Way Off-Topic DigitalPoint Sued by eBay over Cookie Stuffing

[Floris]

http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=568450

.... WOW ....

One could say DP is a respectable site .. Imagine how many sites do this that can't be considered that.

Disclaimer: I hardly ever use DP or eBay.

[Razasharp]

Interesting stuff, thanks Floris.

[doug1]

It seems that unscrupulous forum members can cookie stuff legitimate forums too - does the vbulletin team have a remedy for this? (I don't know how the stuffing is being done.)

http://affiliate-blogs.5staraffiliateprograms.com/1526/affiliate-cookie-stuffing-forum-trick.html

[Shamil.]

As posted on DP,I think that this may be a fake since at the time I search for other articles relating to aforementioned event, no results were acquired.

[MRGTB]

Nice find Floris, what can you say about that?

It makes me laugh that the DP faithful are talking over there as though their innocent. LOL.

Well, it was quite clever what they did, I'll give them due for that! Bet they made a fortune too of that scam. But a little stupid to do something like that to a site like ebay and seriously expect to get away with it. I mean, ebay must have the best techy guys in the business working over their, so it's not surprising really they where rumbled.

[5starAffiliates]

Hi Floris and all,

I don't think it's off topic at all, since it's talking about cookie stuffing and it sounds like most of the 'alleged' stuffing happened on forums.

ct2k7 it's real and I did a major blog about it right after it was discovered, lots of people are talking about it, even over at the eBay affiliate forum, so maybe you just used the wrong search terms or something.

Here's a link to the legal doc I referenced: eBay Inc. v. Digital Point Solutions, Inc. et al

It seems that unscrupulous forum members can cookie stuff legitimate forums too - does the vbulletin team have a remedy for this? (I don't know how the stuffing is being done.)

http://affiliate-blogs.5staraffiliat...rum-trick.html

THANKS doug1 that's my 5 Star blog you linked to about the problem of cookie stuffing on forums - it's a growing problem.
It sounds to me like the cookie stuffing method used in that eBay case was the same one I blogged about in the link Doug shared.

For those that may not know cookie stuffing is stealing. If you own a forum and someone cookie stuffs a busy thread, tons of your members could have their affiliate commissions stolen from them.

The specific method I reference in that blog post is really hard to spot. I've been helping any forum owner that wants to find out how it's done and get some ideas on how to stop it.

"does the vbulletin team have a remedy for this? (I don't know how the stuffing is being done.)"

I know how it's done and would be happy to talk to someone at VB about it. There is a solution that I think would work really well and I assume there may already be a hack designed for something else that would prohibit the method they use to jack cookies.

Feel free to contact me if you are a VB hack writer, a VB staffer that wants to learn more or even a forum owner. Only thing is I won't give the info out to anyone unless you email me from your forum email address or can verify you are a forum owner. I've had too many scammers that don't even own forums try to get the info from me.

Thanks,

[Cromulent]

It makes me laugh that the DP faithful are talking over there as though their innocent. LOL.

Innocent until proven guilty. Wonderful thing this justice system we have eh? Oh yeah, I forgot, because they are being sued means they must be guilty.

[MRGTB]

I very much doubt ebay would take action against them unless they knew 100% it was them.

Lets put it this way, I don't see them posting over at DP in that thread saying their inocent. Do you?

But I'll take onboard your inocent until proven guilty, as yo do have a point! "sort off"!

[David Grove]

"does the vbulletin team have a remedy for this? (I don't know how the stuffing is being done.)"

I know how it's done and would be happy to talk to someone at VB about it. There is a solution that I think would work really well and I assume there may already be a hack designed for something else that would prohibit the method they use to jack cookies.

Feel free to contact me if you are a VB hack writer, a VB staffer that wants to learn more or even a forum owner. Only thing is I won't give the info out to anyone unless you email me from your forum email address or can verify you are a forum owner. I've had too many scammers that don't even own forums try to get the info from me.

Thanks,

I've created a mod that will help mitigate any attempted cookie stuffing done by forum members. I'm testing it on my own forums as we speak and I'll release it on www.vbulletin.org as soon as I'm satisfied with it.

[Gladius]

This is something serious enough that Jelsoft should address.

[Zachery]

This is something serious enough that Jelsoft should address.

Err what?

[David Grove]

Err what?

I'll PM the details to you if you're interested. Basically using BBcode that is enabled by default, any user can insert code in a post that will plant an affiliate tracking cookie on all visitors' computers. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookie_stuffing

[Floris]

Like so :

http://www.steverenner.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/cookie_0611_02.jpg

[Floris]

I'll PM the details to you if you're interested. Basically using BBcode that is enabled by default, any user can insert code in a post that will plant an affiliate tracking cookie on all visitors' computers. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookie_stuffing

I know how it is done, but I do not see how vb can stop this. Unless they completely stop allowing remote urls and images.

[edit] never mind, it just came to me ...

[MRGTB]

Jezz, how long as this been around. Is there anyway to tell if your computer has been affected