Lavasoft's new scam artist owners

[Littlebits]

The new owners of anti-spyware company Lavasoft also own companies linked to deceptive websites and online porn. Michael Dadoun and Daniel Assouline, owners of Montréal-based affiliate online marketing company Upclick, have also operated companies in the past that sold free software to unsuspecting users under the guise of providing technical support. At least one of the software products was Lavasoft's own Ad-Aware.

There are many links between Lavasoft and the Assouline/Dadoun partnership. Lavasoft was purchased in January by an investment fund called Solaria. Dadoun lists himself on his LinkedIn page as principal of the fund. BusinessWeek lists Lavasoft AB as a subsidiary of Lulu software, based in Quebec. The majority shareholder in Lulu Software is a corporation called 7104189 Canada, which lists Dadoun and Assouline as its directors.

The president of Lulu Software, Eric Gareau, was formerly president of Interactive Brands, another company started by Dadoun and Assouline. In 2007, this company sold Lavasoft's Ad-Aware product using cyber-squatted domains, including adaware-ib.com. Customers complained that when they purchased the software, they were also charged for extra products that they did not ask for.

In May 2007, adaware-ib.com was registered to 6684874 Canada Inc., which was created at the start of that year. Its directors are still Assouline and Dadoun. The contact address for the site was registered to Interactive Brands, and the site was hosted by Rack Engines, a hosting company also started by the pair.

In May 2007, Lavasoft criticised Interactive Brands directly: "This company has set up several sites using the Ad-Aware name and many people have been "fooled". Along with using our product name, they have used our trademarked logos," it said. "We are in no way associated with this company and frown upon their practices."

Dadoun responded: "We decided to buy Lavasoft because of its core technology, its loyal user base and the belief that with the right investment the company can once more rise to its true potential.

"In the short term since our acquisition, we've worked hard with the team in place on the next version of Ad-Aware (soon to be released) – making it about 10X faster than the current version, removing all nagware, bettering its protection, slimming down its executable and re-offering a 'classic' version of the product due to high customer demand," he said.

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[Deleted member 178]

not too much to mind, i never used adaware since 15 years, and i will not start again .

 

[jamescv7]

Ad-Aware was used on this system like approximately 3-6 years ago.

 

[Littlebits]

In the past Ad-Aware was more popular than modern day security programs like Avast, Norton, Nod32, AVG, McAfee, BitDefender, etc. Most of these modern day programs will never come close to the popularity of Ad-Aware.

I can remember back many times where Ad-Aware saved my system and was the only program that could detect the latest spyware, adware, trojans, etc. That was before advanced HIPS programs and secure browsers were available and most installers forced the installations of adware without notification. Also most download sites didn't check files for malware and had no adware policies.

Malwarebytes comes closer to compare to Ad-Aware's popularity position.

Who would have thought that Ad-Aware would fall into the hands of scam artists?
It would just be like if Malwarebytes sold out to a company like CyberDefender or the makers of other rogueware.

Who knows what the future will reveal? R.I.P Ad-Aware.

Thanks.

 

[Deleted member 178]

Malwarebytes comes closer to compare to Ad-Aware's popularity position.

It would just be like if Malwarebytes sold out to a company like CyberDefender or the makers of other rogueware.

yes Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware were used before as MBAM and EAM today.

no one knows the future, imagine a too much malwares that bypass MBAM and then they may follow Ad-Aware, like SAS going to fall.