14 DAY TRIAL // It’s well known that torrent websites are designed to serve all sorts of dubious applications. A perfect example is the popular French torrent portal Torrent Francais, which experts say is knowingly trying to trick users into installing potentially unwanted applications (PUAs).
According to Webroot, the portal uses deceptive social engineering practices to convince internauts to download and install a so-called WebPlayer plugin. It's clear that the website's operators push this rogue app on purpose because it's stored in a directory called "fakeplayer."
Those who install the application end up with a PUA detected as NSIS:Adware-KQ [PUP] or Adware.Downware.1265.
After it finds itself on a device, the program starts communicating with a remote server from which it downloads other shady software.
Potentially unwanted applications are not necessarily malicious. However, in most cases, they make all sorts of changes to the web browser’s configuration, and serve advertisements that lead to rogue websites.
Users are advised to avoid installing untrusted applications. Most antiviruses are designed to block the installation of PUAs, so make sure a protection solution is running on your computer.