…to fall for this?

You all know these advertisement banners that look – more or less – like Windows error dialogs. Yes, faking a dialog of an OS is really so difficult that you cannot expect these people to get it right. Anyway, today I came across one that really tops all the others I have seen before in terms of stupidity:

> “Security Alert: Your Computer Is Currently Broadcasting An Internet IP-Address. With This Address, Someone Can Begin Attacking Your Computer!”

It was also not oriented horizontal like normal dialogs, but vertically. Never seen a windows error dialog measuring 100×400 pixels. Or with such a capitalization, either. Ah, but nevermind that – the text! The text! How little do people have to know about the very tools they use to fall for this? It’s like stating “Hey, your car has a license plate that could be used to identify you! Someone could seek out your car and smash the window in!”. So? What are you going to do about it? Stop using IP Adresses? Yeah, well, … good luck with that.

The URL behind it looked genuinely enough like an ad server. No satire, I am certain. I was almost tempted to click the thing and see what method there is behind this madness. I mean, you obviously can’t just stop using IP Adresses. But then I decided that even a single click is way too much support for this nonsense.

It’s things like this that make me wish that people had to take mandatory exams before being allowed to use a PC. Like a driver’s license.

_Update, October 12th, 2002:_ I seem to be getting a lot of hits from people who are looking for information regarding this banner ad. Just ignore it. If you want to secure your computer, buy an anti-virus program (from a reputable vendor) and keep it up-to-date (and running!), disable active components in your web browser (especially active-x), never click on attachments you receive in an email (make sure your virus scanner has a go on them first), and always, **always** keep your operating system up-to-date.