Ad scams are known to reset the desktop and browsers. An ad scam was detected on finding that an unknown website called make-my-baby.com was the third largest advertiser on Facebook, purchasing 1.75 billion ad impressions within the third quarter. Matt Cutts, a software engineer at Google, found that when you visit makemybaby.com, the site instantly prompts at an installation of a browser plug-in. The “terms and conditions” link takes you to http//:bingstart.com which has phrases like “If Chrome (”CR”) is installed on your PC we may change the default setting of your home page on CR to Bingstart.com.” If makemybaby.com is Facebook’s 3rd biggest advertiser, wonder how many are installing this without reading the matter in fine print that says “Installing the toolbar includes managing the browser default search settings and setting your homepage to bing.com”.
This is called affiliate marketing and there are plenty of third-party companies who find ways of asking people to agree to terms and conditions in exchange for a plug-in that unlocks a game or some other feature. It’s not necessarily illegal when users offer their consent. More importantly, it also prompts a question over the advertising practices. If this is the third-largest advertiser on Facebook, then it would have caught the attention of someone at that company. Again, this is not to say Facebook is doing something wrong.
