# I have spyware O.O



## Dragsooth (Mar 18, 2008)

I was downloading some stuff, not porn though, I try and keep my laptop free of and Viruses/Spyware stuff. Out of nowhere I get a warning saying I have a spyware threat and it's high, and it told me to go to this website thingy and download this spyware removal, and when I got it and everything it won't let me treat the spyware...it costs money >.<

I have no way of paying for the damn spyware removal tools, so I'm out of ideas. Does anyone here know of a spyware removal I can download for free and remove the threats for free? 

Please help T_T


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## Jelly (Mar 18, 2008)

...

Hi, I'm Earth, have we met?

Get Lavasoft AdAware, Spybot Search and Destroy, etc.
There is an absolute shitload of free spyware removal tools.

And as the Ambassador of 1997, I'd like to say - that was an advertisement pop-up, and a) hopefully you didn't download anything and b) it'll always say high to get you to buy the software.

Also, get some kind of pop-up blocker - just grab a few Firefox (an alternative browser to Safari, IE) extensions off of mozilla.org. NoScript is always nice.

Come on, you're a furry - doesn't this fandom live on the internet?

Alright, that's enough razzin' ya.
Sorry, you just blew my mind. ^_____(#__i2__^;;;;


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## Ceceil Felias (Mar 18, 2008)

Jelly, despite living on the internet, furries cannot use computers worth crap. It's a sad fact we must all accept, even the techies such as you and me.

But yes, rule of thumb: If something pops up with any sort of potential panic button material (malware, viruses, etc.) and advises you to get or purchase something, THAT'S THE MALWARE ITSELF. My recommendation is to use a number of free scanners instead, which there are plenty of. There are a couple absolutely recommended ones here -- GET BOTH.

Spybot: Search and Destroy (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html)
AdAware (http://www.lavasoft.com/)

As for antiviruses, one's usually enough, but use more than one if you want. My choices for those in order of preference are...

AVG Free (http://free.grisoft.com/)
Avast! (http://www.avast.com/)
ClamWin (http://www.clamwin.com/)
NOT Norton (ABSOLUTELY not [NO way in hell])

Hopefully this should serve to get your system cleaned back out.


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## Aden (Mar 18, 2008)

Dragsooth said:
			
		

> Out of nowhere I get a warning saying I have a spyware threat and it's high, and it told me to go to this website thingy and download this spyware removal, and when I got it and everything it won't let me treat the spyware...it costs money >.<



Wow. You are on par with my grandparents.

/Who, I might mention, use AOL with 128MB of RAM.


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## Dragsooth (Mar 18, 2008)

Aden said:
			
		

> Dragsooth said:
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Trust me if I had money and I was old enough to get a job, I'd buy the best freaking antivirus things out there o.o;

I talked with my friend and he gave me the the site for a good one, AVG I think... I'm good with computers sometimes, but I hate dealing with the damn viruses that some fat nerd created just to screw me over ._.


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## drink (Mar 18, 2008)

spybot search and destroy (as mentioned above) is my personal preference. It takes awhile to run but its pretty through and its free!


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## feilen (Mar 18, 2008)

Don't get AVGfree, the one I got had a virus in it XD


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## Tundru (Mar 18, 2008)

feilen said:
			
		

> Don't get AVGfree, the one I got had a virus in it XD



Really? I've got AVGfree and it works just fine for me. Wait, were you being sarcastic? It's hard to tell over the internet.


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## Ceceil Felias (Mar 18, 2008)

feilen said:
			
		

> Don't get AVGfree, the one I got had a virus in it XD


$10 says you got a dirty copy off the wrong site.

Either that or whatever infection you had carried over to the install immediately.


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## ZentratheFox (Mar 19, 2008)

I use AVG AntiMalware (now the paid version of AVG AntiVirus 8.0) and it has kept me clean for three years. I install it on clients' machines to clean up the spyware/viruses that they have, too. It's never failed me once...

(PS: I'm a computer tech. I know my way around...) =)


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## eternal_flare (Mar 19, 2008)

In addition to above, I prefer NOD32 as primary antivirus program, it's provide fair protection and a little ram to upkeep.

Don't say it's shareware or something, since there are lots of serial generator out there.

(PS: really, the word "paying" in internet isn't apply to anything other than "time","electricity",and"Internet client".


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## Ceceil Felias (Mar 19, 2008)

I suppose the word "cheapskate" also doesn't register in your vocabulary, eternal_flare. I wonder why?


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## Dragsooth (Mar 19, 2008)

Well after a few downloads, I finally got the spyware and malware off my computer, with Spybot S&D.

I accidently downloaded a fake Spybot S&D and it added more freaking spyware, so be careful which one you download...


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## net-cat (Mar 19, 2008)

WinAntiVirus and WinAntiSpyware. (And many others.)

They use deceptive advertisements that look like error messages to make you think your computer is infected. (They were big-time messenger spammers pre-SP2.) You download the trial version which gives you false positives whether or not your infected. You pay the $30 or whatever and the program doesn't actually do anything.

Sad fact of life is that most "security vendors" are like this.


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## Eevee (Mar 19, 2008)

Dragsooth said:
			
		

> Out of nowhere I get a warning saying I have a spyware threat and it's high, and it told me to go to this website thingy and download this spyware removal, and when I got it and everything it won't let me treat the spyware...it costs money >.<


I cannot fathom why you would think that some Web site can tell that you have spyware, or why you would otherwise think a warning is legit when you *don't have any spyware tools installed*.



			
				Dragsooth said:
			
		

> Does anyone here know of a spyware removal I can download for free and remove the threats for free?


Not installing it in the first place is free, yes.


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## Aden (Mar 19, 2008)

Dragsooth said:
			
		

> I hate dealing with the damn viruses that some fat nerd created just to screw me over ._.



http://www.theslackerz.com/index.php?Page=28


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## Dragoneer (Mar 19, 2008)

And, for that matter, always, always, AAAALWAYS download your software from the manufacturer/programmer's site. The only other software distro site I trust is download.com.


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## net-cat (Mar 19, 2008)

I like download.com, although just because something is on download.com doesn't mean it's safe. Download.com doesn't modify the contents of the files, but if the contents were spyware to begin with...


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## Tudd (Mar 19, 2008)

Lets have a round of applause for the internet!


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## Eevee (Mar 19, 2008)

I like package managers


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## Ceceil Felias (Mar 19, 2008)

Another iteration of the XKCD comic, eh, Eevee?


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## Rhainor (Mar 19, 2008)

Ceceil Felias said:
			
		

> AVG Free (http://free.grisoft.com/)
> Avast! (http://www.avast.com/)
> ClamWin (http://www.clamwin.com/)
> NOT Norton (ABSOLUTELY not [NO way in hell])



You missed Avira AntiVir (http://www.free-av.com/), which is what I use.  I tried AVG and Avast, and they didn't work (yes, I got 'em from the official sites); I tried ClamWin, it was better, but ultimately let me down.  Avira has worked wonderfully.



			
				Dragsooth said:
			
		

> Trust me if I had money and I was old enough to get a job, I'd buy the best freaking antivirus things out there o.o;



In this case, the best things in life really are free.  Seriously, the free anti-adware/spyware and antivirus programs work just as well as the paid-for stuff, and generally takes up less of your system resources.


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## Ceceil Felias (Mar 19, 2008)

Well, everything misses out on something once in a while. I hadn't heard of Avira yet, though -- I'll have to take a look at it. 

I've seen ClamWin (ClamAV as it's called outside of its Windows binaries) pull up a lot of false positives and false negatives, though, so I'm not as sure about it as others... But hey, it's always good for throwing on a 'nix server and setting it up to scan any uploads.


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## eternal_flare (Mar 20, 2008)

Ceceil Felias said:
			
		

> I suppose the word "cheapskate" also doesn't register in your vocabulary, eternal_flare. I wonder why?



You asked me why? It's the nature of my country, the land of hacked software and low-price hardware, actually I had met many who flew to Thailand for the primary purpose to get IT stuffs.


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## Dingo_The_Azul (Mar 20, 2008)

SuperAnti Spyware & Windows Defender helped me out yesterday. ^__^


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## Eevee (Mar 20, 2008)

Ceceil Felias said:
			
		

> Another iteration of the XKCD comic, eh, Eevee?


Nah.  Package managers are cool regardless of platform.



			
				eternal_flare said:
			
		

> Don't say it's shareware or something, since there are lots of serial generator out there.
> 
> (PS: really, the word "paying" in internet isn't apply to anything other than "time","electricity",and"Internet client".


LOL STEALING SOFTWARE IS COOL

WHAT IDIOT WOULD PAY FOR SOMEONE ELSE'S HARD WORK SRSLY WHY SHOULD I SHOW APPRECIATION THAT THIS GUY IS FIXING THE COMPUTER I DICKED UP


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## Ceceil Felias (Mar 20, 2008)

eternal_flare said:
			
		

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Last I checked, Thailand isn't the internet, the internet is the internet. Quit applying your sleazy 'customs' to your country and then trying to apply those to the tubes. :x


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## eternal_flare (Mar 21, 2008)

Ceceil Felias said:
			
		

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IMO, my sleazy 'custom' may also be applied to the internet; doesn't P2P file-transfer exist for this purpose.


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## Ceceil Felias (Mar 21, 2008)

Oh, right, P2P! Except that, y'know, you'll find more viruses than you will music on them nowadays. And BitTorrent? Has far more legal applications than you'd realize.

Seriously, quit trying to justify theft. You're only making yourself look less and less credible.


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## Swampwulf (Mar 21, 2008)

Rhainor said:
			
		

> You missed Avira AntiVir (http://www.free-av.com/), which is what I use.  I tried AVG and Avast, and they didn't work (yes, I got 'em from the official sites); I tried ClamWin, it was better, but ultimately let me down.  Avira has worked wonderfully.
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I agree with Rhainor on this one.
AntiVir is a really awesome little piece of *FREE* software ( they pay their bills by charging companies to use their excellent software, but give it away to non-commercial home users)
I run it on my XP partition on my iMac, and always install it on my relatives machines when they mooch free IT support from me so that I don't have to worry about it screwing up their system or them not paying for updates.

Antivira also offers a couple of other nice FREE pieces of software, such as:
Avira AntiRootkit Tool
Avira Boot Sector Repair Tool
Avira UnErase Personal
Avira NTFS4DOS Personal
Avira AntiVir Rescue System

Good stuff, Kids.
The Rescue system, which is a disc bootable linux based piece of software, which you burn onto cd/dvd and tuck away till you need it in your computer 'emergency kit' ( you *do* have an emergency kit, don't you?) allows you to boot from that disc and see if the crashed system can be salvaged.
*two stubby wulf thumbs up*


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## Ceceil Felias (Mar 21, 2008)

Emergency kit? Eh, I have a general Service Kit, but my emergency-handling methods and recovery operations are so multi-faceted and abstract that there's no real way to put it all into a small package. Amusingly, my emergency-handling methods also fit into my standard-use plans.


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