'Spam man' wins gold, by Stephen Hutcheon and Jacquelin Maley - 16th February 2006
(Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald)

According to the International Olympic Committee's website, Australia's gold medallist Dale Begg-Smith, runs an internet pop-up advertising company that he describes as the third largest of its type.

But that's about as much detail as you'll get out of the Lamborghini-driving Canadian-turned-Australian moguls skier who is reluctant to talk about his dealings which remain shrouded in secrecy.

Speaking on Monday at a pre-race press conference, the 21-year-old said he had wound down his multimillion-dollar internet business to concentrate on his Olympic ambitions.

He refused to reveal the name of his business, nor details of its operations or size. He did say it had "two or three" employees and that it wasn't really an issue with skiing because it had been wound down.

"I haven't spent much time on it, I've let it taper off during the ski season," Begg-Smith said when pressed about his work. "There's not much to say. We design technology and stuff like that, some advertising stuff, too."

But the companies that he and brother Jason Begg-Smith are involved with are some of the most annoying aspects of the web.

Two main companies - called AdsCPM and CPM Media - make money by skimming a small percentage each time an ad scores a hit or is directed to a client's site.

Begg-Smith said the figures being bandied about his business - one report had him earning $40 million - were untrue.

At his post-race press conference overnight, Begg-Smith became irritated when more questions were asked about his business. According to Canadian press reports he said: "I don't know why we're talking about the company. I just won Olympic gold."

Begg-Smith reiterated that his business was set up to help fund his skiing career and that he was now concentrating on his sport.

According to the Canadian Press news agency, Begg-Smith said "his business had never dealt with any specific kind of advertising, only the technology to track how often the ads were being seen. It was up to his customers to decide what kind of ads they wanted to use, he said."

Web searches reveal that AdsCPM Network has been a supplier of pop-under and -up advertising to websites.

Although they are a source of annoyance to web surfers, pop ads are used by many mainstream websites and are perfectly above board.

But there is a dark side to the pop ad business.

Hidden programs that launch these ads are sometimes secreted - by third parties - in many website with "honeypot" offerings, such as pornography, free games, downloads and gambling.

Unsuspecting web surfers visiting these sites can unwittingly become infected with so-called adware which spawns annoying advertisement and which can be used to secretly track a user's web surfing habits.

Numerous computer security companies have warnings about AdsCPM and CPM Media which are held responsible for the Xzoomy.com search engine directory page and a site called FreeScratchandWin.com

According to the Spyware Guide website, FreeScratchandWin.com opens pop ads "every few minutes", hijacks users' home- and search-page settings and can spy on users' web usage.

Another CPM website, 2nd-thought.com, initiates a so-called browser hijacker program that resets the user's home page and often redirect searches to porn sites.

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