The anti-filesharing organisations like the MPAA and RIAA use plenty of dirty tricks to spy on filesharers: from spreading viruses to hacking into servers to plant 'evidence', and now they are applying the following tricks on Bittorrent:
They plant fake torrent files on regular torrentlistingsites. The torrent-filename will be similar to what you are used to,
The fake torrents will either have spying trackers attached that record your IP address, or the torrent will download a special type of movieformat which requires a spyware-filled movieplayer that you are tricked into downloading (like the 3wplayer from play.com3w.com or play.play3w.com, or the DivoCodec, or RiyoCodec, or the DomPlayer). Also, files that are compressed with the WinZix compressor are very likely to be fake.
Remedies:
-- Try to get your torrents from a trusted site, and from a user-account that you know you can trust (check the torrent's comments if there are any).
-- If you've downloaded a file that requires a dodgy movieplayer like 3wplayer, the DivoCodec, or the DomPlayer, then just delete the file and remove the torrent because it is a fake file. If you've already installed that movieplayer: uninstall it, and do a thorough anti-virus and anti-spyware scan of your system.
As you may be aware of, some developers of torrentclient-programs are now associating with the big media-companies behind anti-filesharing organisations. If you have questions about choosing a good torrentclient, then ask them in our Technical Help and Discussions forum.
Some current warnings:
-- ZipTorrent : sends out fake data on purpose to poison the torrent and may also act as spyware. Do not use it.
-- Bitroll, Torrent101, TorrentQ, GetTorrent : spyware. Do not use them.
It recently became known that the anti-filesharing organisations are working on setting up whole fake torrentsites to trap people. Be careful you have been WARNED
