'Xbox emulator? Wait a minute...'

Many gamers seem to be thirsty for new emulators that allow them to play console games on the PC. Since the release of the Xbox in November, users have been searching for ways of having famous games such as 'Halo' in their computers. A new scam takes advantage of this desire for Xbox emulators. On the Web, as in life, things are not always what they seem to be.

Website Newsbytes made an alert this Thursday for all those users that can't wait to play Xbox games on their PCs. A new fraud was found on the Internet, which attempts to disguise a Trojan horse in an "Xbox emulator" currently being offered for free. This Trojan emulator is designed to generate money for its authors using pay-for-click and other schemes, malicious code experts said.

The report said that, instead of enabling users to run popular Xbox games on their computers, the emulator executs a fake installation program, "EMU_xbox.exe", which merely produces error messages. "All that's installed on the victim's PC is a "back door" program called "NetBUIE.exe", which silently attempts to contact numerous remote servers, including four operated by Microsoft and two by online advertising network DoubleClick, according to a preliminary analysis by TruSecure Corporation," said Newsbytes.

The report also suggests that the creators of the program generate revenues by tallying up ad impressions and click-throughs at some of the remote Web sites. And it seems that they are succeeding: NetBUIE has contacted the Fastcounter site nearly 4 million times. The program was also the first item listed at Google.com in a search on the phrase "Xbox emulator." It is believed that nearly 30,000 people have visited the emulator's download site since mid-April.

Passing almost by a real program, the scam includes a Microsoft copyright notice and is described as a "Network Connection Verification Utility." Some suspected that the program was used by Microsoft to monitor users who attempt to avoid paying $299 for its Xbox video game system but the company examined NetBUIE.exe and denied the accusation.

In general, users should be careful with Xbox emulators. The website The Emulator Zone said that, "if a Web site claims to offer a working Xbox emulator for download, it is 99.99% likely to be fake." Anti-virus software sites are still expected to show descriptions of the NetBUIE.exe Trojan.

(Sources: Newsbytes)

"; while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($sql_result2)) { $news_id = $row["news_id"]; $title = $row["title"]; $url = $row["url"]; $image2 = $row["image2"]; $image_visible2 = $row["image_visible2"]; if(($colcounter=='1') && ($image_visible2=='Yes')) { echo " "; } if(($colcounter=='2') && ($image_visible2=='Yes')) { echo " "; } if(($colcounter=='3') && ($image_visible2=='Yes')) { echo " "; } $colcounter++; } echo " "; //Create the SQL statement $sql3 = "SELECT news_id, title, url, image2, image_visible2 from $NewsTable WHERE visible='$visible' AND publishing_time<'$nowtime' AND (description LIKE '%$keyword1%' OR description LIKE '%$keyword2%' OR description LIKE '%$keyword3%' OR description LIKE '%$keyword4%' OR description LIKE '%$keyword5%') AND image_visible2='$image_visible2_2' ORDER BY news_id DESC LIMIT 1,3"; //Execute the SQL statement $sql_result3 = mysql_query($sql3, $link) or die ("Couldn't execute query: " .mysql_error() ); $colcounter = '4'; while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($sql_result3)) { $news_id = $row["news_id"]; $title = $row["title"]; $url = $row["url"]; $image2 = $row["image2"]; $image_visible2 = $row["image_visible2"]; if(($colcounter=='4') && ($image_visible2=='Yes')) { echo " "; } if(($colcounter=='5') && ($image_visible2=='Yes')) { echo " "; } if(($colcounter=='6') && ($image_visible2=='Yes')) { echo " "; } $colcounter++; } echo "

$title	$title	$title

"; while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($sql_result)) { $news_id = $row["news_id"]; $title = $row["title"]; $url = $row["url"]; echo "
• $title
"; } echo "

"; //Close connection mysql_close($link); ?>

Related links:

• Microsoft