Frequently Asked Questions

What is the My Little Mole™ Toolbar?

The My Little Mole™ Toolbar is a free security alert and search tool that works with your browser. As you surf the internet, it quietly watches for known fraudulent websites and spoof sites. If you receive one of those look-alike PayPal, eBay, or Banking emails from a scammer trying to trick you into going to their website, you will be alerted by My Little Mole that the site is not the real PayPal, eBay or other website. It will also alert you if a website requests sensitive information on an non secure page, and alert you if you go to a website that is known to be a fraud site. Even the smartest Internet surfer can be fooled by a serious looking email claiming there is a problem with your account and giving a link. Let My Little Mole protect you from clicking through to those dangerous websites. My Little Mole works without interrupting your normal web browsing. The alert message only pops up on suspect sites. The toolbar does not block any websites, it only gives information about them. The toolbar also has built in search features for Google, eBay, and Amazon plus secure links to PayPal and other sites. You can quickly and easily search using Google, eBay, or Amazon without having to go to their website first.

With the My Little Mole Toolbar you can:
• Surf safely without worrying about spoof websites.
• Search eBay, Google, and Amazon quickly and easily.
• Receive alerts if a non secure website asks for personal information.
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How do I install the My Little Mole Toolbar?

To install the latest version of the My Little Mole toolbar, please go to the Download Page and follow the instructions. The My Little Mole toolbar is compatible with Internet Explorer 5 or higher on Windows machines. The FireFox version will also work with FireFox on Windows. If you're using a Mac, or Red Hat Linux, download the FireFox toolbar. The toolbar will not work with other browsers such as Netscape, Safari or Opera.

How do I un-install the My Little Mole Toolbar?

If you want to keep the protection features but not see the search boxes, simply right click on the tool bar and uncheck the My Little Mole toolbar. It will then no longer appear in your toolbar but will pop up when a dangerous website is detected.
If you want to completely uninstall, that is easy. The My Little Mole Toolbar can be uninstalled using your Windows computer’s Add/Remove Programs feature. Open your Windows Start menu, go to Settings, click on Control Panel, and then double click on Add/Remove Programs. Click on My Little Mole and then click the remove button. Make sure you have closed all of your browser windows. If a browser window is in use, then you may receive an error message. The next time you open a new browser window, the toolbar should be gone.

How much does the My Little Mole toolbar cost to install and/or use?

The My Little Mole Toolbar is free to install and use.

How do I update My Little Mole ?

The toolbar will automatically update with new lists of dangerous websites. You do not have to do anything. If the little mole icon turns red and says UP-DATE it means a new version of the toolbar has been released and you should go to the website to update your version. Just click the red icon and it will take you to the correct page where there will be instructions.

My site is legitimate but the order page causes a pop up ?

Contact us with your url and we will take a look. If you are taking orders on a non https site, you will need to obtain an SSL certificate. Any site accepting sensitive information over a non SSL connection will be blacklisted.

I see a message when site ______.com loads but I know it is legitimate!

The My Little Mole toolbar blocks not only specific websites but it uses a number of other criteria to analyze a website. Sometimes it can give a false positive. If you visit a site often and it causes pop ups, simply check the checkbox in the popup and then click Continue. The website will be added to your local white list and it will never alert again on that website. If you do see an alert message on a legitimate website, please let us know. We want to improve our check routines and catch only bad websites. You can report false positives on the Report page.

Does My Little Mole contain spy-ware ?

NO! You can verify on our Awards page where a number of independent websites have tested and verified our software as clean. We despise spyware and have many spyware sites in our blacklist. The only internet communication our toolbar does is the occasional update of the bad site list which takes information FROM our server. The toolbar does not SEND any information to our server or any other server. If you click the 'more information' link in an alert window, it will open a new browser window with additional information but the toolbar never sends us any information about you, your browsing habits, or anything else. We respect your privacy.

Do you sell advertising in the My Little Mole Toolbar?

We do sell advertising for the My Little Mole Toolbar. We do NOT use an ad server. The ads are hard coded and only appear when there is an alert message. There is no serving of ads, no pop-ups, and no exchange of information with any other server.

Can I hide the My Little Mole Toolbar?

Yes, click on View at the top of your browser window, go to Toolbars, and click on My Little Mole to hide it. To show the Toolbar again, just go back and click My Little Mole to open it again. When you hide the Toolbar, all new browser windows will have the Toolbar hidden as well.

Does the My Little Mole Toolbar or site cause pop-up ads to appear on my screen?

No, absolutely not. We think pop-up ads are a criminal act. Any website that runs a program on your computer for their own benefit, without your permission is criminal and in violation of the My Little Mole Rules Of The Internet. We will add sites that use this type of advertising to our blacklist to alert visitors about the site so they know not to download anything and not to do business with such a crooked site. Sites that use pop-up ads are dishonest, just like spammers.

Where do pop-ups come from?

A site you visited previously, or in another browser window, may have launched a "pop-under" ad which appeared behind your open windows and only later became visible.

Some free programs (not My Little Mole!) secretly install hidden ad serving programs when you download their product. These ad serving programs often cause pop-up ads so that it looks like they're coming from websites that don't actually serve ads. You may want to periodically go through the programs installed on your computer and remove the programs you do not recognize (Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs). You should also use anti-virus software and anti-spyware software which will remove these programs. Be careful! Some sites claiming to offer anti-spyware or anti-adware programs are actually fraudulent and will install ad-ware or spy-ware on your computer.

Cookie Alert

Many websites have exaggerated the danger of cookies. These are small files that your browser uses to keep track of and save information about websites you visit. If you are using software like Zone Alarm or another program that scans for Spyware, you need to make a change to the default settings. These programs are sometimes too aggressive when it comes to scanning for spyware and they will also remove important browser cookies. Websites use cookies to store information like user preferences and these cookies can be important to the operation of many websites. If your protection software is deleting these cookies or blocking them, then you may be losing important information when you return to websites. Simply disable the cookie check feature for your protection software.

If you are using Zone Alarm, here are the instructions: Double click the ZA icon in your taskbar, then click antivirus/spyware, then click advanced options, then spyware management, detection, and uncheck Scan for tracking cookies. This option limits the usability of some websites which need to use cookies to store preferences you have selected. You can now close the window. The procedure will be similar for most programs like Mcafee and Symantec's software.

What is a Spoof Site ?

Scammers setup websites that look like real sites but are actually fake sites. A scammer may setup a website that looks just like eBay or PayPal and then send fake emails to thousands of people trying to trick them into going to the fake site. These emails often contain threatening language such as "Your account is suspended" or "Contact me or I'll report you to eBay" or "Your information needs to be updated immediately" These fake emails are designed to make the recipient panic and click a link in the email without thinking. That link goes to the fake or spoof website. Those that fall for the email scam will go to the site and enter their password. Now the scammer has the persons password and can steal their money from their PayPal account or post fake auctions for expensive items on eBay. MyLittleMole watches for these fake websites and warns the user if they go to such a site.

Does IE7 have anti phishing features built in? It claims to but they can be slow to update their site list plus they only warn about certain phishing sites. Some phishing sites stay up for weeks without any alerts from IE7 and without being taken down by the hosting compay. MLM alerts on sites when they first appear, we do not have to rely on someone reporting the site and someone else verifying it. MLM instantly alerts you for almost any look-alike eBay, PayPal, banking, or many other spoof sites. MLM also warns about hundreds of thousands of other suspect and outright fraudulent sites that Internet Explorer does not.

My Website is Blacklisted, can you un-Blacklist it?

It depends on the offence. Spammers who direct people to fraudulent sites and dishonest companies will never be removed. If your website has used browser hijacking and you have since removed all hijacking code and will never use it again on any website, we may consider removing the blacklist entry for your site. If you were using telemarketers or mild-spamming(one or two messages from a dishonest email marketer) and you now realize what a mistake that was and agree spam and telemarketing and even mild-spamming is dishonest, then follow the below instructions.

Do you want to go straight, become an honest website, and be removed from our blacklist? Post an apology to your website with a clear and conspicuous link on the main page of your website that links to the apology page and that apology page must link to the MLM Rules of the Internet. This link must stay up for 30 days. In this statement, state publicly that you are against spam, telemarketing, and the offence you committed and will revise your practices to correspond with the My Little Mole Rules Of The Internet requirements. This can be a positively worded statement showing your commitment to customers. If you spammed your customers, send a final email with NO sales information notifying the customer that their email will be removed automatically and they will receive no more offers. You can include legitimate opt-in instructions for those who want to continue receiving offers. If they want to continue receiving emails they can click a confirmation link or respond with the word 'Subscribe" in the body or subject.
This must be repeated at least once every two years and preferably once a year.

We will gladly check your site status and let you know if it is actually blacklisted or if there is a false positive occuring on your site. If your site is showing a false positive we can make adjustments to fix the error message. If your site is offering questionable items or your have a non SSL order page, then there is nothing we can do for you.

If your site is in in fact in violation of the MLMROTI then no, we will not remove the blacklist notice. If you want to come clean(as previously described) then you will need to follow those instructions after confirming with us that you qualify. We do charge a fee for site analysis. This is a non-refundable fee. If we find a problem during the analysis, we will let you know and give you an opportunity to correct it. If we find that your website is still in violation of MLMROTI after 10 days or any other time we assess as appropriate, your blacklist status will not be removed. If your site later violates MLMROTI after we have approved it, then your Blacklist status will be re-instated and you will have to pay another fee for another re-analysis. We suggest you become familiar with honest business practices before requesting an evaluation. The amount of the fee depends on the level of the violation. A small website that made the mistake of hiring a spammer advertising service once would pay much less than a spammer who has sent emails to one of our reserved addresses every week for a year. Any site that is found to be a repeat offender or that we consider to be beyond rehabilitation will be permanently blacklisted.

We are under no obligation to remove anyone from the Blacklist even if they complete the above procedure. Some offences will result in permanent blacklisting.

Where is the Drop Down?

Why does your toolbar not have a history drop down like the Google toolbar? Simple, it a matter of Privacy. The Google toolbar shows your last searches even if they were not typed into the bar but into the Google website. This is a privacy issue. Anyone can see your last searches if you do not clear the history every time. You can clear the Google toolbar but you have to remember to clear it. Our toolbar maintains your privacy by not storing a history of searches. Also, very few people use the history feature so it is not really needed.

Doesn't Internet Explorer(or my Anti-Virus) have Phishing Protection ?

No, actually it does not. Internet Explorer does include something they call Phishing protection, but it only warns about a website after thousands of people have visited the site and been scammed. MLM warns you on the first visit and does not depend on anyone reporting the site. Also, your anti-virus software and Internet Explorer only alert on a hand full of phishing sites. Many phishing sites will stay up for days and even weeks as they continue to scam people. Anti-Virus and IE also do not warn you about dishonest websites or fraudulent spam sites. MLM warns you about those.

I dont like a comment about my website in the ratings page. Can you remove it ?

No, it is very unlikely we will remove any posting. These are anonymous ratings and anyone can post their comments. You can also post your own rebuttal or comment about your own site. We would only consider possibly removing, at our discretion, any comments if

we receive a court order saying the comment should be removed
the comment contains profanity
the comment contains a url
the comment is not related to the website rating
the comment contains personally identifiable information such as an email address, phone number, or street address.
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