| YOUR COMPUTER IS BROADCASTING YOUR IP ADDRESS TO THE WORLD! GREAT!....IT IS FUNCTIONING NORMALLY....THIS IS WHAT YOUR COMPUTER SHOULD DO WHEN YOU'RE ON THE INTERNET! Description of this SCAM This is a legal Internet 'Scam' which tries to scare you into buying a product. In other words without actually lying or breaking the law it over sells a product using fear. This is what happens, when you go to a site - a 'pop-up' window appears and warns you as follows: Your computer is currently broadcasting the following Internet Address: [your IP address is shown here]. Every time you connect to the Internet, send email or submit a private information to a web site, you are broadcasting this unique address. With this address, someone can immediately begin attacking your computer. Download (Name of product inserted here) to protect yourself now!... Your web browser displays a full advert for the product underneath and the page is frozen until you click OK. The web page you will then see is on another web site. Where Does This SCAM Come From? It can be found by clicking an an innocent looking ADD BANNER. I have seen it ALL OVER THE INTERNET AT MANY DIFFERENT SITES! It may also be behind other adverts on web sites and in shareware/adware programs. What To Do The best thing to do is: click OK. click on the 'Back' or 'Home' buttons to leave the web site. close down any pop-up window trying to offer you any other product. What is 'IP Broadcast' About? 'IP Broadcast' is a legal scare selling 'scam'. It is based on three statements. The first statement claims: your computer is "broadcasting" your IP address. This is true and sounds scary, but it's shouldn't alarm you at all. Here's why: When you click on any web link, the web server you're contacting has to be able to respond to your specific PC out of all the millions of PCs online so it can send you (and just you) the web page or graphic or download, that you clicked to see. So, any HTML "transaction" (a click on a link, for example) MUST of necessity tell the web server your return address (your IP address), so it can send you the page, file, image, etc you asked for. It's not a breach of privacy; it's how the web works! You can compare it with leaving your telephone number on an answering machine so your party knows where to call you! In other words, if you didn't send your IP along with your 'clicks', your clicks would go out, but nothing would ever come back because there'd be no "return address (IP number)" for the web server to respond to. For you, the web would stop dead and the internet would be useless! The second statement claims: "once anyone has your IP address, they can immediately begin attacking your computer" This is also true. It does happen; there are bad people out there who will hack into systems for fun or profit. There are real threats online, and you do need protection. But do you need a product from a scam artist? The third statement: Tries to make the sale. It's clearly intended to make you think that their product will prevent the problem of the broadcast IP addresses and it will protect you from hackers. It can not stop the "problem" of broadcast IP addresses - if it truly prevented your IP address from going out, you'd never be able to connect to anything online, ever again! And, if the product were a truly good anti-hacker product, they wouldn't have to use scare tactics to try to trick ignorant users into making a purchase. Conclusion In conclusion, if you see this scam pop up anywhere on the internet, Close it down and ignore it! If you need a web security product buy one from a reputable source like the sponser on this page that doesn't use scare tactics or false claim methods of advertising. Buy from a trusted source and remember...... EVERY TIME YOU CLICK, WHEN ON THE INTERNET...... YOUR BROADCASTING YOUR IP ADDRESS!! BACK TO COMPUTER HELP |
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