My home page has been unwillingly changed by these sleaze-balls:
http:/any-find dot com/index.htm
I thought I kept current as far as spyware or malware was concerned and I run Spybot regularly. Well, I ran Spybot but the next day that same page was my homepage. And yes, I manually changed my homepage to what it should be but it is no use. This has been the case for the last couple of days. So, maybe this is a new form of “sleaze-ware”. I imagine it has changed the H Key registry and who knows what else. I would appreciate any help in getting rid of the “scum-ware”.
Just a quick mention that when I clicked their “contact us” tab, a new screen came up as if it were written by someone pretending to do you a favor. He states “if your computer has been infected by the software that changes you homepage, go to this site, download this, etc…” I found that very suspect considering that very page is still in the any-find.com domain
Have you tried Ad-Aware? I had a similar problem recently that Spybot wasn’t touching, but when I ran Ad-Aware it nailed it, along with a half-dozen other nasties that had been coasting under the spybot. Worth a try mabe?
Don’t run just Spybot. It picks up some stuff, but not everything. As belladonna suggests, you also want to run Ad-Aware, which has probably an 80% overlap with Spybot, but finds things Spybot doesn’t (and vice versa).
In addition to those, you also want to run SpywareBlaster, which sets a kill bit for known ActiveX controls used to modify your machine (thus preventing them from even running), and HijackThis, which lets you manage mods to your browser.
You can find these apps and many more at SpyChecker.
(There should be a master spyware decontamination thread pinned to the top of the forum, we get these questions so often…)
Thanks BellaDonna and Cervaise
That seems to be a good idea about posting a decontamination thread. (No doubt it would have to be periodically updated).
Unbelievable - computer users have to run anti-virus programs, firewalls, spyware, adware - this crap “sleaze-ware” is never going to end is it?
Heard on radio there’s at least one malware/spyware company that infects your machine with a program which repeatedly changes the homepage and annoys you with a persistent popup ad selling a cure for programs which change homepages and dause persistent popup ads! What balls they have.
Congress is working on a law to deal with such things.
Mr Duality
That seems to have hit the proverbial nail on the head. As I said, it does seem very suspicious that the site offering “help” to rid you of that “awful” program is using the same domain name as the damned program that caused the problem to begin with !!
I hope Congress does clamp down on those miscreants.
I wish Congress would also get serious about stopping spam too.
I know it’s only a workaround really, but I think the best solution is to not use IE. I only use it in the very rare instances that a page won’t load properly in Mozilla Firefox, which is waaaayy better for my surfing style anyway. Once you go Mo, you’ll never go back.
The great thing about Mozilla and Mo Firefox is that you can open new tabs in the background by clicking with your mouse wheel, which is fantastic for surfing the SDMB: “I’ll take this, and this, and this, and this thread…” all while not covering over the page of the forum with the thread links.
There are also mouse gestures you can install from http://www.mozilla.org/start/1.4/addons.html This lets you go forward and back in your browser window by clicking right-left and left-right. I lurrrve it.
You might also try downloading and installing Xteq. Admittedly, this is a bit of overkill when it comes to spyware (not that overkill is a bad thing, IMHO), as it’s primarily designed to allow one to tweak their system, however several of the functions in there do enable one to easily undo changes spyware makes to their system, and adjust your system settings to make it more difficult for spyware to operate. As a bonus, it allows you to do things like speed up your machine’s boot/shutdown time and it allows you to easily change the “Welcome” screen which shows up whenever you start your machine.
A group is working on a lawsuit, and possibly racketeering charges (their behavior may actually be extortion.) They’re collecting user stories as informal evidence.
Post your complaint at:
Center for Dem and Tech: spyware complaint form
Or even submit a complaint against the spyware company to the FTC:
