I need your help

[BillyGman]

I've been having a terrible problem w/bazillion pop-ups. I've never had this pr0blem before, and I am running a pop-up blocker from AOL that isn't helping. I have AOL 9.0

But I just received an e-mail from someone who is claiming that my e-mail account w/AOL is being used by someone to send huge amounts of junk mail to people. This guy who says this is claiming that I must have some kind of hidden proxy server that has infected my PC. he also has sent me a file that he says I should open which has instruction on what I should do to clear this out of my PC. But I'm afraid to open the file. This guy has the words "AOL team support" at the bottom of his e-mail messege, yet his e-mail account address is ceasars@shopping.com so I'm very concerned that this might be some type of scam to obtain personal billing info from my PC by this individual. What do you guys think?

[Logan]

Yep, scam-o-rama.

Go to: http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/

Download the free Adaware 6.0. Install and run it. It'll probably quarantine or remove hundreds of spyware/malware type things off your machine...

I run it at least once a week and it ALWAYS catches stuff.

[Haggis]

Billy it sounds like a scam to me. I really don't know a lot about computers, so take Logan's advice.

[BruteForce]

Also update your Antivirus software and run a full system scan to verify that you aren't indeed compromised.

[martyo]

I really don't know a lot about computers, so take Logan's advice.

I really don't know about Logan, so take Haggis's advice.

[SouLRioT]

one more thing to point out is that AOL's emails will befrom an AOL email account that hase a BLUE envlope. Never, ever give out your info to an unsolicited email or open attachments.

[RCSignals]

forward that e-mail to the AOL security/scam/spoof department. It is a scam, and what ever you do, DO NOT open that file!

[Dr Caleb]

What they said ^^^

Foreward the email to postmaster@aol.com and/or abuse@aol.com

[MAD-3R]

What they all said is correct. As a former employee of AOL I worked in the anti-spam group, and NEVER EVER contacted a member personaly (though I locked down more then one account :) ) Run the program Logan recommended, I run it myself. Also check out Spybot Search and Destroy. I run this with adaware, and I am pretty clean.

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

[the fat bastid]

ya its a scam.
but as for popups and what not, i use:
firefox - best browser in town. stops pop-ups and is faster then ie.
thunderbird - for email, its the companion to firefox, it has adaptive junk filters and what not.
spybot and adaware to ice the spyware...use both! they cover each others ass
avg - a free virus scanner that auto-updates and is always free.

and i dont acutally use a firewall because i'm lazy and hope my router blocks most of it but i hear zonealarm is good popular choice.

[67435animal]

I run ad-aware every couple of days and it picks up stuff all the time. My pop-ups are kept at a minimum.

In addition, dump AOL.

Bob

[BillyGman]

WOW!!! I'm really glad that I asked you guys!!! Thanks very much to everyone here for all your input!!! Yes, I use Zonealarm, but I just don't know how all of this happened. However, I guess it really doesn't matter now since all of you have steered me in the right direction. Again thanks to everyone here, and I appreciate the links that you guys have provided for me. I'll use them.;)


Marty, that's too funny man!!! :D

[01 Interceptor]

ZoneAlarm is a good program if you have no router(physical firewall) but a quick search for the right things can allow access through ZA within 30 seconds, so it is minimum security at best. If you are on broadband I strongly suggest a router and keep the firmware updated on it. Logan's program suggestion is a great one. I have the pro version and the free edition seems the same, just without the adwatch, etc. AVG is also the ONLY AV program I will run, since the virus writers seem to target those who use Norton and McAfee.

[Dr Caleb]

Yes, I use Zonealarm, but I just don't know how all of this happened.

It's common for people to get really frustrated with Zonealarm, BlackIce etc within the first 20 minutes. It keeps popping up all these messages that the newbie desn't understand. Most of the time, I find people will just keep clicking "yes" or "no" to keep the fricken thing from bugging them.

The rule I tell them is: If it's incoming - say NO! That is safest.

With the outgoing connections, most programs know the default appliations that should be allowed outgoing - Outlook, iexplore etc. Be suspicious of outgoing connections that you don't request. IE: if a program called "MSBLAST.EXE" is requesting an outgoing connection, and you don't remember running it, it's probabally hostile. (MSBLAST.EXE is the Blaster Worm . . .)

If in doubt, disconnect from the internet, uninstall ZoneAlarm and re-install it before connecting back to the internet. Then start from scratch.

[BillyGman]

Dr. Caleb, what you've just written about Zonealarm is 100% applicable to my situation. I usually click "NO" and about a week ago I clicked "Yes" to something that I had no idea what it was, and ever since then, I've been getting all these crazy pop-ups. I had forgetten that I did that until you mentioned it. Thanks again.

BTW, why would I need a "router" and what exactly is it? I thought that only broadband service which uses a cable connection requires a router. I have DSL.

[MERCMAN]

Dr. Caleb, what you've just written about Zonealarm is 100% applicable to my situation. I usually click "NO" and about a week ago I clicked "Yes" to something that I had no idea what it was, and ever since then, I've been getting all these crazy pop-ups. I had forgetten that I did that until you mentioned it. Thanks again.

BTW, why would I need a "router" and what exactly is it? I thought that only broadband service which uses a cable connection requires a router. I have DSL.
A router has its own IP address therefore it acts as a firewall to keep hackers out of your computer

[BillyGman]

Okay. Thanks mercman!! I'll have to look into getting one of them.

[JET]

i use:
firefox - best browser in town. stops pop-ups and is faster then ie. thunderbird - for email, its the companion to firefox, it has adaptive junk filters and what not. spybot and adaware to ice the spyware...use both! they cover each others ass
avg - a free virus scanner that auto-updates and is always free.
Billy and everyone out there this is no joke. Gavin turned me onto it & I cannot begin to tell you how great Firefox is. It took about about 2 seconds to download for free and has been trouble free since the day I installed it. Not a single POP-UP since. It is totally free to anyone and it is faster than any other browser. So what's the catch? There isn't one yet. :rock:

FIREFOX is the single best & most trouble free software I've ever installed into my computer. :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[Dr Caleb]

A router has its own IP address therefore it acts as a firewall to keep hackers out of your computer

Close, but you have the idea. Two different animals though.

A router can be thought of like a central post office. All letters (Internet information) gets sent there, and it decides how to deliver the information.

A firewall is programmed to keep everything out, but only allow certain things in. Kind of like call display. "nope, telemarketer *click*... nope, Aunt Bessie *click*"

The retail DSL routers you can get nowadays *can* include a firewall. Most routers by their nature don't allow much in. You can also get a firewall in a seperate (hardware) package, or like ZoneAlarm, as software. Most hardware routers/firewalls don't have provision for dial-up.

[Dr Caleb]

Billy and everyone out there this is no joke. Gavin turned me onto it & I cannot begin to tell you how great Firefox is.

Mozilla Rulez!

[JET]

Mozilla Rulez!
You can say that again brother.

Can anyone guess that I just learned how to use the font, size & color controls? :rock: :bounce: :rock: :beer: :rock: :bounce: :rock:

[Tallboy]

I've been having a terrible problem w/bazillion pop-ups. I've never had this pr0blem before, and I am running a pop-up blocker from AOL that isn't helping. I have AOL 9.0

But I just received an e-mail from someone who is claiming that my e-mail account w/AOL is being used by someone to send huge amounts of junk mail to people. This guy who says this is claiming that I must have some kind of hidden proxy server that has infected my PC. he also has sent me a file that he says I should open which has instruction on what I should do to clear this out of my PC. But I'm afraid to open the file. This guy has the words "AOL team support" at the bottom of his e-mail messege, yet his e-mail account address is ceasars@shopping.com so I'm very concerned that this might be some type of scam to obtain personal billing info from my PC by this individual. What do you guys think?
i did a search on cwshredder [advice from a friend] on google. several companies offer the software for free. after download the pop-ups and other bs were gone. no problems since. hope this helps.:beer:

[Mad4Macs]

Billy it sounds like a scam to me. I really don't know a lot about computers, so take Logan's advice.

I know a lot about computers, that's why I use Macs at home. But since I need to pay my bills, I prefer everyone else to use windoze machines.
As of 7/26/04, there are ZERO virii-adware-spyware-remote access flaws in MacOS X.
Move along... move along...

[Dan]

Thanks, M4M. I haven't seen a pop up since Safari came out. I was going to reommend that Billy consider trying a different platform.

There is a sound clip that I was looking for on the net and I couldn't find it. It is a clip of a guy sitting in the back room of a large presentation hall filled with people and he puts his hand to this mouth and yells, "Get a Macintosh."

It woulda been perfect.

Of course, you know that we just opened the flood gates, don't you? I predict the closure of this thread if things don't get back on topic quick. :lol:

Best,

Dan

[SouLRioT]

As of 7/26/04, there are ZERO virii-adware-spyware-remote access flaws in MacOS X.
Move along... move along...

I thought that there were a couple, but thats no where near as many as XP.

But I do want to make this more evident, Billy got SPAM, not a pop up. I'm sure that he doesnt want pop-ups aswell(i like zone alarm, use google tool bar, Mozilla is cool too). Main thing to do is just delete this email and move on.

[Silver_04]

Can't go wrong with FireFox. I've had no problems with it on Windows XP and it has some really nice features (download window consolidation, tabular browsing and things beyond what I'll ever need). But let me tell you now, don't order a FireFox t-shirt from them. I've been wrangling with those yahoo's for almost a week now over a $16 t-shirt that should have been here two weeks ago. Bleh.

[mpearce]

Billy & Co.

I'm a late arrival to the thread, but I wanted to say that I have horrible problems with the same thing. Mad popups! I've never seen such a thing! Blam!! 70 windows are on my desktop...it's rediculous. It even delays my mouse clicks. I'll click on something, and at least 4-5 seconds later my click will initiate. It's horrible...I hate being on the computer anymore with all this stuff. Hopefully some of these suggestions will help.

-Mat

[MERCMAN]

Also do a search for spybot, it is free as well and will clean your HD of any spyware

[BillyGman]

Billy & Co.

I'm a late arrival to the thread, but I wanted to say that I have horrible problems with the same thing. Mad popups! I've never seen such a thing! Blam!! 70 windows are on my desktop...it's rediculous. It even delays my mouse clicks. I'll click on something, and at least 4-5 seconds later my click will initiate.

-Mat
Yes, that explains my problem too. I have pop-ups and spam as well. But the biggest problem is really the pop-ups. hey're so bad, that sometimes the website that I'm on is lost by the time I'm done deleting all the pop-ups. So I'll try those links people said.

[RCSignals]

This probably what is attached to that message"


What is it?
W32/Mydoom.o@MM is a Medium-On-Watch mass-mailing worm that tries to open a hacker backdoor on your PC. Often pretending to be a bounced email alert, the worm arrives inside an attachment then spreads by sending itself to stolen contacts and via peer-to-peer programs.

Up-to-date McAfee VirusScan users with DAT 4381 are protected from this threat. Note: To fortify anti-virus defense against viruses that carry backdoor payloads, we recommend installing McAfee Personal Firewall Plus.

What should I look for?


FROM: Varies. Examples: "Bounced mail," "MAILER-DAEMON," "Mail Administrator". Often spoofed.
SUBJECT: Varies. Examples: delivery failed, Message could not be delivered, Mail System Error - Returned Mail
BODY: Example: We have received reports that your account was used to send a large amount of junk email messages during the last week.
ATTACHMENT: Examples: README, INSTRUCTION, TRANSCRIPT
How do I know if I've been infected?

The worm installs itself as JAVA.EXE in an infected computer's Windows directory. TCP Port 1034 open.

Why am I receiving so many alerts?

It's our policy to notify McAfee customers or those who have opted-in to receive alerts of new viruses or serious variants (e.g., W32/Mydoom.o@MM), which often come in waves.

How do I find out more?

View details about W32/Mydoom.o@MM here.

[BillyGman]

No, I didn't see anything like that in the messege, however, I just forwarded the messege to both AOL addresses that were provided here to ask them if this guy works for them, or if this is in any way legit. Based on what you guys have said, I don't think it is legit, but I want AOL to track this guy down if at all possible. However, I didn't open nor download that file this creep sent to me either.

[BillyGman]

Hey Logan, I've downloaded, and used that "AD-aware6.0" thing you've suggested, and finally, all those pop-ups are history. Thankyou, and a big thanks to everyone else who has jumped in here to bail me out w/my PC headaches. What a cool board this is. :up: :up: :up: :banana: :banana:

[RCSignals]

No, I didn't see anything like that in the messege, however, I just forwarded the messege to both AOL addresses that were provided here to ask them if this guy works for them, or if this is in any way legit. Based on what you guys have said, I don't think it is legit, but I want AOL to track this guy down if at all possible. However, I didn't open nor download that file this creep sent to me either.

OK, my fault. I should have said "this might explain wht was attached to your message"

You said the message you received said "I just received an e-mail from someone who is claiming that my e-mail account w/AOL is being used by someone to send huge amounts of junk mail to people" and that it had a file attached.

According to the virus report /warning I quoted that sort of wording is typical for that particular virus infecting message.