Pinecone Research Plug In is a possible Trojan

For those of you direct linking to this topic, you may want to read the other Pinecone Research thread too.
http://www.amylynn.org/home/board/viewtopic.php?t=237

I may have issues with Pinecone, but I'm not about to lie and upset people over nothing. Anyone that knows ANYTHING about Annika's, knows we are to be trusted. I'm a strong Christian and my testimony is posted through out my sites.

Karen Scott emails people with this:

You may be prompted to download AristiScope’s CopySafe Web plug-in if the test determines the new format is incompatible with your system. Feel free to download the plug-in. This will be required for future surveys and will avoid interruption to survey participation.

The Trojan was discovered with Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security. Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security is the LEADING virus protection money can buy, all virus scanners get their patterns from Trend Micro. So please know this alert has been authenticated.

ArtistScope_IE_42.exe is the name of the program.

Possible_Movly-1 is the name of the trojan.

TSC_GENCLEAN is the name of the malware.

http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/virusencyclo/default5.asp?VName=POSSIBLE_MOVLY-1

After it's been removed...

It still stores itself in the system restore, which means it keeps being placed back on the hard drive. The only way to totally remove it is, to right click my computer icon on your desktop click on system restore, and turn off system restore (click apply), then turn it back on.

sundevilinok shared this:

st an FYI, I did a little Google research on this. I believe it's very likely this was a false positive detection. My searches led me to the website of the company that makes the MSI packager that was used with this ArtistScope plug-in. The MSI packager used is Setup Factory 8.0. In one of the forums on their website, there are entries specifically regarding their Setup Factory 8.0 getting false positive detections from Trend Micro. Supposedly Trend released updated definitions that no longer have this issue. The last post on this topic was from a Indigo Rose staff member less than 2 weeks ago.

Here's the link to the forum discussion on this issue. https://www.indigorose.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24611

My reply is:
Thank you for your posting. I will add this information to the topic's. But considering the virus patterns are up to date on this issue, I'm still concerned for our members.

Last edited by AngelAmyLynn on Sat Feb 21, 2009 11:09 am; edited 5 times in total

Thanks for the heads up. I deleted it off mine. I have Defender and another program and it didn't alert them. But, I rather be safe than sorry. I am very upset, because I just joined Pine Cone a couple of months ago, and thought they were a great site. Mad

A member (sundevilinok) in our forum was nice enough to post a topic concerning this issue. They shared a link that claims this could be a false positive and that Trend fixed this issue as of 2 weeks ago. Considering this didn't take place 2 weeks ago and all pattern files are up to date, I still have cause for concern, and felt it our right to alert you our members. I am sorry if any of you are or were offended by me sharing this information and you shared it with others and were perhaps knocked down because of it. We should always warn others when a cause for concern has been brought up. Imagine if this Trojan/virus caused great damage to people's computers and I/we said nothing. How could Annika's ever be trusted? If this information turns out to be false, it will be updated further, but as for now, I feel it's not. My sincere apologies for any harm brought to you, or your reputation. I hope you can forgive me for sharing what I feel is important, even if other's don't believe it yet, I meant well.

Something to think about before you make that step with Pinecones plug in. Is $3 and a sweepstakes entry worth the chance of possibly losing your computer over? Added to it, the only reason they want to use that program is to stop people stealing images from their surveys, here's something else to think about.

NOTE: I am not encouraging ANYONE to break Pinecone's terms of service and rules, I am merely pointing out the facts. You agreed to their terms when you signed up for their surveys and each survey you are reminded of such.

1. Any photo program INCLUDING MSPAINT can do screenshots. Simply press "print screen" and open the photo program and press paste. You now have their precious images that they are trying so hard to get people to not take.

2. Let's say by some odd chance their new copy program disables that ability to screenshot by print screen, Gimp does a screen capture. This works different then a screenshot.

3. What is a digital camera for again? Yep anyone can take a picture of their screen..

Anything that is on your computer screen CAN be captured. There is no way to 100% stop people from getting anything they want online.

I hope Karen Scott thinks about that as she's trying so hard to prevent what can't be prevented.

I also think jumping through hoops for Pinecone isn't worth anyone's time or computer. There are loads of higher paying companies out there that do indeed DO product tests and don't "accidentally" kick you from their panel.

Oh gather round everybody because guess what?? I had two emails last week from Pinecone Research and Karen Scott. the first one was to inform me that I needed to download the Artiscope 4.2 download. After reading here and on a few other sites that it was possibly a bad idea, I wrote an email to Miss Scott and said I had some misgivings about the download. Her first email told me I had nothing to worry about but they would be addressing the issue in the next two days. I still didn't download it. Late Friday afternoon I received another email from her stating there was new information available on the download. I carefully read the material and it sounded like they had taken care of the problems. So I did! Now here is the good part!!! After I downloaded it and went to run it I carefully read Artiscopes agreement! This should have been my RED FLAG but silly me I trusted them. It said right in the agreement that Artiscope took NO responsibility for any damages their program might cause. Silly me I let it run. The minute I ran it, closed my browser and went to sign in to Pinecone, my computer locked up tight, it shut down all my programs and I was dead in the water. It would not even allow me to send an error report to Microsoft. I shut down everything went into my control panel and immediately tried to remove it, but the weird thing was it didn't act like a normal program removal. No waiting for the configuration tool, no so many seconds before it was gone, just poof!! So you know what I KNOW, its still on my computer, so for heavens sakes don't DOWNLOAD this file!!!! I have sent a email to Miss Scott, but I don't expect she is going to be much help. I will post back here when I have an answer. Oh and by the way, I now have a new program on my computer that I didn't have before, and guess what everytime I touch it my computer locks up tight and I can't even send an error report to Microsoft.!!! Evil or Very Mad

Hi, I'm new to the forums but not the newsletter. I've been a member of Pinecone for years with no problems. I've been busy and didn't download the program Karen Scott said to download in her email. Then I started reading about the problem with the download in the newsletter.

I joined this forum and searched for information and read everything I could find. I also logged into my Pinecone account and re-read everything there. I found no information about problems re download there, just that I had to download it to continue to participate.

Now I am going to ask a stupid question that I'm sure has already been addressed here somewhere but I can't find it.

Has any of Annika's Moderators contacted Karen Scott and discussed the problem with her? If so what did she say?

Karen Scott has a bug up her butt, I don't speak to her since she bold faced lied to me and MANY of our members. I can't respect a woman who has no respect for others, or herself by lying to her members. So once again believing her on this issue is not likely to ever happen. It would be different if from the beginning she hadn't POINT BLANK lied about kicking people from the panel. How can anyone believe her now on this issue? Her reputation of truth telling is 0%! When this forum was on MSN we had over 6 members who came out and shared their stories of Karen Scott kicking them from Pinecone then CLAIMING it was an accident then told to re-sign up, got accepted only to get booted again because "their address was already in the system". If their address was already in the system then HOW in the hell did they get "accidentally removed" from the system. Removed means removed except in Karen Scott's book. Removed to her and Pinecone Research means, blocked from entering your account because you didn't fit their survey needs. Anyone who would trust her word about this NOT being a Trojan after it already infecting loads of people who have privately responded to me (and are afraid to post about it, one had to format already) needs to rethink if they would trust someone who has betrayed the trust of her own members, even if they are ex members.

As for the terms of service on the program I've not looked at that yet, but I can say this much, if it indeed says all responsibility lays on you the person who downloaded it, that's all the more reason to stay clear of it. Like I keep saying $3 isn't worth it, points converted at other panels pays more then Pinecone. I can't believe or imagine anyone is THAT desperate to earn money to download a program that doesn't even take responsibly for itself.

By the way, welcome and thank you for taking the time to post and ask questions.

Hi Cody! I like you had been a member for a least a good 2 to 3 years! I never ever said one word about Pinecone and Karen Scott to anyone. Till today! I like the product tests and doing their surveys. Till Wednesday when I got that email. I thought long and hard about approaching them. In the end I decided I had to ask about. I like alot of you out here are just trying to make ends meet or earn a little extra cash. I had no problem at all until then. The only mistake I made that day was I didn't pin her down and have her tell me when Pinecone was going to issue a statement in regards to the Artiscope download.
I do have an update this afternoon. I went to Artiscope's website and wrote them an email, and documented it. There is a posting up that says they have people working 24/7 to get right back to people. I sent that email at 9:37 a.m. Pacific Time and I have yet to hear anything back form them.
I'm not here to tell you what you can or can't do. But if I can save one of you from what I am going through, then I have done my part. Exclamation

Since I'm losing sleep over this as you can tell by the time I did forget to mention something yesterday. When I downloaded this program it went on to my computer as Artiscope 4.2 plug in download. I clicked on the name Artiscope 4.2 plug in download to remove it, but and this is the key.
What I didn't say is the program that is left on my computer, the name isn't Artiscope anything. I believe with all my heart Pinecone is aware of this and this is the reason they will not acknowledge that there are any problems with it. It's pretty bad when you download one program and remove that program. But what your left with in the end is NOT an Artiscope plug in download of any shape. It has a whole new name. That is the really scary part. Sad

I emailed Karen and asked her what is going on. I explained what I had heard that the new plugin was a virus,etc.

I just got an email back from her and this is all it says:
------------------

Dear xxxxxxx,

Trend Micro software improperly detects the plugin and flags it as a possible virus. They indicate this possibility in their alerts and offer the option to submit it for analysis. They have been notified by Artistscope. Thank you for asking.

Thanks,

Karen Scott

---------------
That's it. No cofirmation that it isn't a virus, or is a virus. Just a simple cut and paste like statement. Needless to say, I have quit that panel. the little $3 checks were nice, but definitely not worth destroying my PC.

this is what I got from "karen" when I emailed asking about this plug in:

Thank you for your email! Trend Micro software improperly detects the
plug in and flags it as a possible virus. They indicate this possibility
in their alerts and offer the option to submit it for analysis. They
have been notified by Artistscope. Thank you for asking.

I am not having any trouble with my computer since my security software took care of deleting it (and I hope it worked after reading the above posts) BUT I'll have to speak to my daughter about all of this since she DID download the plug in on her computer (she has a different security software...Avast I think) which allowed her to download it with no warnings...I actually took a survey for Pinecone using that computer since I was there this past week (daughter broke he shoulder 3 weeks ago and just got her toddler twins back home form the other grandma's house)

Hello, Can anyone tell me if using a Macintosh will make me less vulnerable to this or any other virus? I'm still learning. Shocked

Can you tell me what operating system she has and browser? I was running Windows Xp and IE8. With Avast anti virus. Thats all. Nothing fancy just what I considered normal.
As of the close of business today I had not heard back from Karen Scott or the Artistscope emails that I sent. I think tomorrow I will probably send round 2. If their is no reason for us to worry about the plug in then why all b.s.? Smoke and mirrors I presume. Sad

teriu wrote:

Can you tell me what operating system she has and browser? I was running Windows Xp and IE8. With Avast anti virus. Thats all. Nothing fancy just what I considered normal.
As of the close of business today I had not heard back from Karen Scott or the Artistscope emails that I sent. I think tomorrow I will probably send round 2. If their is no reason for us to worry about the plug in then why all b.s.? Smoke and mirrors I presume. Sad

if the above is directed at me, my daughter's computer was running the Avast software which did not flag it as a virus at all...she has XP on it, but which version I'm not sure and she was using Internet Explorer, although she did use FireFox at one time, I don't think she has it on his computer..as of the last time we spoke, she hasn't seen any problems on her computer but again hasn't used it allot with the broken shoulder/twin toddlers thing.

and if you weren't talking to me, sorry Embarassed

Hi Sew It Goes !
As a matter of fact I was asking you about your daughters computer! I was trying to find a common thread. But its kind of like a needle in the haystack. In talking to people on different forums it does appear that if anything happens, its more likely that it happens on Windows Xp. But then just when I lean that way some one will share something totally different. So I'm still stumped. I know yesterday I tried to do a systems restore to a point before I downloaded the plug in, but both times I tried the program was there. So now I'm to the point of seriously thinking abut reformatting. Crying or Very sad