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For the past two weeks I've been inundated with spyware and adware,
even a few viruses on my computer, and I'm getting more and more spam.
I clean out my computer with spybot and it's there again the next day.
I'm running Windows XP with an Xtra DSL connection, with AVG for
antivirus.

The weird thing is, last night I cleaned out my computer so spybot says
it a-ok. Then I open up Firefox to my homepage, Google.

Rescan, and it's still fine.

I click on trademe.co.nz (using the button which brings up recent
address on the address bar).

Rescan. Suddenly I've got 19 robots.

What gives? Surely these aren't coming from Trademe or everyone would
be complaining. Is there something on my computer that Spybot's
missing?

Getting a little paranoid. Any tips/help would be greatly appreciated.

cheers
emule

emule wrote:

> For the past two weeks I've been inundated with spyware and adware,
> even a few viruses on my computer, and I'm getting more and more spam.
> I clean out my computer with spybot and it's there again the next day.
> I'm running Windows XP with an Xtra DSL connection, with AVG for
> antivirus.
>
> The weird thing is, last night I cleaned out my computer so spybot says
> it a-ok. Then I open up Firefox to my homepage, Google.
>
> Rescan, and it's still fine.
>
> I click on trademe.co.nz (using the button which brings up recent
> address on the address bar).
>
> Rescan. Suddenly I've got 19 robots.
>
> What gives? Surely these aren't coming from Trademe or everyone would
> be complaining. Is there something on my computer that Spybot's
> missing?
>
> Getting a little paranoid. Any tips/help would be greatly appreciated.
>
> cheers
> emule

Robots?
Is that Spybot's actual wording?

Fran

emule wrote:
> Rescan. Suddenly I've got 19 robots.

No, you likely have cookies from ad providers on Trademe. Totally
harmless and nothing to worry about. I don't even know why Spybot etc
bothers checking for them.

Cheers,
Nicholas Sherlock

On 26 Oct 2005 21:09:33 -0700, "emule" <> growled
these words from under a rock:

>For the past two weeks I've been inundated with spyware and adware,
>even a few viruses on my computer, and I'm getting more and more spam.
>I clean out my computer with spybot and it's there again the next day.
>I'm running Windows XP with an Xtra DSL connection, with AVG for
>antivirus.
>
>The weird thing is, last night I cleaned out my computer so spybot says
>it a-ok. Then I open up Firefox to my homepage, Google.
>
>Rescan, and it's still fine.
>
>I click on trademe.co.nz (using the button which brings up recent
>address on the address bar).
>
>Rescan. Suddenly I've got 19 robots.
>
>What gives? Surely these aren't coming from Trademe or everyone would
>be complaining. Is there something on my computer that Spybot's
>missing?
>
>Getting a little paranoid. Any tips/help would be greatly appreciated.
>
>cheers
>emule

You'll have a dropper.

Spybot and Adaware miss a heck of a lot of spyware, and usually only
cleans the infection and misses the dropper.

In article <. com>,
says...
> For the past two weeks I've been inundated with spyware and adware,
> even a few viruses on my computer, and I'm getting more and more spam.
> I clean out my computer with spybot and it's there again the next day.
> I'm running Windows XP with an Xtra DSL connection, with AVG for
> antivirus.
>
> The weird thing is, last night I cleaned out my computer so spybot says
> it a-ok. Then I open up Firefox to my homepage, Google.
>
> Rescan, and it's still fine.
>
> I click on trademe.co.nz (using the button which brings up recent
> address on the address bar).
>
> Rescan. Suddenly I've got 19 robots.
>
> What gives? Surely these aren't coming from Trademe or everyone would
> be complaining. Is there something on my computer that Spybot's
> missing?
>
> Getting a little paranoid. Any tips/help would be greatly appreciated.

Spywareblaster
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Spybot
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/

Ad-Aware
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

Microsoft Antispyware
http://www.microsoft.com/

and of course:
Windows Update

Don't settle for AVG alone - if you've found infections, cross check by
running the Nortons/Symantec online checker - if it finds anything, get
another freebie onboard and run that - I'd suggest:
Anti-Vir
http://www.free-av.com/

The online, Symantec link is:
http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/hom...ex_virus.html?
src=hho_us

Still got probs? - you should probably flatten and re-install if you
can't get it sorted.

--
Duncan

Thanks guys.

It wasn't cookies, it was real bits of spyware and adware being
installed on my computer.

I did a re-install and it seems to be fine now. I'm guessing it was
something spybot wasn't picking up.

Mystery solved...er, stopped at least.

cheers
emule