Breaking News! EndAds.com finally caught by FTC
FTC disables pop-up ad firm
By Bob Sullivan
MSNBC
Nov. 6 ?The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday accused a California advertising company of digital-age extortion. D Squared Solutions allegedly hijacked Internet users?computers by bombarding them with Windows Messenger pop-up ads ?as frequently as every 10 minutes. The ads hawked $30 software that promised only to stop future pop-ups from the company….
…D Squared operated a handful of Web sites devoted to advertising their software, including Blockmessenger.com, Endads.com, SaveYourPrivacy.com. and Fightmessenger.com
D Squared did not immediately return e-mails sent to its San Diego office. The telephone number listed on the domain registration information for the company’s Web site wasn’t operational.
FTC Slams Pop-Up Spammer
By Dennis Callaghan
eWeek.com
November 6, 2003
The Federal Trade Commission Thursday took action against a company that it alleges was exploiting a security hole in Microsoft’s Messenger Service utility to send full-screen pop-up ads to consumers advertising software that would block the very same pop-up ads.
At the FTC’s request, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Maryland issued a temporary restraining order against D Squared Solutions LLC, and its officers, Anish Dhingra and Jeffrey Davis, blocking them from continuing their business practices. The FTC plans to seek further legal action against the defendants, including recovering any revenue the company earned from selling its software.
Great News!
I believe I am among the most excited people in the world after I hear about the news. EndAds.com should be caught and sued months ago. Starting from Sept 23, 2003, I begin to fight with NET SEND SPAM by writing articles and provide instructions to turn off Messenger Service. Along the way, I started by fight back with bestyan’s spam, then Golarger.com (I am curious about whether this company is caught or not) and Endads.com (with other names like blockmessenger.com…)
The reason I worked so hard to fight with them is, I believe there should be some force to stand against these annoying stuff. You can see people are really annoyed by EndAds.com and its kind.
Check this entry on my site: Shutdown DefeatMessenger And FightPopups Spam, it has 38 comments.
The check this entry: EndAds.com and BlockMessenger.com, it has 296 comments.
Look at how many people are affected. In Oct 2003 along, my site received 2600+ hits from search engine with keyword of Endads.com alone. I believe the craziest period of EndAds.com is not this Oct…
Turn the Down
Great job, FTC. It seems many visitors of this site has sent complain to abuse@level1.com and FCC, but no one mentioned FTC yet. It seems the FTC is the right organization to send complaint to. I cheered about the big success of Shutdown Endads.com. However, it didn’t seem to be the end until government agencies like FTC take legal actions against them.
The Bad Guy
It turned out that the bad guys are named
- Anish Dhingra
- Jeffrey Davis
in San Diego, California:
Their company D Squared Solutions, LLC will be infamous very soon.
More News Coverage
I’d like to thank Bianchi who posted comment to notify me about the news. It was really breaking news.
FTC Obtains Order Barring Pop-up Spam Scam, Urges Consumers to Take Steps to Protect Themselves
Google’s News Coverage on FTC and SPAM.
Physical Location of this NET SEND SPAMMER
Reader Josh commented
If I ever meet someone who works for endads, or even talks about it like a good marketing thing… I will beat the crap out of them…. and not feel bad.
It is very true. The address of these hidden bad guys is the secret everyone really wanted to know. Now they are exposed on the net. According to FTC’s complaint, the address of D Square is
11286 Corte Belleza, San Diego, CA, 92130
Then Yahoo!Map draw the location of their evil headcourter:
With the help of TerraServer-USA.com, we finally find out (how?) the picture of this spammer.
Image courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey and TerraServer-USA
We can Visit our Old Friend Now
Good. Good. They were caught red-handed. Any people interested to drive by and say hello to these two guys if they are not in prison?
I just found the news about endads on your site (I missed the news report) and it has made my day.
I have had the pop-ups for about 3 weeks and they are very annoying. The worst thing about the web site was their attitude. “We aren’t doing anything against the law and you can’t stop us unless you send us money!” It was out and out extortion.
Thanks to whomever was responsible for reporting them.
By the way, does anyone know what will work best to get rid of them? Someone said Spybot may not work. Would they ever quit unless I run something to clean my system?
Sue
P.S. Posting the map of their place on your site was genius.
The best way is to shut down the Messenger Services in Windows.
Start -> Run -> Services.msc -> Messenger Services -> Stop it.
You guys have it all wrong. The owner of Endads.com is not Anish Dhingra or Jeff Davis. Here is the information for the owner of Endads.com,
Name: Singh, Simon Preet
Address: 3717 Nobel Dr Apt 1201
San Diego CA 92122 4537
Telephone: 858-452-2716
Campus Email: spsingh@ucsd.edu
How did you get this information?
fyi, they are the same anish
http://www.kfmb.com/story.php?id=44753