norton.com
reviews! https://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=giveawayoftheday.com
"
Well, thank you for that @NO-USERNAMES-AVAILABLE
. I did not fully look through the WOT data, but will do so now, then adjust my opinion.
There’s bad Norton SafeWeb reviews ( https://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=giveawayoftheday.com
) and McAfee Siteadvisor reviews [positive reviews probably fake] ( https://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/msgpage/giveawayoftheday.com
) (NOT the automated ratings, the user ones)
