Is Sherdog Being Paid to Infect your Computer?
By Brandt DeLorenzo on Dec 21, 2008
Reports from Sherdog visitors have been surfacing the past couple months about the Sherdog.com website infecting computers with spyware and adware. There are even allegations that Jeff Sherwood, the owner of Sherdog.com, has admitted to allowing infected advertising campaigns on his site. Some users were also told that it was their responsibility, as Sherdog.com visitors, to remove the infected files from their own computers after they visit the Sherdog website.
There’s something very wrong here. Not only should we not have to worry about a multitude of pop-ups on any MMA website, site owners should care enough about their visitors, and customers, to keep their websites free of garbage files and infected advertising campaigns.
Here is a complaint from a Sherdog forum member on the Sherdog forums:
My anti-virus has detected a trojan-downloader.JS.gen / Object: h t t p://sherdog.co m[1]
For some reason I can’t delete the trojan or quarantine the trojan, what gives???
Are all the member on this board aware of this?
Responses to this post include:
My Nortons routinely stops malicious attacks from Sherdog, and Ive got screen shots of a trojan virus downloading from last year sometime from Sherdog too. My pms to admin went ignored about the situation.
And…
Just got a virus last night.
The Virus is a Flash Ad. that auto injects when the flash ad runs. so not everyone is going to get it. Now i get a retarded amount of pop ups from this site.
Now keep in mind that Sherwood does not control the content in these advertisements. However, this has been happening for an extended period of time with multiple forum visitors and users. It’s been happening long enough that Sherwood should have removed any questionable advertising campaigns from his website. But now that Sherwood makes enough money from those infected ad campaigns to make a living, he probably sees no reason to stop allowing these advertisers from infecting his visitors.
It’s gotten so bad that internet forum members from other sites have dubbed Sherwood’s site “Spywaredog.” But perhaps there are some other players involved in this little game as well. The Sherdog.com website uses the CraveOnline media network to handle advertising on their website. In fact, if you attempt to e-mail Sherdog to learn more about advertising, the message is sent to the sales@craveonline.com mailbox. So not only is Jeff Sherwood involved, but the CraveOnline network is allowing infected content to be downloaded onto your computer. Again, it’s all for money. More ads on your computer, more money in their pocket. Then you spend hours trying to get your computer back to working order.
So here’s how it works. When you access an infected website, javascript code is hidden in advertisements or within the site’s code and applications or files are downloaded into the temporary internet files folder on your computer. Some websites use popups that may tell you that your computer is already infected with a virus and that you should download a free program to fix your issue. This, in most cases, is a quick and easy way for websites to force users to download spyware onto their computers willingly. Then, the popups, sluggish performance, and crashing begins. But even if you don’t willingly agree to install a program, it can still be pushed to your computer without your consent.
Once spyware or adware infects your computer, the application begins to use a large amount of system resources to allow pop-ups to appear, track your computer use habits, or even log your keystrokes to grab personal information and e-mail account data. Scary, isn’t it?
So the next time you visit Sherdog.com or the Sherdog.net forums and your anti-virus or spyware application begins to warn you of malicious attacks, send an e-mail to Jeff Sherwood and CraveOnline and tell them to knock it off. Then contact the BBB and report the company. According to their own Privacy Policy, Sherdog is owned by:
MMA Master, LLC
4859 W. Slauson Ave., Suite 549
Los Angeles, CA 90056
Attn: General Counsel
To learn more about spyware and adware, check out How Stuff Works. To combat spyware and adware, use the free applications on Download.com. Just search for adware or spyware and you’ll find many helpful applications.
MMA Opinion also recommends using Firefox or the new Google browser, Chrome.
(And for a quick laugh, while seaching for a Sherdog icon to use for this article, I was prompted to download a free program to remove infected files from my computer on a random website. )
Filed Under: MMA in Media • News
Does the official boycott start now?
Yes it does, Curtis.
[...] MMA OpinionIs Sherdog Being Paid to Infect your Computer? [...]
I can confirm with personal experience that this happens. We had viruses attack our computer several times from their site with absolutely NO response when we notified them. Nothing. They didn’t have a thing to say and then to hear Jeff on the radio act like it was up to us to defend ourselves from THEIR attacks was just sickening.
Thanks for the BBB tip, they just got a complaint from us. Now I feel a little better about it because Sherdog refused to help and if reporting them to the BBB is the only way they will learn, then hey, my response to Sherdog is…
This is not new, I got spyware from Sherdog many years ago. The staff claimed that some hackers got malicious content into Google Ads, but other sites didn’t have this problem. I think it installed a fake codec in WMP when I tried to play a clip. Other sites don’t have problems like this and Sherdog’s journalism is highly overrated anyway, so I haven’t read the site since.
Sherdog is a joke. They have had the SAME issues for a few years now (spyware, viruses, horridly inefficient forums, 0 forum administration). It boils down to this. The admin of the site is a flipping idiot. If they cannot figure out how to stop nefarious advertisements (which even most clueless admins can figure out), they need to hire a real Admin, and not some retarded nephew/brother/dipshit friend of the owner.
Jeff said today on the Savage Dog Show that he has no idea what goes on, but he emailed CraveOnline recently because of all of the complaints. He probably talks to the same guy at CraveOnline who has been trying to intimidate via email with ‘takedown notices’ and ‘legal teams’ because now they have been exposed for allowing this content.
I’ve worked as a forum moderator for a long time now and I have to say that the incompetence with which the forum at Sherdog is run is just mind boggling. The size of the community is impressive only because they absolutely refuse to regulate it, and the quality of posters (and users) suffers as a result. Every two or three weeks a get a message at MMAForum thanking the staff for making it a place real MMA fans can talk about the sport, and many of those messages include lines noting that they are former sherdog users. If it were just a trivial number, I wouldn’t bother mentioning it, but it’s not.
Jeff Sherwood seems like a reasonable guy, and there are some good guys who work for him, but this CraveOnline guy is similar to many of the thugs who don’t care about the quality of the product and just like to point to the numbers.
Anyway, that’s my rant.
For those of you who don’t know how online ads work. There are times when no campaigns are running and they have to default to some 3rd party advertiser. Most of these times these default spots are sold and re-sold and re-sold by the 3rd party. A lot of times, whoever finally buys it will inject malicious code like pop-ups and viruses. It’s often hard to track down the exact culprit. The 3rd party will ban and ban the ad but they always find a way back in.
I don’t know if this is what’s happening to Sherdog but that’s been my experience.
[...] Sherdog is infecting your computer with spyware and adware. Permalink Comments [...]
Whatever: Good explanation. These third party guys will do whatever it takes to make money these days. There have been court cases against creators of spyware/adware and, according to what I have found so far on the web, they have been losing these cases.
[...] – Sherdog is infecting your computer with spyware and adware. [...]
None of you will be missed
Fake Jeff Sherwood: You should use a less ridiculous e-mail address next time you want to fool everyone.
Sherdog is a cesspool of viruses and computer attacks.
My computers do not work as well after going to Sherdog.
It’s also run by a bunch of UFC groupies.
I’ve been boycotting since spring 2008. Go to yahoo sports if you want uninfected MMA news.
[...] are you have been to Sherdog. It’s always a huge mess too, with all the ad’s and malware shit cluttering up your vision and testing your computer’s patience. But if you have [...]
Thank you for the article. I am running my Norton Anti-virus and my malware protection software right now to try to find whatever infected my computer after visiting Sherdog.com. I will never go to their site again. I’ll try mmaopinion.com for a virus free MMA news experience.