Was surfing about last night and came across a site called PornTube. Yes…it’s a knock off of YouTube (even the logo looks the same). Exactly the same format, seemingly…except that instead of people posting their inane videos of themselves doing stupid stuff they post…inane videos of themselves scrumping. In theory…because this gets to my question.
Is this entire site a scam? I notice they have the same buttons at the top as YouTube (as I said, the layout is exactly the same)…i.e. there is a button to sign in, one to create a new account, etc. Except…none of the buttons work.
Then there are the videos…unlike with YouTube, trying to click on a video brings up a download file button. Download and run the file (I wouldn’t recommend this…I did it in a secure VM) and it attempts to install some kind of codex…and insert a trojan virus into your system.
So…is this site a complete scam? I have to admit, it’s a VERY elaborate scam if so. Just surfing around on it a little there are comments sections (just like in YouTube), and the site is obviously visually modeled directly from YouTube…which brings up my second question. How can they get away with ripping off YouTube so completely? Even the color scheme is the same.
Anyway, if anyone knows any info on this I’d be interested. No direct links please…don’t want to violate any of the board rules inadvertently.
But is it all a scam? The thing wanted me to load a proprietary codex (in theory) that turned out to have some kind of Trojan horse virus on it. I just am wondering if the entire site is simply a trap, with staged user comments and even staged video posts and such.
Not exactly something I can search for here at work either.
It’s hard to tell if it’s a scam or not. However whenever you access any sites of an adult nature I would not download and install anything they tell you you need to access their content especially if the site is free. that’s just common internet safety sense.
ummmm…as long as we’re talking about viruses*, how does a “porn tube” site send you a virus, while the legitimate youtube.com site doesn’t?
In both cases-- Whether you’re watching a youtube video of a cute kitties, or a porn tube video of “scrumping” (I’ve never heard that word before, but I think I like it ),— you’re watching a video made by some anonymous person who could be a hacker.
But I’ve never heard of virus problems from youtube. Is it because the only way to get a virus is to download a file and then execute it? I’ve heard of viruses embedded in JPG’s. Is it impossible to embed a virus in a streaming video?
(because, you know, I wouldn’t know anything about porn–gosh, I didn’t know they allowed porn on the internet. Isn’t it ,like, against the law or something?)
I saw this the other week and wondered about it. From what I can tell there are two types of download trojan fake sites out there. One is what the OP mentioned. Basically a mock up of PornTube that looks legit but will try and download a virus when you click on the “play” icon in the video. The other will tell you that you need to update the version of flash that you have in order to play the video. And will even re-direct you to a site that looks remarkably like adobe’s web page.
So to answer the OP, yes it is a scam. And they get away with it because they don’t care. I mean…they’re trying to download a virus onto your computer, think they care about Copywrite?
chappachula, it’s not that it’s impossible to put a virus in streaming video, perhaps it’s possible, but it would have to take advantage of a security flaw which would be fixed pretty quickly.
I’m not sure whether the file that the site wanted xtisme to download was the video file itself, or an executable file to install a new codec on his system. If it was trying to get him to run an executable, that’s obviously a security problem.
On the other hand, maybe it was a Digital Rights Management kind of thing, where Windows Media Player needed this codec to play, and it took him to a web site to install the codec. I’m not sure what the risks are with installing a new codec on your system, but it seems pretty risky to me.
It was an executable file. Basically it was marked as something-codex.exe and was supposedly to help you run the video on your machine.
I figured it was a scam (sorry, I don’t remember what the virus name was)…no one with a legit site is going to ask you to download an executable file to view a video (unless you don’t have the plug in for Real/QuickTime or WMP).
I’ve heard of this site from another forum I’m on and other people use it so I got curious and tried it. The buttons seem to work for me. The login and sign up buttons take me to a login and sign up page anyway, but I didn’t fill it out to see if it worked past that. Clicking on a video starts it playing with no popups or downloads. Fast forwarding a little, I see naked people and bah-chika-wah-wah music.
In the world of porn (where image quality and file size are critical to both customers and web site operators), it’s not uncommon to ask users to download codecs (or, codec packs, or codec packs that are bundled with a player). We used to do it for DivX, cos the site that hosted the codec pack (and made it, presumably), was very poorly designed and we did not want to send our customers there to get confused.
These days, we link to a site where you can download Media Player Classic (which is a truly awesome little media player, nothing to do with MS as the name might infer), and VLC (again, a great tool that everyone should use!).
We’re not unique. We do it, because the mainstream media players (windows media player, Quciktime, etc) suck, especially with newer codecs. It’s easier for a customer to download a third party player that comes with a zillion codecs than to try to get a specific codec for a specific mainstream player.
So, what are your thoughts on the question in the OP? The site legit and the codex just infected? Essentially downloading it and running it in a VM blew away the session. Luckily it was contained in the VM so it was no worries…but had I tried to actually download and install that file straight I would have been screwed…or had a nasty clean up operation to perform.
I did a google search last night on related names and there are several related sites that seem to work fine…no download needed (basically work just like YouTube…click on a video and it plays in the browser).
I’d never been to PornTube (that says nothing about my purity and everything about the fact that I already surf 4 other sites just like it :p), but I just checked and it looks nothing like Youtube Has it changed since you posted your OP, xtisme?
),— you’re watching a video made by some anonymous person who could be a hacker.