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WARNING AOL IM USERS

 
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Just thought I would warn AOL IM Users...
DO NOT DOWNLOAD any thing that has buddylink in it. It is spyware that sends IMS to people with their software......
It is just like the ole mole game with the trojan......
 
Eric Pascarello
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here is info on it...
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/02/11/instantmessenger.ad.ap/index.html
 
mister krabs
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This pisses me off. This should be illegal and people who do this should be locked up. My 11 year old daughter uses AOL IM to chat with her friends. Does anyone really think that (1) she will read the fine print of a license agreement or (2) that she has the authority to grant a license to someone to make use of my computer for their nefarious purposes?
 
Eric Pascarello
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This sends an IM to everyone on your list without you knowing about it telling them to download the game.
The one is like....Can you beat my highscore then the link....
It is also a pain to get off. You need to go directly to the program files on your computer to uninstall it. They have a checkbox in their manager that says Send Games to Friends....
So just watch out for this!
 
Ranch Hand
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thanks for the warning. even though im an aol subscriber i could be succeptible because i actually use trillian for IM. and i agree, something needs to be done about the problem of adware and spyware.
 
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It is also a pain to get off. You need to go directly to the program files on your computer to uninstall it. They have a checkbox in their manager that says Send Games


Would you be more specific to get rid of it? I am using AIM and I downloaded their new version day before yesterday. I went to the C:\Program Files\AIM95
and I could not find a checkbox or anything.
 
Eric Pascarello
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It is not on AIM itself...
It is a link to a game that you would download and it installs a program that piggy backs on it.
If you want to see if you have it.. The easiest thing to do is open up your search feature and look for: buddylink
Or look in your program files list.
Eric
 
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Originally posted by Thomas Paul:
This pisses me off. This should be illegal and people who do this should be locked up.


It possibly IS illegal.
 
ranger
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That is kind of like this spyware program I found on my machine. If you go to the Task Manager and find a process, yes process, not application, running on your machine called IPU.exe, this is spyware, it just makes a bunch of pop up adds come up no matter what website you are at.
I hated this one, because it really slowed up my internet access and popped up every 30 seconds so I couldn't get anything done.
Some people say that it piggybacks with Download Accelerator, which is possible.
Mark
 
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We have been dealing with a lot of spyware and adware at work and I was put in charge of finding something to fend them off. Over the course of my investigation I found out that there are over 75,000 knows spyware programs out there. And here is the interesting part. If you run Windows XP, you have at least 2 running on your computer all the time.
IE uses a module from the Alexa Toolbar for searching purposes. While this really doesn't do anything, almost all anti-spyware programs will find it as spyware.
Also, Media Player has a module that gets recognized as spyware/adware. When you run media player it goes out and checks for updates automatically and sends information to MS. This is really all spyware/adware does. So it gets caught by most anti-spyware applications.
There are also Keyloggers (Trillian uses a keylogger that is non malicious) and Cookies that can gather and send information in a malicious manner. Tracking cookies specifically (they're not just for storing passwords anymore).
PestPatrol is the best thing I have found. And for around $40 is well worth the money. It has 4 parts.
1. Scanner - This scans the system and looks for installed spyware, adware, and cookies
2. Keylogscanner - This scans specifically for keyloggers
3. CookieMonitor - This runs all the time and monitors IE cookies and removes them automatically as soon as they are dropped. You can enable a sound affect for this. It's interesting to here it when you go to web sites. When I go to MSNBC.com I here the thing bleep like 15 times at me removing cookies. FYI - This only works for IE cookies.
4. MemScanner - This runs all the time and looks for knows malicious processes to startup in memory and instantly kills them. This is awesome.
PestPatrol is also the only product I can find that actually is network aware and will allow central administration on a server for all your network workstations. Also, I ran an Adaware scan and it found and removed some files from my PC. I then ran PestPatrol and it found 9 more items.
 
Eric Pascarello
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Our company uses Ad-aware 6 I personally use spybot......
 
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Cool project Eric, didnt realise you were Alien51 and a fellow brinksterer as well...
[ February 15, 2004: Message edited by: Steven Broadbent ]
 
slicker
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I use Adaware and popNot. So worth the investment. I surf like the old days... I was getting ready to toss my computer out the window. I am disappointed that the gov. has not come up with a law against this yet!!!
 
Mark Spritzler
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I used Spybot, it does find those two that Gregg mentioned.
But since I ran it and got rid of that other stuff, my connection seems faster.
Mark
 
Eric Pascarello
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All AIM Users should look at this page:
http://www.jayloden.com/VirusClean.htm

Eric
 
High Plains Drifter
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Moving to General Computing. Please continue further discussion in that forum.
 
With a little knowledge, a cast iron skillet is non-stick and lasts a lifetime.
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