Beware of free WinRar downloads

14 August 2008 - 14:15

In the last 24 hours we received several reports that clicking on Google adverts for "free WinRar downloads" resulted in an attempt to install malware. As the informants didn't tell us the address the ads linked to, we are unable to block them using the AdSense ad filter. I have written to Google about this, and asked our informants to do the same, because even if I could block the ads, they would still appear elsewhere. But for the time being I have had to remove Google ads from our "How to open Rar files" page, which will cost us dear, as it is the most visited page on our site.

It is a revelation to me that the malware business is apparently now so profitable that it is worth using pay per click ads to get people to download it. What's worrying is that this malware is probably also being promoted in ads for other popular downloads, not just WinRAR. This is not something I can do anything about since I can't personally check every ad. In fact, like every other AdSense publisher I can't check the ads at all, since it is forbidden in the AdSense TOS for a publisher to click on the ads on his own site. All I could do to be sure of removing malware links is remove all Google ads from our sites - not something I can afford to do since AdSense is one of our main sources of income.

Google really needs to keep a much closer check on who it allows to be an AdWords advertiser. It's getting to the stage where people will become afraid to click on a Google ad. That's bad for advertisers, bad for publishers like us, bad for web users and bad for Google. I hope Google acts quickly to restore trust in its ads.