Beware the Pop-Up Window at RailPictures.Net

RailPictures.net greeted me with a nasty pop-up window today. You can see the window here, it warns you that you many have critical errors on your computer, and that you should click to have your computer scanned.

DO NOT CLICK “Next” ON THIS POPUP WINDOW. Note the link location at the bottom of the window. It points to Casalemedia.com, an advertising company. They want your information. If you give them permission to scan your computer, you may also be giving away your privacy (and although I didn’t get this far, it may also try to install spy-ware). The Casalemedia website doesn’t mention anything about software to correct “critical errors”, but does boast of their huge database of information. This pop-up window is disgusting in its dishonesty.

I have written an e-mail to the owner of RailPictures.net, asking him why the pop-up is there, and telling him that if it is not removed, I shall consider him to be intentionally disregarding his users’s privacy, and I will no longer use his website. I shall let you know his reply, if any.

UPDATE

If you type Casalemedia into Google, you will find lots of entries about spyware being installed onto your computer, and discussions about how to remove it.

Do not click on the Next button if you get the pop-up at RailPictures.Net.

Caveat Emptor.

Sounds like the type of popup that appears on a gazillion other sites. It ought to be common sense by now never to click a popup, no matter what it says. Get a good antivirus/internet security program and you'll never see them again.

Railpictures.net seems to have a few "questionable" ads on their site, unfortunately. One of the banner ads I saw recently was advertising some sort of supplement to help you grow at least three inches taller. The really awful part is that this particular ad was geared specifically towards children. I notified the administrators about it, but I've still seen that ad a few times since then. I also frequently see the ones that pop up and ask if you want to scan your computer for bugs and whatnot.

MikeF wrote:It ought to be common sense by now never to click a popup, no matter what it says.

That's a bit overboard, I think. There are quite a few web sites that use popup windows for legitimate purposes... i.e., not advertising. For instance, some webmail sites use a popup window if you want to upload an attachment to an email message. Some online merchants use a popup window to show you the contents of your shopping cart. Some internet service providers offer online technical support on their web sites, allowing you to chat with a customer service representative -- the chat window is a popup. I could go on but you get the picture. Popup windows in and of themselves are not evil. Sites that use them irresponsibly are evil.

MEC407 wrote:There are quite a few web sites that use popup windows for legitimate purposes... i.e., not advertising.

Of course there are. I should have used the term "popup ad" instead.

The admins must condone these popups. Early on after I got on line last fall, I e-mailed them saying my spybot warnings light up the screen when I go to their site and asked why they allow that. Never heard back from them, so I never go there now. I know I'm missing some great pictures but I'm avoiding a ton of software problems too.

MikeF wrote:Sounds like the type of popup that appears on a gazillion other sites. It ought to be common sense by now never to click a popup, no matter what it says. Get a good antivirus/internet security program and you'll never see them again.

It ought to be common sense ... but it is not. The reason these type of dishonest pop-up windows keep appearing is that many many people have not developed this common sense, nor do they have an internet security program.

And as far as this type of popup appearing on a gazillion other sites ... us Firefox users almost never see a pop-up. So it was unusual in that sense; I almost never see a pop-up, and so this one has apparently avoided the Firefox pop-up blocker, and caught my attention. I suspect it will avoid other pop-up blockers as well.

http://www.southbaypc.com/NoAds/

You can blacklist popups as they happen.

Rich

I love the Hooters ad that pops up . Reminds me of beer and wings in Atlantic city! The rest of the ads are incredibly annoying though. Maybe it's Mr. Kilroy's way of pushing everybody over to the paid version of railpictures.net.

Unfortunately pop-ups are something we're all gonna have to contend with sometimes. They're pretty much like commercials during television programs.

Many servers require pop-ups to be available, in order to keep websites at a somewhat reasonable cost. I'm sure Railpictures.net could do away with pop-ups altogether, but that would raise the server costs sky-high, to where members might actually have to pay for memberships.

Personally, I'd rather deal with an occasional pop-up than pay through the nose to see the pics.

dj_paige wrote:

And as far as this type of popup appearing on a gazillion other sites ... us Firefox users almost never see a pop-up.

Netscape also comes with a pop-up blocker that works very effectively. It didn't manage to block the pop-up on Railpictures.net though...

I don't see what the big deal is. I visit railpictures.net using XP and 98. XP blocks most of the pop ups except for one. All I do is close it when it comes up, and it's just once per visit. On my 98 computer, I just close all pop ups when they appear. Then every so often, I run AdAware on both to get rid of spyware.