Is this the End - a Piririform.com Fix ? ! !

[Alan_B]

The Search engine "Start Page" has a new "Top Result" for the "Piriform forum"

It looks like this

Piriform.Com - (Recommended) Fix Piriform.Com.

Follow These 3 Steps Right Now!

Recommended by Experts - Speed up your PC - Protect Internet Privacy

piriform.com.fixpchelper.com/

The destination is a registry cleaner at

---you dont want to go there---http://www.fixpchelper.com/?k=Piriform.Com&tid=A1972&gid=1018589375lper.com/

 

It holds the statement

Technical Description of System Error(for Experts only):

Piriform.com may caused by some of the following errors

• System Crashes
  
• Windows Operating System Problems
  
• Registry entry not found
  
• Windows Startup Errors
  

Error Symptom include:

Ccomputer freeze

• No sound
  
• Automatic reboot
  
• Shutdown problems
  

[Nergal]

???

what is the search engine "start page"?

are you reporting a malware site that masks itself somehow as piriform.com?

 

[DennisD]

This seems to be another of those "search keyword" generated sites which we were talking about last week Nergal.

 

Here's a topical version of your find Alan, and scroll down to see what I mean.

 

Blame The Man In The Red Suit:

 

It's safe to have a look, no malicious URL's detected by Comodo Web Inspector in this one...

 

 

This type of keyword generated site seems to be picking up one or two Piriform references at the moment, and I don't think there's much you can do about it really.

 

Tomorrow that site will probably have some other name substituted into it.

[Alan_B]

I use the PaleMoon Browser and have several Search Engines available

including Google ; DuckDuckGo ; Bing ; and "Startpage HTTPS"

 

This gives information on Startpage, which is my preferred engine.

https://www.startpag...age-plugin.html

 

The "Top Result" which I quoted less than one hour ago is no longer present.

Perhaps a Piriform Lawyer has already issued a cease and desist order

(and issued an invoice for services rendered).

 

I would say that if someone was advised to clean a computer with a Piriform product they might well kill it with a registry cleaner of unknown quality,

but I am not aware of any deliberate attempt at infestation (I never risked it)

 

It does how ever appear to be guilty of libel with

"Piriform.com may caused by some of the following errors"

 

You can get to the site with

http://www.fixpchelp...&gid=1018589375

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.fixpchelper.com/?k=Piriform.Com&tid=A1972&gid=1018589375

[Alan_B]

@Dennis

 

You are right.

 

I observe that your site is exactly the same as mine, but with a different "symptom fix".

 

Whilst inspecting and comparing I formed a new opinion.

It is scamware that extracts money from the gullible.

I base this opinion on their "Customer Feedback which includes

 

Someone once told me it’s so dumb to pay for a Computer cleaner with all the free stuff available on the internet - but I don't agree with them. In the 3 weeks I have been without your Fix RegCleaner my PC accumulated some 9000 bits of rubbish. Having just cleaned up that lot, I have just freed up 23 MB of disc space.

Shawn - Canada

 

I deduce that he had to pay to get their product to fix his computer,

but nowhere on that page does it show that payment is required,

and when I click on the Download button it instantly provides a setup.exe file (which I cancelled without saving),

so I guess it tells the customer he has too many problems for a free fix but full fixing will follow payment of $???

 

 

[DennisD]

It's the gullible they're after for sure with these stunts.

 

All they need do is extract popular well used keywords, which many will recognize, and they'll land a few unwary punters.

[login123]

Yep. Right now when you tell Start Page to find piriform forums the first link is this:

hXXtp://-.-.-.reimageplus.com/lp/nhome/dyn.php?lpx=lp-9&tracking=gas&banner=general1_us&adgroup=Registry%20Clean%20SW&ads_name=direct&keyword=Piriform&gclid=CIn8vd6Er7QCFQf0nAodDDkA8w

Don't go there. I have no idea what that software is, but it isn't CCleaner.

 

edit: It looks like one of those sites that try to scare you into buying their app.

 

I gave up on Start Page a while back in favor of Duck Duck Go. It loads quicker.

And finds the forum correctly. :-)

[Winapp2.ini]

]Piriform.com may caused by some of the following errors[/u]

 

wat.

[DennisD]

Piriform.com may caused by some of the following errors

 

Nope, it was Santa.

 

[hazelnut]

'Search generated sites' catch a lot of people out Alan and is just another route folk will go down to get people to click and buy, or click and get 'malwared'

 

Hopefully people reading this thread will be more aware now and question in their head the results when doing a internet search.

[Winapp2.ini]

Someone once told me it’s so dumb to pay for a Computer cleaner with all the free stuff available on the internet - but I don't agree with them. In the 3 weeks I have been without your Fix RegCleaner my PC accumulated some 9000 bits of rubbish. Having just cleaned up that lot, I have just freed up 23 MB of disc space.

Shawn - Canada

 

Poor Shawn, he doesn't know that 9000 bits is actually only 1.09 Kb

[Alan_B]

I gave up on Start Page a while back in favor of Duck Duck Go. It loads quicker.

And finds the forum correctly. :-)

I gave up DuckDuckGo because it does NOT tell me how many results match my query.

 

If I search for something and the relevant result is not on the first page,

I look at how many results matched and base my actions accordingly.

I search for "egg" and StartPage responds with "About 33,199,250 results (0.15 seconds)"

 

It feels like half a second before DuckDuckGo gives me results.

 

The essential piece of information is that what I want is buried amongst 33,199,249 possibly irrelevant results,

and based on that I more tightly specify with "Christmas egg" and get "About 8,460 results (0.15 seconds)"

 

Conversely I may get a total of 30 results in which case I double check my spelling and then consider whether I am being to particular,

and whether to widen the coverage of my search phrase before I scan all the results.

[Corona]

That malware pages' grammar is horrendous.

[Nergal]

While better than straight google, startpage (which was down and unresponsive 404ing to me when this thread was started but I researched a bit) is just google search without reading your google-tagged-bubble-info (see DuckDuckGo Presentation for information on the bubbling that search engines do)