damn spyware... - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

ally_holden · 12-10-2004, 00:40

hi

my firewall decided to turn itself off for a few days recently, letting in a heap of spy ware and stuff like that

i think i've cleaned a bit up, using adaware 6 and noadware 3 (i had to delete things manually with regedit for noadware; the trial version doesn't let you delete) i'm also running notron anti-virus right now

but i have a big problem: i can't change the desktop, something is over the top of it. some ad for smart security or something, it links to some website (i'd post the link but i don't think it's safe?) it's black and says "warning your in danger" with a whole heap of stuff on files i might have, blah blah blah. i'd take a sscreen capture but i can't host it anywhere

anyway, has anyone had this before? how did you go about removing it? its really annoying

thanks in advance

svo347 · 12-10-2004, 00:44

post the link mate , im fully protected & ill see if i can give an idea on how to get rid of it.

derb · 12-10-2004, 00:44

funnily enough im sitting here at work at 645 while the xmas party rages on fixing this same crap on one dumbass employee's comp.

do a reboot and hit F8 while its booting and go into safe mode. that wont let anything run. try and find the crap while you in safe mode. also google for a program called 'spybot' and use that. kicks all the other progs asses. you can use it during safe mode but it may not detect it in safe mode. so try it in both.

good luck.

EBXR · 12-10-2004, 00:48

Found this through google - hope it helps...

Scoured the support forums and found the fix last night!
People are calling it the "Secure Yourself" Desktop Hijack.

Here's the link to fix it:
www.smart-security.info/removal.html

These are the guys that my hijacked desktop linked back to.
It seems, on the surface at least, that they're an anti-spware company that got in with some majorly dodgy advertisers and were forced to post the fix on their site. Can't be good for business.
Now my active desktop's restored to normal. Yay!!!
Spread the word if others encounter the same problem.

Casper · 12-10-2004, 00:49

I came across this one on a friends computer a while back. Cracked the shits and formatted it.

ally_holden · 12-10-2004, 00:51

ahhhh fixed, thank you EBXR!

lol casper, pity the fix is so simple, hindsight's a bitch huh

svo347 · 12-10-2004, 00:51

You could also try changing your homepage, go to tools internet options & change homepage to something like www.ninemsn.com.au

EBXR · 12-10-2004, 00:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by ally_holden

ahhhh fixed, thank you EBXR!

Glad it was of some help!

Ambrose_1 · 12-10-2004, 01:36

I would also suggest you get Spyware Blaster. Should help in the future in not getting spyware in the first place.

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

xdc351 · 12-10-2004, 01:47

As above, also of note is that ad-aware 6 is old software not worth using. You need to update to Ad-Aware SE Personal edition v1.05 if you want to get up-to-date spyware definitons.

Either that or upgrade to linux