There's A Sucker Born Every Minute

That's an old saying traditionally attributed to the ancient showman P.T. Barnum. Nowadays, that translates into every second.

If you are a MySpace user, you may have gotten a bulletin (mass mailed notice from any one of your "friends") offering you software to track who is viewing your profile. As reported in the Washington Post blog When Spyware Performs as Advertised, when you click on the link in the bulletin (and that's your first mistake), you eventually end up on a page where they state that

the tracking software isn't really available quite yet -- but hey, there's some free adware from 180Solutions Inc. instead!

When you click on the icon that reads "After posting a bulletin CLICK HERE to gain access to myfriendspy.com info," an installation agreement for Zango pops up. Zango is the much-maligned product of adware maker 180Solutions, which of course monitors what you search for and where you go online.

So, though disappointed to not get free tracking software, the sucker (no I meant to say the customer) installs Zango instead. Instead of YOU seeing when your friends view your profile, Zango then watches what YOU do online.

But at least YOU are warned when you install Zango aka MyFriendSpy. They don't hide themselves, like spyware of ancient times. So of course Zango isn't spyware.

Right. Heck, Zango gives you free software to change the colour of your display name. And promises you free access to all Zango supported content across the Internet.

This way to the egress

.