Sounds like it, but this is actually a browser function. It's done via web page scripts. Off the top of my head, there are three options here.
First, the status bar can be turned off. While this does remove the scrolling seen from web pages using this functionality, it does turn off the status bar period.
Second, scripting support can be disabled in the browser settings. The scripts that allow using the status bar in this fashion won't run, but all scripts won't run which may hinder the user experience when browsing the web.
Last, Windows Internet Explorer 7 introduced a separate browser setting that can disable the window.status and window.defaultStatus methods of setting the status bar text. This setting is on by default for the Internet and Restricted Sites zones. It might help here.
Those are the three things I have - maybe others have some ideas, too.
HTH,
Aaron