WARNING: Fake Anti-Spyware, Pop-ups

[Bizkitkid2001]

Originally Posted by wju425

What's a pop-up?

My Adshield must be working pretty good.

\o/ Billy

I thought the same, until I got one that was java script that mozilla pop-up blocker couldn't even stop. IDK how protective Adshield is with java though.

[Hungrycookpot]

i have a simple rule of thumb, dont click links that open in pop up windows, and dont click links that are hypocrital, and especially dont click one thats both. a pop up window that advertises getting rid of pop-up windows? yeah they must be legit....

[nomaxim]

From PCWorld;

3. Anti-Spy vs. Spy?
The Buzz: First there was spyware--utilities that surreptitiously track your online activities, gathering data about you and passing it on to advertisers. To fight back, privacy advocates came up with spyware removers that eradicate the pesky buggers. Most recently, users are being plagued by an infestation of bogus anti-spyware apps, which claim to remove spyware but in reality embed the nasty stuff in your computer. Links to these programs show up on download sites or in pop-up ads (a clue to their reliability). Unsuspecting users are suckered by dire warnings that their system could be attacked by spyware. Turns out, the danger is real: Click the Download button, and you can kiss your privacy good-bye.

How do u get rid of them if installed accidently ?

I'd try Ad-Aware, it is updated every couple of days. Since I've only been seeing these on the public computers at work, and haven't clicked on a d/l button yet, I don't know what these pop-ups do.

Maybe someone will volunteer.

EDIT:

What's a pop-up?

Know what you mean! I don't get pop-ups at home either.

[JayMan]

heh A mate from my work recently got a new PC... I told him to make sure he gets a antivirus program (gave him AVG as a free example) and also to get ad-aware & spybot...

He obviously didn't pay attention to what i told him and instead got "noadware" instead of ad-aware... I'll let everyone guess what happen next lol

JayMan

[ted61]

I have a 5 year old that clicks ok to everything that pops up. Needless to say, I was totally dominated by popups. Nothing worked in my quest to get rid of the popups. Some of the infected programs installed on my machine would not let me have access to delete them. I had to put the win2k install disk in then boot to pseudo dos to delete the corrupt files. That seems like a major security flaw to me btw.

I wound up installing windows on an f: drive for boot up. That solved my problem but my paths for running a few programs is a little off at times.

[radio1_mike]

Originally Posted by ted61

I have a 5 year old that clicks ok to everything that pops up. Needless to say, I was totally dominated by popups. Nothing worked in my quest to get rid of the popups. Some of the infected programs installed on my machine would not let me have access to delete them. I had to put the win2k install disk in then boot to pseudo dos to delete the corrupt files. That seems like a major security flaw to me btw.

I wound up installing windows on an f: drive for boot up. That solved my problem but my paths for running a few programs is a little off at times.

You can install (it's free) the Google Toolbar which blocks pop-ups. Also try (it's free) Ashampoo's Optimizer Suite. It has a very good pop-up blocker and IP spam blocker.

[radio1_mike]

Yah, I just ran into one of those type programs a couple of days ago.

It had an online 'check-up' that you needed to install an app for. After a little bit of searching, it is recognized as spyware...

[stratocaster27]

my google toolbar works pretty good only let a few through, 86 blocked the whole time its been installed (installed about 4 days ago) and i dont have to type google.com out every day

[ryanredbaron]

does add aware actually help with spyware?

[stratocaster27]

ad aware is the best in my opinion, as long as u update it it helps a lot. especially the new version