Posted on 06/25/2005 12:58:59 AM PDT by goldstategop
ALBANY, N.Y. - Unwanted software slithered into Patti McMann's home computer over the Internet and unleashed an annoying barrage of pop-up ads that sometimes flashed on her screen faster than she could close them.
Annoying, for sure. But the last straw came a year ago when the pop-ups began plugging such household names as J.C. Penney Co. and Capital One Financial Corp., companies McMann expected to know better.
Didn't they realize that trying to reach people through spyware and its ad-delivering subset, called adware, would only alienate them?
"It irritated the heck out of me," said McMann, a 45-year-old former corporate executive from Klamath Falls, Ore. "It took a week to take off every little piece of crap that was put on my computer. Every time I rebooted, it started to come up again."
Pop-up ads carried by spyware and adware aren't just employed by fringe companies hawking dubious wares — such as those tricky messages that tell you your computer has been corrupted.
You can count some big tech companies among its users, including broadband phone provider Vonage Holdings Corp., online employment agency Monster Worldwide Inc. and online travel agencies Expedia Inc., Priceline.com Inc. and Orbitz LLC.
These companies acknowledge they've used adware to reach potential customers, though they say they shun any programs that monitor online surfing or extract personal information.
Even Fortune 500 companies have turned to adware: Sprint Corp. for its PCS mobile phones, major banks peddling Visa credit cards, Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news). and retailers including Circuit City Stores Inc. And Mercedes-Benz USA had its cars flashing on consumer's computer screens before the company, fielding complaints, put on the brakes.
Repeated requests to Capital One about its use of adware pop-ups weren't returned. J.C. Penney spokesman Quinton Crenshaw said Friday the retailer stopped using adware less than a year ago and never used spyware, but does use "cookie-base advertising."
Spyware and adware often land on computers without their owners' full knowledge, hitching a ride during visits to porn and gambling sites or in downloads of free games and screensavers. Often, the payload arrives with downloads of cartoon-character wares aimed at children.
Infected computer users can get barraged with pop-up ads and find the unwanted programs difficult to remove.
So far, law enforcement has mostly targeted the transmitters. Intermix Media Inc. has agreed to pay $7.5 million in a tentative settlement of a lawsuit by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.
But Spitzer isn't stopping there. He is threatening to hold accountable household-name advertisers that use adware networks. No longer, says Spitzer, can companies play dumb.
That's making many advertisers nervous, though they insist they work with subcontractors and often don't know about any adware use until they get a complaint.
"There's plausible deniability at each tier," said Chris King, product marketing manager at anti-spyware vendor Blue Coat Systems Inc.
Big-time online advertising is built on layers: A big advertiser, such as a Fortune 500 company, directs an agency to handle a campaign. The agency then farms that message out to specialists in various media, which can include spyware and adware purveyors.
"We do everything we can to make sure our partners adhere to our standards," said Jeffrey Citron, Vonage's chief executive.
Yet a pop-up ad for Vonage appeared in a screen shot that Spitzer used in his case against Intermix. Citron said he was unaware of the ad and promised to look into it, as he said the company does with similar complaints.
Mercedes-Benz says its ad was carried to hard drives last year by an agency it has since fired, while computer maker Dell USA has fired "a handful" of affiliates for carrying Dell's coupons and ads over adware.
"This is not a practice we condone," said Dell spokeswoman Jennifer Davis.
Dave Methvin, chief technology officer with tech diagnostic site PC Pitstop, said problems are no surprise given the many layers involved, but big advertisers have the clout to stop them.
"If you're going to be a good corporate citizen, part of your responsibility is to make sure that kind of thing doesn't happen rather than to say it's three levels down," Methvin said. "If a big company advertising on the Internet makes all of its suppliers down the chain sign a statement (and agree to penalties for breaking the rules), quickly the problem would go away."
It's not just big advertisers who have ties to spyware and adware.
Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) made a deal with adware company Claria Corp., formerly known as Gator Corp., to provide search listings for its SearchScout toolbar. The popular search engines Ask Jeeves and Google also benefit from adware, says Internet researcher Benjamin Edelman.
He says an Ask Jeeves toolbar generates ads without users' full consent, while Google's search listings appear in queries made through a questionable third-party toolbar. Ask Jeeves and Google officials dispute Edelman's account and say they don't use any spyware or adware. Company policy bans the use of adware by Google, said spokesman Barry Schnitt.
Several states have adopted anti-spyware bills, and the U.S. House approved two in May that carry jail sentences of up to five years in prison. The bills, which don't target advertisers, are now before the Senate, where similar legislation died last year.
While Spitzer and some lawmakers in Alaska, Pennsylvania and Utah say advertisers should also be held accountable, not everyone agrees.
"So many people have such antipathy toward adware and spyware vendors that it blinds them to the underlying legal principles," said Eric Goldman, a cyber law professor at Marquette University.
He said any liability would be unprecedented and would be akin to holding an advertiser responsible for libel by the newspaper in which the ad appears.
Some advertisers defend the practice.
"It is just a marketing tool that we use," said Expedia spokesman David Dennis.
Expedia, like many other adware users, insists it has rigorous standards and checks to make sure customers want their ads and can easily remove the software if they don't. Dennis said the company works closely with its ad agencies to make sure.
Melinda Tiemeyer, spokeswoman for Sprint PCS, said Internet users have clicked on ads delivered by adware, meaning they find them useful. Sprint is OK with using adware because users, she said, accept it in exchange for phone service offers and discounts.
But other advertisers including Netflix Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. have changed their attitudes.
"I think it was more of a realization that this was becoming more of a concern in consumers' eyes and there was a growing level of frustration," said John Bonomo of Verizon, which discontinued adware last July. Still, "it was effective," he said.
"Clearly folks are uncomfortable about it," Edelman said. "Everyone knows that everyone hates pop-ups ... eventually companies just got embarrassed, especially when they get on your computer through this kind of trickery."
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
"There's plausible deniability at each tier," said Chris King, product marketing manager at anti-spyware vendor Blue Coat Systems Inc.
But watch these yawning, lugubrious corporations pop a legal cork with extreme promptness if somebody tries to profit unfairly off of their names.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Duh...
Song lyric sites are the worst I've run into, worse than porn.
Go only with a firewall (and deny requested permissions) and layers of spyware killers.
Yes, there are that many stupid people in the world...
I am not suprised that Vonage would use spyware or spam to advertise. Vonage's TV advertising is specifically and shamelessly targeting stupid people.
"Song lyric sites are the worst I've run into, worse than porn.
Go only with a firewall (and deny requested permissions) and layers of spyware killers."
What is the best ware killer our there?
Here is something that happened to me. I got some crap on my computer one time and it reset my homepage and anytime I typed in a URL to go to, it would pop up with some site called slatch or something. It was a search engine type site and it would ask the question in a clickable link, "did you mean www.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.com?" the xxxxx's were what ever I typed in. So I would HAVE to click the link to go anywhere at all. It was horrible.
I was so mad that I almost threw my computer, well my monitor, out of the window. Amazingly(/sarcasm), a link showed up a few hours later saying that spykiller could help out. I downloaded the trial and it found the problem. But I had to pay to have it removed. So I paid. I can only think that spykiller is installing this crap just so you buy there product. BTW, I used ad-aware and other programs and they could not fix it.
The fact that no other program I tried that day would take the crap off my computer added to the fact that this search page had a link advertising spykiller leads me to my conclusion that spykiller (or an affiliate) is maliciously installing this stuff to make sales of their software.
Has anyone had this type of problem?
So back to my original question. What is the best spyware removal program? Do you run combinations of programs?
In conclusion, if I was to ever run into one of these people that create/install/propagate the malicious spyware/malware, I will put them in the hospital! No sarcasm intended!
Thanks for reading my Rant
I have to spend time every day cleaning this stuff of of client's computers.
There are an enormous number of utterly bogus 'spyware remover' utilities available on the web. If you got one that said, 'I found the problem, give me money and I'll remove it', you got taken. It will remove some and put some more on. All of the real malware removers that are not scams will at least give you a trial period. Some of them you can pay for later, to extend the amount of time that they permit updates.
There are some good utilities out there. Go to
http://spywarewarrior.com/sww-help.htm for a list of good ones that you can download. Additionaly, Spywarewarrior.com maintains a list of bogus or ineffective utilities.
Removing malware is like weeding the garden- you probably will never really get it all out, unless you really go after it. Also, some of the files that you remove will immediately regenerate themselves. These can be tough to defeat. Fortunately, you will probably be able to get your computer back under control and usable again with what you can get from the above link. You will need to use several programs to get best results- none of the good ones remove everything.
Microsoft Antispyware Beta
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
Adaware
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
Spybot Search and Destroy
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
Try these for starters. After installation, remember to update each them.
I run Firefox, WebWasher, Ad-Aware, Ad-Watch, Adblock, Flashblock and NoScript. Let 'em try to get commercial bandwidth wastage through.
I use Ad-Aware SE and SpywareBlaster, both free. I get no pop-ups at all except at a few random sites...nothing that floods my booting or usual surfing.
I don't know what they do, natch, except what they describe. Ad-Aware you already have, so you know what that does. It is kind of like weeding the garden.
SpywareBlaster does not stop the malware or adware, but it prevents the junk from working by placing protection on all files so that the malware can't communicate. (Hey, like I'm supposed to know how this works? :-) )
I have, besides these two, AVG virus protection, also free, which has blocked a lot, and the few viruses that did get through, it pinpointed them for quick location and removal, or ID'd them sufficient to go to the web for removal suggestions.
SpywareBlaster, which does nothing you can see, only has to be updated now and then. I believe this appy is the one that has just about eliminated my pop-up problems.
There is also a msn (Microsoft Network) function in the IE browser on which many pop-ups piggyback. I can't remember what I went into and clicked (or unclicked), but that also stopped a lot of the junk. (This was a couple of years ago. Google should be able to come up with this.)
Lyric sites are really bad. I am a gigging musician, and beleve me, my pc needs an enema after I update my lyrics book.
Y'all need to try Firefox. Every now and then I get a new-window popunder, and that's about it.
Also, I find it's generally better to not use the first few sites Google offers up, but to use a site that's towards the bottom half of the search page. The guys at the top are paying Google to be there, and tend to have more agressive "stuff" on their pages.
1) Firefox browser
2) Thunderbird Email app
3) ZoneAlarm Pro firewall (and a hardware DSL switch)
4) MS Antispyware
I have no problems whatsoever. Zero.
We got hit with the Aurora.exe virus - popups galore, and I don't even use IE!!! Tried Hijackthis, adaware, msft anti-spyware, etc. I never did squash this stuff completely until I totally crapped out the system byy deleting some needed dll file, and then i couldn't get the computer out of safe mode. !$#@%!!.
At the end of the day, I wasted many hours with it and wound up re-installing the operating system.
Lessons learned?
1) keep important data on removable media (usb h/d)
2) keep the kids off of cartoon sites (gosh, why are they putting this stuff up for free?)
3) keep software cd's handy. Keep registrations handy.
4) Shock me! microsoft anti-spyware seems to me to be the best at catching attempts to hijack browsers. Great program.
%) Shock me #2: I am on the same side as elliot spitzer in this.
The amount of productivity devoted to getting rid of and protecting from this stuff must be staggering. Sadly, I doubt there ever will be a solution via legislation/lawsuits. Too much can float in to my house from overseas. I'd expect the same in telemarketing as telecom costs come down.
Of course these corporations could make the argument that in light of the latest Supreme Court ruling that they can use your PC processing power more efficiently than you, and return more to the coffers of the local government than you can. The government would then make it illegal to remove spyware from your computer.
See what a can of worms the Supremes opened up?
What in your wallet PC?
Has anyone had this type of problem?
So back to my original question. What is the best spyware removal program? Do you run combinations of programs?
One of the problems you might have been having could have been that your anti-spyware software WAS fixing the problems, but Windows was reinstalling them! WinXP and WinME both have a feature called "System Restore" which allows you to easily recover from either stupidity or a botched software or driver installation. Windows will check to see if certain "important" files or registry settings have been deleted or monkeyed with, and will restore them in need be. Well, spyware writers have used that to get around a lot of the anti-spyware software. So, before running either a virus scan or spyware scan, you should always disable "System Restore." You may also want to bring up the computer in "Safe Mode" to run the scans as well. This ensures that most (but not all... I've seen a few nasty programs that will still start up, even in safe mode!) of the spyware WILL NOT be running, making it easier to clean.
Personally, I use Spybot S & D, Adaware Personal, Spyware Guard, Spyware Blaster, and Microsoft's anti-spyware program.
Mark
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