--- Sponsor's Message -------------------------------------- Join CarClub today and get a $15 Amazon.com Gift Certificate absolutely FREE. Save 10% on gas every time you fill up. Get the same auto insurance coverage you have now for $250 less. http://click.topica.com/aaaaycb1dhr0b1uN1Ia/CarClub ------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/153944.html By Michael Bartlett, Newsbytes SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 21 Aug 2000, 1:10 PM CST FreeWebStuff.Com, Inc., the "get-paid-to-surf" Internet company that became so infiltrated by hackers it was forced to take its site down on July 10, may be offline permanently. "We would love to relaunch the site, if we had a partner to bring in security or to help share the risk," said FreeWebStuff.com spokesperson Bill Johnson. "But as of this weekend, the company made the decision to pull out and try to sell the domain name." As previously reported by Newsbytes, after nine months of development, the FreeWebStuff Web site was launched on June 5. One month later, the company discovered that 90 percent of its 65,000 sign-ups were bogus. "We could catch fake sign-ups when there were just a few per day by running various tests," explained Johnson. "But we started getting thousands of fakes a day - one day we had 4,500 in a 24-hour period and that just overwhelmed us." Johnson said that FreeWebStuff.com did not check identity at the time of sign-up, and that left a loophole that allowed individuals bent on fraud to create multiple identities. Johnson suspects one person might have had up to 2,000 identities. After the rampant cheating was discovered, the company tried different means to plug the holes in its security walls. "We offered an amnesty program," said Johnson. "When we discovered people that were defrauding us, we contacted them and told them if they gave us information, we would not turn them over for prosecution by the federal government." FreeWebStuff.com also attempted to fight back by hiring three hackers as security consultants, but ultimately, the company decided it could not trust the hackers in the long run. "The good news is, we realized early on that there was an insurmountable problem," Johnson said. "We did not want fake growth. We were not going to tell our investors that we had 65,000 subscribers when we knew the number was not real. We have integrity." The company is now looking to sell the FreeWebStuff.com domain name to allow it to recoup part of its investment. According to Johnson, there is no current asking price, but all offers are being considered. More information on FreeWebStuff.com can be found at http://www.extremetargeting.com . --- Sponsor's Message -------------------------------------- Get email and like it! Upgrade your brain with informative newsletters from IDG. From hot products to high-speed LANs, Linux to Novell, we’ve got the email you want--FREE at Topica! http://click.topica.com/aaaawab1dhr0b1uN1Ic/PCWorld ------------------------------------------------------------ to unsubscribe send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] to subscribe send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] more good stuff at http://theMezz.com/alerts ___________________________________________________________ T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16 Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics
