Tag-board.com - Greg Grothaus - CorgaLLC ripoff deceptive trade deceptive advertising coersive Internet

Jeff,
I still say it was not me that was on the tagboard when you talked with Kim.You are mistaken.

You said that you ran Kims IP address the night she came in and threatened you and the tag-board staff and it also comes back as being a Houston based server from EV1. Sir, EV1 has well over 3 million subscribers to their internet service and thousands of other websites use EV1 servers servers to host their websites. So maybe it's not a coincidence after all.

Tag-board.com does in fact have malicious, automatic, install on demand software downloads associated with the use of the free tagboard. I posted the link to tagboards own forum stating it in a seperate complaint. So lets see, tag-boards forum discussed it and you say it isn't true? Jeff do you know what you are even talking about?

No, I do not like having to use the word malicious in describing their downloads but the truth is that the download is for a tool bar ad in that tracks users and the sites they visit and targets ads to them that tag-board.com profits from. It changes the browser window and spys on the people's internet activities and can report back to it's originator at any time. That sir, is in fact spyware, and yes I consider spyware to be malicious. It slows down the computer it is running on and also is able to report back at any time.

As far as the threats that you say you receive from banning people from the tag-boards board "all the time" that alone should let everyone know that tag-board does get alot of complaints.

By you saying that HPD will not respond to threats against you, your wife and your family is ridiculous. HPD is one of the finest police forces in this great country and yes they do respond to such threats. EV1 is more than happy to provide any information needed by HPD to enforce the laws of this state. If anyone ever threatens harm to my family or their well being, I will most definately contact HPD for their help to be sure those people responsible are brought to justice.

As far as Greg Grothaus offering the boards for free is only partially true. The boards are simply being paid for in another way, so they really aren't free at all are they? Greg Grothaus, tag-board.com and Corga,LLC are in fact being paid many times over. By getting their boards onto over "half a million" websites around the world and running advertising and malicious downloads on the websites that use the board without the website owners knowledge or consent is very deceptive.

As for you wife working at EV1, that explains why the tag-board site is allowed to continue with it's deceptive trade practices on the internet and allowed to continue being hosted by EV1 servers even though tag-board.com is clearly in violation of EV1's Terms Of Service and Autoroized Use Policy. I am not trying to stop all the pop-ups on the net, only the pop-ups that are running on webites without the site owners knowledge and consent and being placed there by deceiving the website owners.

Remember everyone, Jeff is one of the employees of tag-board.com and this is a great example of the type of people you will have to deal with if you use the products offered by Greg Grothaus, tag-board.com or Corga,LLC!
I continue to urge everyone NOT to use the free board (or any product) offered by tag-board.com on their websites.

I said what I wanted to say the first time. But Brian seems to love that word 'Malicious' yet I have seen no such somplaints in the tag-board forum or the demo board itself untill Kim came on there the same day Brian filed this report. I ran Kim's IP that night and it came up as being in Houston with me, using EV1, the company my wife works for. Then here's Brian from Houston. Coincidence?

I go on alot of peoples tagboards. Most of them are free ones. And I get the same pop-up everytime. Tag-board doesn't use spyware. I can say that till I'm blue in the face but Brian has it set in his head that it just HAD to come from tag-board. I have yet to hear how this evil malicious messed up peoples computer.

People threaten me on tag-board all the time, do you think HPD would take the time to try and track them down? People threaten to rape my wife and kill my son because I banned them. No biggie.

The word 'free' means without cost. People don't pay for free boards. Greg makes up for the bandwidth and space they take up by using the pop-up adds. What free service doesn't? We have half a million free boards. How can a company that installs malicious software on peoples computers expect to stay in business? Saying that Greg is the only one profiting from pop-ups is just preposterious. If you know of a better way to support that many free boards other than pop-ups, please share this wisdom. I'm done. This topic can serve a purpose no longer. I leave you Brian to go on your quest to stop all pop-ups on the net, and remember, don't trust anyone over 30.

Nancy,
I have been on the internet for about 6 years, but it was not only me that had the problem with the malicious, automatic, install on demand, downloads. MY security settings are set as Microsoft and Hewlett Packard have recommended. Also I am current with all the Microsoft patches for security that prevent the downloads from actually being installed on my computer. Like you, I must first approve that any programs be installed on my computer.

The problem is that there are still alot of older computers using the internet that are not nearly as secured as yours and mine are. For instance a friend of mine is still running Windows 95 and the malicious download was able to install itself on their computer without their knowledge at all, and because their computer has such a small hard drive they are not able to have the luxury to add such programs as spybot and ad-aware. They had to format their hard drive and reload their OS to get rid of the spyware that tag-board installed on their computer. They hold ME responsible because they got the malicious software by going to MY website.

Many computers that are running Windows 98 are also likely to have the malicious spyware automatically downloaded and installed on their computers without their knowledge unless the user is current with the security patches from Microsoft.

My website users brought the malicious downloads to my attention and started accusing me of placing the pop-ups and autotomatic malicious downloads on my site which I had no knowledge of. But that is not really the point here.

The basis of my original complaint was that tag-board.com was placing these malicious, automatic, install on demand downloads and pop-up ads on MY website without MY knowledge or consent, and only tag-board.com was profiting from the proceeds of the ads and downloads running on MY website.

Tag-board.com made no mention of running ANY type of advertising when I signed up for their tagboard. The pop-ups just seemed to appear on my site after 2 months and quite frankly it took me awhile to trace them back to being associated with the tagboard that I had been using. Instead of tag-board having a "free" tagboard they are in fact being paid for it many times over without the website owners knowledge or consent.
Had I known of the advertising and malicious downloads would come along with the tagboard I would have never used it in the first place!

Brian, I don't know how long you have been online. I've been here 11 1/2 years now. I've watched the internet go from everything being free and everyone using unix shell accounts, to the web getting popular to make money on and a GUI becoming the way to surf.

I don't think Jeff intended his use of the word 'freeloader' as an insult to you. 'Free' is a common tech term to describe anything free online such as freeware programs as opposed to shareware that you are asked to pay for.

What I want to know is why, after being advised to check your security settings .. you didn't? If they are set too low, then you WILL get all kinds of spyware, malware, bugs, cookies, scripts, viruses, etc. without ever knowing it. I wouldn't dream of getting online without Norton Anti-Virus, SpyBlocker, and Opera. I accept NO popups from any website except those approved by me, which are configured into my browser. Even though SpyBlocker stops the bad things, I still will back it up by running AdAware at least once a week to check for spyware too.

Jeff I have NEVER corresponded with you concerning this issue!

I filed a new report that states even more facts concerning Tag-boards deceptive trade practices.

I have no idea why you, as being an employee of tag-board, (if you really are one of their employees)would stoop so low and resort to name calling!

Contrary to what you may believe the users of products that are offered and advertised as being free on the internet are not "freeloaders" as you to refer to them.

As far as people being "amatuer surfers" because they do not have their cookie settings the way you like is almost laughable. As we all know the security settings are not at issue here.
What is the issue is that tag-board.com is installing or attempting to install malicious software that is basically spyware on unsuspecting people's computers that tag-board.com is profiting from and placing pop-up advertising on websites without the site owners knowledge or consent.

Let's stick to the facts and leave the childish name calling for the kids.

If you have any evidence of people ever threatening you or the tag-board.com staff I suggest that you contact law enforcement with your evidence so that they can be dealt with accordingly.

If Tag-board.com needs to make money from their products then maybe they should not offer their board as free, and try to make money from the sales of the board alone without deception.

I continue to urge everyone to not use the tag-board.com products due to their deceptive advertising.

I dealt with "Brian" on tag-board the day before the report was filed, although "he" was going by the name Kim. He/She couldn't seem to listen to anything that anybody had to say. I tried informing him/her that tag-board doesn't just install spyware or 'malicious software' on peoples computers.

I tried telling him/her that most likely the cookies on the computer that was being used was set too low allowing anything to be downloaded without warning or notice. Several people, including myself, tried telling him/her how to fix this problem but all he/she could do was flood the board with threats. He/She refused to give me the alleged site that this happened on and would only tell me that it was a free site.

Free things on the net give out pop-ups to compensate for using the service for free. That is the price freeloaders pay for using free sites, free forums, free polls, free rankings, and free message boards. Almost every site owner has gone through the free stage and most of their visitors know what a pop-up is.