How Safe Are "Deal" Websites?

Discussion in 'other security issues & news' started by TheKid7, Jan 19, 2012.

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  1. TheKid7

    TheKid7 Registered Member

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    How safe is clicking on links on "Deal" websites to get to the companies with the "Deals"?

    I visit a couple of "Deal" websites daily to look for "Deals". I can see that there is always some sort of redirect through some server somewhere.

    The BlueCoat Hardware Content Filter at work almost always blocks the "Deal" links on -bensbargains.net- and very rarely blocks the "Deal" links on -slickdeals.net-.

    Beginning around one day ago, Norton DNS started blocking many of the "Deal" links on -bensbargains.net-.

    Thanks in Advance.
     
  2. Cudni

    Cudni Global Moderator

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    Not sure how safe they actually are but any alarms bells, like the things you mentioned, would prevent me from using them
     
  3. zfactor

    zfactor Registered Member

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    bens and slickdeals are legit.
     
  4. acr1965

    acr1965 Registered Member

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    Most of the legit "deal" sites have reasons to track referrals. I don't know if slickdeals gets click through money or not but I highly suspect they are receiving something. They have arrangements with some companies, like Amazon, Dell, HP, etc. I've used the slickdeals site search and then tried google's "site:slickdeals.net" search with the same terms just a few moments (less than 5 minutes) later and have found in the google results a link to the slickdeals page with the slickdeals search results I just performed. Also, if I click an Amazon link on slickdeals my browser does not open in a new tab ever. It goes straight to Amazon. I think there may be some reason for this as 99% of slickdeals links open in a new tab. All in all, slickdeals claims to be a user community (at least that is what they used to claim to be) but that site is making some serious jack. Plus the overwhelming majority of their deals are freely found and posted by volunteers. Slickdeals has bots that auto post some daily deals and they get notification of big price cuts, like when the HP tablets went on sale for $99. I believe a mod posted that well before the public had any info.
     
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