I’ve posted before about how the Ebates Moe Money Maker program, which purports to remind you about rebates available at Ebates when you’re casually shopping the ‘net, is scumware and needs to be deleted from your machine (see my Feb. 2004 post). A group of rewards program owners also noted in a Sep. 2004 chat session here on the site that MMM potentially interfered with users receiving rebates while shopping through THEIR sites.
Now, Harvard PhD candidate (Economics) and spyware watchdog Ben Edelman has actual video of Ebates’ MMM software taking advantage of a security hole to install itself on his computer. He goes on to discuss the many issues posed by Moe Money Maker and why Ebates is allowed to continue to behave this way. Very interesting reading: http://www.benedelman.org/news/121504-1.html
