Picked this effen PITA today....it landed on my toolbar and pops up a fake "Your computer is infected" etc. box that I cannot dump. It pops up every few minutes and before I wreck my keyboard and grind my teeth to a nub, I'm wondering if there is something I can download or do about it? From what I read, I'm not alone with this thing.

I need something in English so I can kill the thing. My skills are nothing to write home about as you know. Is there something I can do about it? Bear in mind that I don't know much about this stuff and anything close to computerese will be Greek to me.

Charlie

Charlie, you gotta stop reading the Daily KOS. ;D

JUST kidding! ;) :-*

KOS?

Charlie

this place Charlie: START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE

Thanks Mel. It was "news" to me  :o

I don't look around blogs all that much or even news sites every day. I read the Times on line of course.... 8-)

Charlie

Charlie, there are some really freaky blogs out there!  I find them interesting though.  Always neat to see through the eyes of another, but I gotta watch just how much I read of it though.  Don't wanna become off balance, know what I mean?

:)

Oh, I've seen some beauties too. When I first got on line I looked around to see how much I might make on all my German war collectibles. Looking into that brought me to a lot of Nazi, Klan and conspriacy lunatics. That I'm familiar with so many of them made it kinda fun.....but..... Whew. I "learned" a lot. What zoo! Some of the militia types and white supremacists that I know look like a Boy Scout camp meeting compared to the net. Stunning. Fun though.

Transvestite Taxidermist sites go only so far though.... 8-)

Charlie

If you are running XP, and system restore has been enabled you probably can restore your pc to a previous state that works in a few easy steps and only as few minutes of time.

Start -> Help and Support ->Pick a Task -> Something about restoring your computer to a previous state.

Anyday but today should work just fine :)

I picked some "AV2008" thing last week that sounds like what you may have.  I ran a sweep with Spysweeper and it picked up the offending program and removed it.

Charlie wrote on Oct 16^th, 2008 at 10:59pm:

Transvestite Taxidermist sites go only so far though.... 8-) Charlie

REally?  I thought there'd be more of them.  :-/

Charlie wrote on Oct 16^th, 2008 at 10:59pm:

Transvestite Taxidermist sites go only so far though.... 8-)

OK, this belongs on another board, but you guys started it...

A taxidermist from Canada is travelling through rural Arkansas when he decides to stop in a local bar for a beer.  The locals are very suspicious of outsiders, and one of them finally approaches the stranger.

"Hey, you ain't from around here, are ya?"

"No, I'm from Canada", the taxidermist replies.

"Canada?  So, whaddaya do down there in Canada?"

"I'm a taxidermist."

"A taxi-dermist?  What's a taxi-dermist?"

"We mount animals."

The local turns to his friends and announces, "It's OK fellers!  He's one of us!"

:D

superhawk2300 wrote on Oct 17^th, 2008 at 12:04am:

If you are running XP, and system restore has been enabled you probably can restore your pc to a previous state that works in a few easy steps and only as few minutes of time. Start -> Help and Support ->Pick a Task -> Something about restoring your computer to a previous state. Anyday but today should work just fine :)

I reset to: October 12, 2008 on my puter but it's still there. It's only been here since the 15th.

RATS!

Charlie....... Thanks though but I need to try something else.

Bob P wrote on Oct 17^th, 2008 at 7:19am:

I picked some "AV2008" thing last week that sounds like what you may have.  I ran a sweep with Spysweeper and it picked up the offending program and removed it.

Thanks Bob.

It is driving me nuts. I rescind my opposition to the death penalty for the creators of this thing. >:(

I can't afford to buy anything Bob. I tried some free stuff like Spybot and the like but from my searches, this thing is something out of my league. Here is one search about the thing. Let me know what you or anyone thinks.

START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE

Help, anyone!

Charlie, that link you posted is bullshit....scan and then want you to pay.

I downloaded it to check and then deleted it.

Lemme look around.  :-*

I saw that it was probably what you say I guess.

Damn. This thing is old enough that someone must have found a fairly easy way to deal with it.

I'm hoping to not have to call in one of my geek friends, one of whom I like pay a little for his help.

Thanks, Jonny

did you try spyware blaster?  It's free and what I use...

START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE

Ad-aware?

Its free.

START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE

or this

START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE

I also was having numerous problems with my Browser. I always had been loyal to Internet Explorer, but I read here recently that it has been giving people fits and I was one of those. So I decided to try Mozilla Firefox and guess what....... No more problems!

Patrick_A

I've tried adaware just now but something is wrong. Something about no adress or something. The agreement looks strange in all caps. Something fishy about the thing and along side a blue box appears that  says it's downloading something that looks like this:

xp antispyware 2000 installer

please wait downloading......

I'm wary of this thing.

I get a antispyware shield thing frequently that I haven't intentionally downloaded. I think I deleted this thing too.....shit.....I have no idea what I'm saying here. I'm familiar with this icon though but it's not around right now. I'm not good at this stuff.

Charlie

Charlie,
I use Mozilla Firefox as my browser.
I use Adblock Plus & have had no such problems as you describe.

START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE

Adblock Plus
Adblock Plus focuses on usability with many new features being added. Its main window has menu items at the top. Also, the list of blockable items is integrated as a panel at the bottom which can be detached from the main window. Element hiding can be used in addition to regular ad blocking. Other new features include filter statistics (hits counter) and the ability to enable or disable individual filters without removing them.

How it works
Like Mozilla's built-in image blocker, Adblock blocks HTTP requests according to their source address and can block IFrames, scripts and Flash. It also uses automatically-generated user stylesheets to hide elements such as text ads on a page as they load instead of blocking them, known as element hiding.

START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE

START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE

There are also a multitude of free pop up blockers available
on the internet.

START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE

Thanks KOP. I downloaded adaware successfully finally. Of course it didn't stop this thing. I've been using spybot for a long time as well. A lot things were found by adaware but I can't find a way to do anything once found.  Spybot does ask me what to do. At least I have adaware now.

On downloading. One of the first things that this thing does is to try to get me to dowload what must be fake anti-spyware thing.

Thanks guys. It looks like no matter what I do, this thing sticks.

Charlie

Oddly enough Spybot actually has sypware in ut. Nothing malicious but it is ironic. Remember folks, nothing is free.

Charles, can you restore to a point MUCH further back. There is a good chance you caught this well before it became active.

My dad had the exact same thing and restoring fixed it.

Lemme know if not and I'll try to dig something up for you or maybe make a disk that will run automatically I can send you in the mail.

Thanks. I reset my puter back a few days yesterday but to no avail. Are you saying that I should go way back in time?

Just so you people know exactly what I'm stuck with, here is a link that describes it exactly:

START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE

Charlie

The Zlob Trojan seems to be pretty hectic.  I got rid of mine from an updating Spybot (opening Spybot and clicking the update tab and updating everything) and running a boot scan (scans the computer before Windows is loaded).  From what I've read, this Trojan is changing basically every day so making sure Spybot is completely updated is really important.  I'd recommend checking again if you did already update to see if they might have added an even newer one to get your variant.  

You can try doing an Avast boot scan.  START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE  Click on the Resistration first and fill out the information to have them email you the code to register it (it's free).  Make sure after downloading it you update it so it's looking for the newest version of the Trojan.  

If that doesn't work, watch this YouTube video START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE  It shows you how to delete the files, has a text companion START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE for the files and registry entries needed to be deleted.  

Audre, Charlie's on dial-up.  It'd take him forever to d/l a clip.

It's only 10 minutes.  While it may take awhile to download it, it's pretty handy to help him if the others don't work.  

I guess if you get to the point where you need the video and it's too long to download, if I can't find a good step-by-step already made, then I'll just make one for you.  

Yeah, you better use 1.21 Gigawatts! (Back to the Future reference).

Try restoring to a much earlier date than a few days. My dad had to go back about a month, but you may have to do more or less depending on when you actually contracted the disease.

And restoring is relativly safe and better yet, free, and best of all you don't have to load yet more stuff on your PC which even if they fix somethings, could cause even more slow-downs.

Keep me posted.

One more time Charlie.... Mozilla Firefox will fix that problem!
I will never go back to IE and I was a diehard supporter of it.

Patrick

Thanks guys. I'm going to try lots of stuff here. If nothing works, I know a friend that has bailed me out a couple of times.

Time for some R & R   START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGESTART PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE

Charlie

Something I just remembered: When this started the other day at the beginning, I got something about "de-shelf" or something very close that that lasted a few seconds and then my computer shut off and I had to restart. I can't believe that I forgot to mention that.

Today I managed to download a bunch of pretty good looking stuff from AVAST. It found a lot of stuff that my other scans didn't. It didn't clobber this thing though. It's tough.

I'm about to go postal.

Thanks kids. At least I'm learning a lot about this stuff.

Charlie

Does anybody know which of the scores of fixes for this thing are relatively safe to use? Although I've downloaded good stuff that you recommend, even about to try Mozilla for a browser after downloading it (takes hours for some of the stuff), it looks like I have to try some of them. I just don't know enough. I don't understand why by using a different browser will stop this thing though.

Charlie

Patrick_A wrote on Oct 19^th, 2008 at 5:06pm:

One more time Charlie.... Mozilla Firefox will fix that problem! I will never go back to IE and I was a diehard supporter of it. Patrick

I plan on it after I finish my ebay stuff later tonight. It takes hours for lots of stuff to download. I don't understand how doing this will kill this thing but I'll give it a try.

Thanks and I'll let you know.

Charlie

Using Firefox itself will not fix the problem.  It's known to be a safer browser than Internet Explorer so it can possibly protect you from other malicious attacks because IE has more backdoor holes.  

The only things I personally would use are:  Ad-aware, Spybot, Avast virus, AVG virus and there's an online virus scan that I wouldn't recommend to you since you're on dial-up.  

If you have Spybot, turn on the TeaTimer program with it.  It's a nice safe guard against unwanted viruses embedding themselves into your registry so that every time you start your computer the virus starts up too.  I found that when it popped up asking if I wanted to allow it or deny it, if I just kept the little window open and didn't hit anything it just sat there and didn't cause any of the annoying task bar pop ups.  That's not a fix, but it's a way around the annoyance.  If the safe programs don't work, unfortunately you'll probably have to do it the manual way.

Been using spybot for a long long time. I have all the others now. Glad they are there and they found some creepy stuff lurking. I'll try to download Mozilla - Firefox. Can't hurt.

Thanks kids. I'll have to get a geek. I can't put up with this for much longer.

Charlie

START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE

Spend a buck......these dudes will take control of your puter and fix it without even coming to your house.

  Charlie:
Tell Avast to run a boot time scan. If it finds anything, use option 1 and nuke it. Since it will go through every damn file on your machine it will take awhile. But it should catch the offending virus, or trojan. Even if it changes its name.
   Don't put anything in the virus chest, or quaratine it. Just use the first option and delete the bastard. Stop messing about with all the adaware, and spyware stuff. Just go in there with a boot scan and nuke the suckers. No more mister nice guy.
[smiley=smokin.gif]

It's gone! Have a friend that knows more about this stuff than I can imagine. He downloaded something called: Malware Bytes anti malware, found it and sent it somewhere to hide I guess. The guy won't accept a dime for doing this. I've tried to pay him something before. I've gotten so old that he feels sorry for me I guess... 8-)

I downloaded a lot of good stuff that you suggested and am trying Firefox now. As always with puters, I learn things in small bathes.

Thanks again kids! START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGESTART PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE
Charlie

It's gone! Have a friend that knows more about this stuff than I can imagine. He downloaded something called: Malware Bytes anti malware, found it and sent it somewhere to hide I guess. The guy won't accept a dime for doing this. I've tried to pay him something before. I've gotten so old that he feels sorry for me I guess... 8-)

I downloaded a lot of good stuff that you suggested and am trying Firefox now. As always with puters, I learn things in small bathes.

Thanks again kids! START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGESTART PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE
Charlie