BARGAINBUDDY

This is what we found out from Bargain Buddy's End User License Agreement 'Bargain Buddy is installed on your computer and delivers relevant contextual information to you in the form of advertisements based on URLs and/or search terms you enter when navigating the Internet.' It also states, "By downloading the Bargain Buddy, you accept the Bargain Buddy License Agreement, which gives eXact Advertising LLC permission to display relevant contextual information." And this is how the 'Spyware Information Centre' states it- "The eXact Advertising Network has been in existence since 2000 as the advertising sales division of Net2Phone Inc. In May 2002, the management team that ran the Net2Phone Ad Network completed a buyout of the division. What was born was a new company with years of experience & success as its foundation."

In all BargainBuddy can be stated as an affective Browser Helper Object predominantly inserted in the computer system to keep an eye on the user's web habits. It registers and logs whatever the user is doing on the web. Basically, it possesses a keen sense of smell about what you are typing on the URL or Search Engine search box. If the search object matches to its pre-existing list of terms it will invariably divert the user's enquiry to the prelisted web addresses already stored in its memory. This application then floods the user's computer screen with several unwanted advertisements and countless pop-ups. This procedure actually is implemented during the startup process of the system to update and check remote servers. This is when the advertisements are displayed.

Bargain Buddy comprises of an IE Browser Helper Object, along with that it also uses a procedure to run at startup. The Browser Helper Object is responsible to watch the web sites and the terms entered in the search engines. This application is also responsible for the contacts its applicators provide and can also revert back to its maker with the all the registered information. This, and its habit of changing the user's browser setting without any consent of the user has earned the name of BargainBuddy as a formidable contender in the field of cyber criminal actions.

BargainBuddy is believed to be sighted for the first time around the month of August in 2002. Since then, it has been reported to be sighted in numerous countries of the world.

BargainBuddy is also known by the names of Acup (internal name), adp.exe (after the installer included with some versions), Adware/ ExactSearch [Panda], Bargain Buddy, Bargains (process name), Bullseye Network, eXact.CashBack, Ikena (the server it connects to) and Spyware/ BargainBuddy [Panda] and its clot factor is reported as: BargainBuddy 16.

BargainBuddy can be installed in various procedures. BargainBuddy/ adp is installed by Alerts and vCatch,  BargainBuddy/ Apuc is installed by some versions of LimeWire and by FavoriteMan whereas, BargainBuddy/ CC_Versn is incorporated within Net2Phone CommCenter. Later versions of Net2Phone install the Browser Helper Object DLL inside their own folder in Program Files, instead of the 'Bargain Buddy' folder. This application is known to endeavor almost 24081KB space of the hard disk. But the growth factor of this application is not known, as there are no sufficient data to support an actual indication.

Bargain Buddy falls within the group of eXact Advertising LLC and the vendor is believed to be eXact Advertising. They can be contacted at eXact Advertising, LLC PMB 2392, 101 W. 23rd Street, New York NY 10011-5629 US.

According to 'Spyware Information Centre', BargainBuddy could be removed manually by following this procedure:

"Some versions can be removed from the Add/Remove Programs option in the Control Panel. This option seems to be missing in the newer Net2Phone version.

1. Exit Bargain Buddy from your Tray Bar, if it is present.
2. Press CTRL + ALT + DEL to remove Bargain Buddy from your task manager (if it is present).
3. Proceed to Start -> Control Panel -> Add / Remove Programs, and remove Bargain Buddy.
4. If the uninstall for Bargain Buddy isn't present in the Add / Remove Programs Window, the Uninstaller may be listed in your Program Files (accessible from the Start Menu).

Before you can delete it, the DLL file must be deregistered. In older versions, this DLL is inside the 'Bargain Buddy' folder in 'Program Files'. Here there will be one or more 'bin' folders, one of which will contain a file called apuc.dll. If, for example, it's in 'bin2' the following command will work for Windows 95/98/Me:
"%WinDir%\SYSTEM\regsvr32.exe" /u "C:\Program Files\Bargainbuddy\bin2\apuc.dll"
(If your 'Program Files' directory has a different name (for example, on a non-English version of Windows), or is on a different drive, you'll have to substitute that in the path above.)"