Don't get trapped by Rogue Anti-Spyware software!
Recent computer problems raised my suspicions that a hijacker or
other malware program had infiltrated its protective software.
Too many crashes and program hang-ups were taking place to be
normal. Yes, there really shouldn't be any problems in a virus
and spyware free computer.
But, who is blessed with such a pure machine?
The experts nearly all agree that upwards of 90 percent of all
computers used to visit the Internet are infected with some sort
of virus, adware, spyware or malware. And even though my startup
routine includes automatic sweeps by two different spyware
sweepers and one virus scanner, stuff could still get in.
So, I tried a new anti-spyware software advertised in a recent
newsletter. This program indicated that two of the nastiest
browser hijackers in circulation and two equally nasty malwares
were buried in my Registry and 'ini' files!
I was dumbfounded! How did my top rated protective programs miss
them? Not only did they get by the start-up protective software,
but they apparently slipped under the gun-sights of the registry
monitor that operates in the background, and the monitor
(Webroot SpySweeper) that sweeps before shutdown.
What really aroused my suspicions was the price tag to have this
new program remove the infiltrators. It was quite high compared
to the price for registering any of the popular and highly
recommended protective programs, some of which will remove
spyware for free.
Before spending that amount of money for a suspicious product, I
did a Google search for ["Name of Anti-spyware program" +
Avoid].
Yes! It was shown as Rogue/Suspect Anti-Spyware(*) at
SpywareWarrior.com along with another 199 similarly suspicious
offerings, and advice on how to avoid being duped or robbed by
False Positive findings.
(*)"Rogue/Suspect" means that these products are of unknown,
questionable, or dubious value if used for anti-spyware
protection.
Spyware Warrior is a great website to bookmark for future
reference. Here's a link:
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm
These are the programs I used to confirm my suspicions. None
found the four infiltrators:
Spybot S&D,AdAware, Xoftspy, Xcleaner, CWSshredder, HijackThis,
AVG, and ErrorNuker.
It's possible that the Suspect anti-spyware program would have
removed them.
I wasn't going to take that gamble. It's bad enough that spyware
and adware are disabling millions of home computers. Exploiting
this epidemic with fake programs that claim to remove these
pests for an exorbitant fee, but might not, is unscrupulous and
unconscionable behavior.