Do I have a specific Virus or Spyware?

CroMAGnet

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Sep 4, 2004
Messages
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Location
Los Gatos, CA
I use Outlook to get my email from many different email accounts and I've been noticing that my spam seems eerie specific.

Is it my imagination or am I infested with something that does this? And what is it called, specifically?

Like say I'm surfing around for something on google. Next thing you know, when I'm checking my mail, I get spam titles with similar words. Like this mornign I ordered off Elite LED and got a spam (not from them) with the title Elite in the title but it had nothing to do with lights. There are other examples but it's all similar. :shrug:
 

CroMAGnet

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Sep 4, 2004
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Location
Los Gatos, CA
All FOUR have expired recently with the Spyware Doctor being the last to go :(

It's been about 4-months and I have been holding out since I was planning on getting a new laptop in a few months so I figured I could live weith the pests for a while.
 

AlexGT

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Joined
Jan 15, 2001
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Location
Houston, Texas
Try Adaware, and Spybot search and destroy, both free, and while ur at it use spywareblaster and Spyad to bolt security. Again all free

A firewall should help too.

AlexGT
 

CroMAGnet

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Location
Los Gatos, CA
:thinking: I just tried the new Adaware and it found nothing! Nothing!! I can't belive it.

I also tried to do the one online but it wants me to do some stuff with my kernals and java which I wasnt able to do either :shrug:

Tony
 

d_clark

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Feb 24, 2003
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Location
Michigan
I would try Spybot, since you have already tried adaware. Make sure to do the updates before doing the scans.

Spybot


And like was said previously, I wouldn't use the machine for any banking or CC transactions.
 

eluminator

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Joined
Mar 7, 2002
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Location
New Jersey
I had the same problem with TrendMicro HouseCall. I think it said I needed either java or something else, maybe some activex control. I couldn't get it to work so I ran McAfee's free online scan instead.

I also use Windows Defender. It's free and I guess it's good.
 

tvodrd

*Flashaholic* ,
Joined
Dec 13, 2002
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Location
Hawthorne, NV
I'm running Trend Micro's House call as I type this, an it is slow! I have been running ZA pro and Spybot S&D and some paid AdAware software to keep the box clean.Trend is still scanning, and it has been over 1/2 hour and typing here has become wierd! What you type is not what you get!!!!!!!!!!!! I know they're legit, but I'm about to terminate their activity!

Larry
 

Mad1

Enlightened
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May 10, 2006
Messages
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Location
UK
Another online Anti-Virus scanner is Bit Defender.
http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html

Unfortunatly It needs Internet Explorer to use it.

Install AVG Anti-Virus its free and easy to use and better than what you are using now, unless you are using NOD32 ;)
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/avg-anti-virus-free/lng/us/tpl/v5

Also Mozilla Thunderbird is a far better email client than Outlook and its exploited far less.
http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/

Another cool program is Spyware Blaster, It's like a firewall for Spyware.
http://www.javacoolsoftware.net.nyud.net:8090/downloads/spywareblastersetup351.exe

Always update your software otherwise you leave yourself open to these nasty things.

If you are using Internet Explorer that won't help things either use Mozilla Firefox.
http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/

I hope some of this helps.
 

tvodrd

*Flashaholic* ,
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Messages
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Location
Hawthorne, NV
I terminated its activity- =POS! Death by slow electrotorture is too good for the web's BG's!

Larry (g'night!)
 

pedalinbob

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Joined
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Location
Michigan
Funny, I used to get no spam at all...but over the last year, it has become stifling.

AND, it looks more specific!
For example, I ordered a prescription online (legit script), and was soon getting Rx spams. It was strange.

I have a pretty good selection of antivirus, antispyware and firewall--all up to date and scanned frequently...but, it still concerns me a bit.
 

Dandrop

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Joined
Oct 18, 2004
Messages
180
Location
Bay Area
A lot of times spammers use bots to scan names/login names/user names on forums. Then they add @hotmail or @ yahoo , gmail, aol etc and then send out mass spams to these addys.

Or even sometimes we put our email addresses in posts (i.e. username @ hotmail.com) . Spammers can easily use bots to search those and send spam accordingly.

I get tons of spams from fake watch offers, and the username & email i used in watch forums were specifically used in those forums alone.

I scan my computers with adaware/spybot/hi jack this/ avg and my comp is clean.

I would be very careful in posting the exact email addys we use to post things. instead of typing out username @ gmail.com, what i usually do now is to spell out my email like this: username at gmail dot com (for example).
 
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db

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Jan 26, 2005
Messages
85
Location
Indiana
http://www.spamgourmet.com/ has an interesting take on Spam.
Disposable address' that will forward as many times as you specify.

From the SpamGourmet site:
How spamgourmet works

If you give your email address to everyone, you are bound to receive spam emails, and you won't know where they came from. Wouldn't it be convenient to give a different email address to every business or web site, while getting all your email as before? Wouldn't it be easiest to assume the address will be given to spammers, and have it work as a spam blocker by shutting off automatically unless you decide otherwise?

That's exactly what spamgourmet offers! There is nothing to install on your computer, and once you're set up, it's likely you won't ever have to come back here. This is what makes spamgourmet one of the most convenient and effective anti-spam tools available.

Protect yourself from spam in three easy steps:

1. If you haven't done it yet, create a spamgourmet account. Enter your user name and the email address you want to be protected. You will be asked to identify the word in a picture and pick a password.

2. Spamgourmet will forward to this address all the emails sent to your spamgourmet disposable addresses -- that way you don't have to tell anyone else what it is -- this is why it's called the protected address. Of course, this protected address must exist. That's why you have to confirm it. You'll receive an email asking you to confirm.

3. After you have confirmed your protected address, you can give out self-destructing disposable email addresses whenever you want. The disposable addresses are like:

[email protected]

where someword is a word you have never used before, x is the number of email messages you want to receive at this address (up to 20), and user is your username.

For example, if your user name is "spamcowboy", and BigCorp wants you to give them your email address (on the web, on the phone, at a store - it doesn't matter), instead of giving them your protected address, give them this one:

[email protected]

This disposable email address will be created here the first time BigCorp uses it (you don't have to do anything to create it), and you'll receive at most 3 messages, forwarded to your protected address. The rest will be indelicately consumed.

If you want more options, choose the "advanced mode" tab above.

Solid Blue has a web based anti-spam product. They check you popmail, scan for spam, and the user then gets their ham-mail from the solid blueserver.
Mail is availale via webmail interface.
http://solidblue.ca/index/antispam.html

From the SonicBlue Site:
The Ultimate Anti-Spam Software
Spam Interceptor is a tool that prevents you from receiving unsolicited email ("spam"). It's a cross platform spam filter, which means you can use it on a Macintosh, Windows, Linux, or any operating system that has a web browser.
Not Just A Spam Filter
What makes Spam Interceptor more than just a spam filter is its perfect blend of anti-spam technology. You can choose between heuristic filters, authentication, white lists, gray lists, black lists, or any combination! (more details)
A Different Spam Solution
What makes Spam Interceptor different from other spam filter software is that it's not something you install. Everything is done using a web browser. Once you have created an account, you can use Spam Interceptor from any computer with a web browser. That means your email will be spam free from anywhere in the world!
A Mobile Spam Solution
Spam Interceptor is perfect if you receive email on a mobile phone or PDA. After your email is filtered here on the Spam Interceptor servers you can download just the mail you want to your mobile device. This saves you time and most of all money!
 

eluminator

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Mar 7, 2002
Messages
1,750
Location
New Jersey
Yahoo mail has something similar. But I have my address at many vendors and forums. I guess I have registered at a hundred places. It seems too many for me to use a different address for each, but maybe I should try it. As it is I use one for vendors, one for forums, one for financial institutions, one for PayPal, etc.

Actually I rarely get spammed on any of these "disposable" addresses so I've never had a reason to dispose of any. If you know the details, it's easy to spot a disposable Yahoo address. Maybe the spammers know and don't bother spamming them.

Unfortunately I give my standard base address to family and friends. Apparently one of them has been hacked because it's this address where I get most of the spam. If I had it to do over, I would use one of these "disposable" addresses for this also.

The only exception is the PayPal address. In the past I've gotten phishing e-mails on my PayPal address right after I've made a purchase. Apparently someone has been monitoring the e-mails on the internet, or maybe PayPal got hacked. Nobody except me and PayPal should know this address. Fortunately I haven't seen this happen lately.
 
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