Ducktoes Spyware Blog

At Ducktoes we try to get rid of spyware without reformatting your hard drive. But once in awhile a reformat is the only thing that will work–it’s not nearly as often as many techies will have you think–but occasionally it’s the only solution. A reformat is so much easier and cheaper if you have your installation and recovery disks. That is what they’re for. It’s much more difficult to go on-line and search for all the drivers, a process that can take hours, depending on the make and brand of your computer. So protect your investment and save your disks. Keep them in their original sleeves, since sometimes the product key is printed on the sleeve. You may end repurchasing the operating system software without the disks, or spending more than necessary on a reformat.

Also keep your disks for your printer, scanner, video card, or any new devices you buy for your computer. Keep them all in one place and remember where they are.

If you live in Calgary, use Ducktoes for all your computer repair and services. Ducktoes to the rescue!!

Ms. Ducktoes is in a flap and a flutter because right now there is a new type of spyware danger that is so new it is causing a bit of havoc and making all of us anti-spyware professionals work overtime. Thousands of computers are infected. Phoney e-mails that purport to be from friends or legitimate businesses encourage the victims to click a link. This will initiate a download of a most dangerous group of spyware and viruses. One is a trojan horse that lets the criminal hacker take over your computer and control it remotely. Others will install a back door in your computer that gives hackers access to do even more damage or add even more spyware. Still others tell you, in a warning on your desktop, that you have spyware, and try to get you to buy a rogue anti-spyware, that will give you even more malware.

I have received three of these phoney, dangerous e-mails. One told me a friend had sent me a Hallmark card that linked to a nasty download of binary code (trojan). I already wrote a blog about that one. Read it here.

Another, my cousin Jack warned his friends and family about, a postcard e-mail that links to a virus download. Here is his e-mail:

Please be careful of the upcoming virus.

COPY THIS E-MAIL, AND SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS. REMEMBER: IF YOU SEND IT
TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US. “

While the e-mail is incorrect that the virus will burn a hole in your hard drive, it may cause you to have to get your hard drive reformatted, which will indeed burn all your data, which is essentially the same thing. Also it lets the attackers take control your computer. The trojan is very difficult to remove. The e-mail is confusing a few viruses and hoaxes but is a good warning nevertheless, since it lets everyone know not to open the postcard e-mails. I did receive one this week so it’s definitely making the rounds.

The third one I received–today–was supposedly from Paypal. It said my account had been limited. But the link to fix the account limitation problem was—again, you guessed it—a link to a download of nasty virus code.

So the Phishers and Hackers have stepped up their attacks with a new method. Instead of just getting your passwords and account numbers and credit card numbers as they do in regular phish e-mails and websites, now they give you an immediate download of binary code.

To protect yourself click the below link. It will connect you to PC Tools Spyware Doctor which will protect you from these e-mail viruses.

Also read my guide to preventing spyware. Or the Self-Help tutorials here.

There’s no way a tech can remove and clean up all the spyware on a badly infected machine in just a couple of hours. So, if you remove the spyware on-site, you end up having to charge a lot to remove a little. It’s better to take the machine “to the lab,” and run and apply all your removal and clean up strategies. Since then you can also do other things, like write your blog, or change out someone’s video card, while you are running everything, you can afford to charge for just a couple of hours of labor, while you work on the computer for 12 or 15 or more. Also the client doesn’t end up paying a huge amount to have spyware removed. Once you have the computer “at the lab”, do your magic. If you want suggestions on what to do follow my anti-spyware guide and then speed up your client’s computer while you’re at it, by following the suggestions here on the Ducktoes Tutorial.

The only difficulty is with clients who don’t want you to remove their infected computer. Then you have to do the best job you can within a short amount of time. I recommend installing Spyware Doctor and run it. Click the below ad.

Yesterday I received an e-mail purportedly from Hallmark cards telling me a friend had sent me an e-card. I immediately knew it was fake but was surprised that it led not directly to a phish (phoney) website but to a trojan download. So don’t click the link; it’s not from a friend but a cyber-criminal.

I cut and pasted the e-mail here in italics. (Notice the error in the subject line, “send” instead of “sent.”. Often fraudulent e-mails have misspellings or display poor English.)

From: “Hallmark Cards” Subject: You have a card send from a friend!
Date: Mon, 5 May 2008 03:18:53 +1000
Hello ,
A friend has sent you a Hallmark Ecard
Click here to view your Ecard .
If you would like to return an Ecard to him simply go to http://ecards.msn.co.uk/
MSN
in association with
Hallmark Cards
Your privacy is our priority. Click the “Privacy and Security” link at the bottom of any page on http://ecards.msn.co.uk/ to see our privacy policy.

The link to view the e-card immediately initiated a download of the malware trojan horse . So beware an e-card from a unspecified or generic friend. I suspected something was amiss because the misspelling of “send” instead of “sent,” an unlikely error for a major retailer like Hallmark. Also it didn’t say which friend had sent it, which e-card e-mails usually do.

Click here to see what Hallmark says about these fraudulent e-cards.

I knew it was a phish (fraudulent) and wanted to report it to Phishtank so that is why I clicked the the link. However, instead of taking me to a phoney website, it started downloading the spyware immediately. To click the link, I deliberately used a Mac as a precaution. Macs are not susceptible to most spyware. Afterward, I ran my Mac virus software anyway. But I thought I would warn you. I still don’t know how to report it to Phishtank. I wrote to them but they didn’t write back. Sigh. Another unrequited relationship for Ms. Ducktoes.

Zapchast Trojan is the trojan. It is the most dangerous kind. It allows the criminal to take control of your computer. Click here for removal instructions. They are difficult, I warn you.

Now Ms. Ducktoes wants you to be a get all your ducks in a row and make sure your anti-virus software is working, or if you’re too much of a newbie to understand or know what you’re doing yet, get a friend or co-worker to help you. And to train you. Or hire a techie to check it and train. Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to computers.

1. Make sure your anti-virus is downloading updates regularly and running scans automatically and that if it is a paid subscription, that you have paid on time. Don’t be without working anti-virus software for one nano-second. It is like tossing your computer out a second story window. The result’s not pretty. If you are fond of your computer or what is on it, take charge.

Also a reader of this blog who really knows his stuff has recommended Avira for an excellent anti-virus software. Here’s the link. I used it on a client’s computer and it worked well. It found and removed viruses and didn’t use up all the computer’s resources. That’s called having a small footprint. And it’s free for personal, home use. Don’t put it off. Here’s a link to his comments (you’ll have to scroll down).

2. Also use a different browser besides Internet Explorer. Use Firefox or Opera.

3. And after you have done all that, get anti-spyware too. Click here to see how to do that.

Anti-virus, anti-spyware, Firefox or Opera, and you’ve protected your computer, your wallet, your identity.

For more information click here.

For you techies among my readers, always make sure the client has working and up-to-date anti-virus and anti-spyware. Do this check as part of your routine. Tell them where they are amiss and install both if necessary. I recommend both manual anti-spyware such as Spybot and Ad-aware SE and one that runs in real time. The best are Spyware Doctor or Spy Sweeper but Windows Defender is better than nothing. Read the next post on this blog for more hints for techies.

As always Ducktoes to the rescue!! If you live in the Calgary area give us a shout or even if you don’t.

Ta ta for now.

These days everyone has spyware and viruses on their computers. It’s become the “in” thing. In your computer, that is. So if you keep running your computer without anti-spyware, you’ll be like all your neighbors. You’ll be keeping up with the Joneses! They won’t know it, they’ll be watching their oh, so, slow computers trying to check their e-mail. Or calling every tech under “computer repair” in their town or city.

Unfortunately the above is true. The costs of maintaining computers are skyrocketing because of malware trouble and slow computers. We seem to be losing the war. People are having to reformat their computer every year or more because it won’t work properly with so much spyware on it. Or they just buy a new computer since they’ve lost their install disks too and it’s hard to find drivers and even more expensive to reformat if the tech has to go on the internet to search for them. If you are good with computers, then you need to become a Ducktoes hero and get rid of spyware on your friends and neighbors’ computers. Use this guide. It does work.

If we work together, maybe we can discourage spyware authors.

Then you can be our hero!!!

Whatever you do don’t open it!

I’m sorry I haven’t been posting. Ms. Ducktoes has been busy removing tons of spyware from computers. On two of them, the clients opened an e-mail attachment that claimed to be from a friend. It was actually a worm working overtime and sending out e-mails from the friend’s infected computer.

When in doubt, check it out, my fearless feathered friends, before opening an attachment. Both clients got hundreds of spyware and a worm or two or ten, it’s hard to remember, I think I’m still in post-traumatic stress from it all. Before downloading, e-mail the friend and ask if they sent it to you. They definitely did, or, rather, a worm on their computer did, but if they don’t know it and didn’t send it deliberately, then it’s dastardly worm full of nasties.

So please give Ms. Ducktoes a rest and don’t download e-mail attachments that you’re not absolutely sure of, especially anything ending in .exe or .dll. You can open photos and text files but not executables!!! If you do download one on accident, then you can clean up the mess by clicking here. It’ll take you to a page with a link (Google ad) that will lead to PC Tools Spy Doctor for purchase. Spyware Doctor will do an excellent job for you for a mere thirty dollars, a lot cheaper than a computer tech.

Or you can download Google pack which has free, smaller version of Spyware Doctor, one with a smaller footprint, that is.

Or call a tech, they may want to do a reformat, since for many techs that’s the knee-jerk reaction to a virus or spyware of any sort. They must be getting exercise from all that knee-jerking, I can tell you, with all the spyware that is out there right now. You don’t have to lose everything, however, you can get rid of spyware without reformatting, you really can.

Call 403-483-0105.