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Question

"magic" Free Protection !!

Apr 13, 2019 3:49AM PDT

Hello Everyone,
I am not sure where to enter this post, forgive me if it is in an incorrect place.
Having been receiving Cnet Newsletters for some years now, a recent recurring advert has me a little confused.
It advertises itself as “This Simple Trick Protects Your Computer For Free.” Clicking on the picture brings a blank page. Clicking on the small blue arrow to the bottom right brings up a page with details of the advertising company which look like “LiveInternet” and options to accept their ‘cookies.’ Without going into details, I am not in favour of accepting cookies from the majority of requests to do so.
So my question is what is this “Fabulous” trick and, apart from all the above, how do I find out about it without “baring my soul”! Or is it a PayPerClick advert?
Being well past my sell-by–date, I find this confusing!
Any Hints, please?
Regards
Colin.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Re: free protection
Apr 13, 2019 7:56AM PDT

LiveInternet, if you google it, seems to be a Russian company, that offers web analyzing.

It's impossible to tell what the trick is. Google finds nothing except your post here. But your might be able to right click on that blue arrow and choose something like Copy Link Location (that's what Firefox calls it). That puts a copy of the url on the clipboard. Then from the clipboard you can paste (ctrl-V) into a reply here, and then I'll have a look to see if I can tell you the trick it shows. I'm not afraid of cookies.

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Answer
Without a link to this advert
Apr 13, 2019 3:02PM PDT

It would just be a guess.

Here's my guess.
They are talking about running the machine as a limited account.

We all run our machines different but I have been running this machine as admin for 9 yrs and have yet to see malware.

A free gift that comes along with some download yes but so far they have been easy to toss.

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free protection / Without a link to this advert
Apr 14, 2019 1:19AM PDT

Hello Kees and Bob, again!
Below are the links – the first one, a blank page, is what “comes up” when clicking on the picture. The second is what “comes up” when clicking on the little blue arrow at the bottom right. All upper case “X”s are my insertion and the true link shows when they are deleted.
1.
https://www.cnet.com/Xforums/discussions/magic-free-protectionX/#post-72de6712-5fa1-41c9-9924-aX53cce5d7a112.X
2.
https://liveintent.com/ad-choicesX/?utm_medium=product&utm_Xsource=liveintent+platform&utm_Xcampaign=adchoices&c=${CRITEO_OPTOUT_URL}&li_Xdid=6bb68524-32ee-46a0-82c0-64156359669dX
Many thanks, as always, for your input and advice. My enquiry was only ‘triggered’ by the ‘Free Protection’ thing, which I presume is the ‘catch’!
I was a little surprised to find this in the newsletter, and "presumed" that, being in a Cnet post, it should not be anything untoward like malware or spyware etc!

Regards,
Colin.

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Re: advert
Apr 14, 2019 4:56AM PDT

Hello Colin,

Both links contain a lot of X's that I had to delete before they worked. Why did you put in those?

The first just goes to your own post here. The second one goes to the site of an advertising agency where you can opt-in (by clicking the OK-button) or opt-out (by clicking a link called "here").
And that's all. None go this trick. So it stays a mystery.

Probably it wouldn't have been a good trick anyway.

Kees

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advert
Apr 14, 2019 7:28AM PDT

Hello Kees,

Thanks for your reply.

The "X's" were added because many years ago I was "instructed" to add extra text digits to any link that was considered "suspect" and I have always added 4 or 5 X's to any link that I have considered as possibly suspect that I forward ever since. Should this stop? If so, no problem, I shall stop if so advised!

Thanks for your views on the link anyway. Not to worry, the "tempting" offer for free security will therefore be ignored!

Kind regards,

Colin.

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Try it again
Apr 14, 2019 11:04AM PDT

Find a news letter with the advert.

Copy and paste a link.

Don't add any X's and make sure the link works before you post it.

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Try it again
Apr 15, 2019 3:16AM PDT
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link
Apr 15, 2019 4:30AM PDT
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Perhaps
Apr 15, 2019 5:05AM PDT

I did not explain it well.

You first link to yahoo is a bust for me as I don't use yahoo.

I then gave you a google link and asked if that was the page you were looking at.

You chose to ignore that and said something about clicking on the advert which I don't see on the google link.

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Re: link
Apr 15, 2019 5:18AM PDT

It has a contact link at the top, and an OK link at the bottom.

In your browser, go to Private mode (or whatever it's called) and press that OK button. Then I suppose you go to the page with the trick. Since it's private mode, any cookies won't be stored on your PC but get lost.

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Perhaps / Link
Apr 15, 2019 6:07AM PDT

Hello Bob,
Thanks for your reply.
My apologies about “ignoring” your link. I visually checked it against the one I had and it was not the same, so I re-copied the one I had entered before. Having now physically checked the one you gave, I confirm that it obtains
the same location!
Hi Kees, Thanks, the operation for “Private mode” in my Firefox browser is to click the 3 horizontal lines at the top right of the tabs bar and choose New Private Window. Works well, thanks a lot!
Regards to you both,
Colin.