Gator

Gator is a free application that will automatically fill in passwords and other elements of a form on websites. What you may not know is that it also loads a module called OfferCompanion, which displays popup ads when visiting certain Web sites. Gator tracks every site that the user visits, and forwards the data to the company's servers. Gator sells this information to advertisers who can purchase the ability to make ads pop up in certain instances, such as when predefined words appear on the screen. It also has the ability for companies to cause popup ads to appear when users visit a competitor's Website.

Gator can dynamically insert ads or banners right on top of the ads that are already on the page. They will have the same general look of the site's real banners, and can place ads for many things the website never intended to show, such as advertising of competitors' products. This is plain and simply theft of advertising revenue and bandwidth from the owner of that site.

According to one Gator proponent, since the software is always running, it can present users with special offers and ads wherever they surf to with extraordinary targeting capabilities because it can spy on all the websites the user visits.

The main module, Gator, is the component that autocompletes forms or sign-in screens.

OfferCompanion is the advertising and spyware module. This component is what monitors all of your internet browsing, and downloads and displays the popup ads. It also transmits all the information it gathers to Gator's server database.

Trickler is what is termed an install stub, which is a small app that is installed with another application you may download. After it is installed, Trickler writes a key into your Registry which will cause it to be surrepticiously and automatically loaded every time you start your computer. Trickler runs hidden, and will very slowly download the rest of Gator to your system while you browse the web. This sneaky little app may have any one of the following names, fsg.exe, fsg-ag.exe or fsg-whatever.exe. For instance, it is installed along with an AudioGalaxy download with the name fsg-ag.exe

Many websites offer downloads of Gator as some kind of wonderful tool, and they don't tell you everything it does on the sly. There is also a new method to get unsuspecting users to download it, by causing a window to appear which is similar to the type of install-on-demand window which will load Flash or other legitimate plugins... click the button and you are infected with this crud.

If you decline to download this thing, you should also delete the tracking cookie they foist on you while you are looking at their installation window. I use Cookie Wall from AnalogX.com and there are other similar apps available for free on the web.

Thankfully, Gator is easy to get rid of by following the steps below.

• Go to the Gator icon in the System Tray, right-click on it and choose "Exit".



• Then, go to Start/Settings/Control Panel.



• In the Control Panel window, double-click on the Add/Remove Programs icon



• When the window opens, look for Gator in the list of programs, click on it once and then click the Add/Remove button.



• Follow the instructions for removal. Be sure to check the box saying "Delete User Information" in order to remove it from the Registry.