Amazing amount of Spyware

My uncle called me round to sort his laptop out because it was being slow and he was getting lots of pornographic popups. First thing I did was downloaded MS AntiSpyware. It found THIRTEEN threats. Lots of infected things also (trojans, browser hijackers, popups...), so I got rid of them and rebooted. Firstly, the Laptop was about 20% faster, but he still had about 80 running processes. I checked through and he still had one which was spyware. I then ran a virus check with McAffe, and no problems there. Then I increased his page File to 2GB and it was flying. (2.8Ghz with HT, bottlenecked with 256mb RAM).

I was gobsmacked about all the spyware. I just thought I'd share it with you. If you have any stories post them here.

 

At work on Saturday a lady brought in her Laptop to be serviced. I told her if she didnt mind waiting I could check it out now because I wasnt very busy.

Her initial problem was that "it went slow" "I downloaded NIS [norton security] but it doesnt work" "It takes 10 minutes to shut down"(sarcasm) and "I think I need to reformat".

Well, I turn it on ----- it took 3 minutes to boot up!! Darn laptop. So, being in the Geek Squad, one of the first thing that I shared (when I got hired), and learned more about, was the location of a few folders that contain spyware/malware/viruses. So what we do is go to the folders and delete everything. THEN we run spysweeper and norton. (Usually what the costomers have).

Well I went through her computer and 1 hour later....well, lemme reinact how I told her. Cause it made me laugh:

Me: "Well, the good news, your laptop now shutsdown in about 3 seconds and shutsoff in less than 10 minutes, AND I uninstalled and reinstalled NIV and its fully operational. The bad news (not really cuz i fixed it) is that I ran both NIV and SpySweeper, and found that you had 3 viruses, 6 spyware, 3 hotbars, and 8 search toolbars."

Lady: "[gasp] Did you fix it for me!?"

Me: "Yes, well fortunatly those were the only things the sweepers found......AFTER I deleted over 3000 temp files including spyware."

---insert her stunned face here---

Well, I guess its hard to explain maybe. I thought it was hilarious.

Her laptop now boots in little over 1 minute. After I fixed some registry things. And it only takes a few seconds to start programs.

The only downside, she knows me by name, and now calls our store asking for me because her internet isnt working. ::sadness::

 

wow 3000!!! my gf's computer had 1500 on the first scan with ad-aware SE and then an aditional 600 more with spybot S&D.

 

just out of curiosity, what are these folders that contain spyware?

 

C:\Documents And Settings\Username\Local Settings\Temp ???

(hidden folder)

 

Ya..well here:

C:\WINDOWS\Temp
C:\Documents And Settings\Username\Local Settings\Temp
C:\Documents And Settings\Username\Local Settings\temporary Internet
C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Cookies
C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile\Cookies
C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile\Local Settings\Temp
C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files

There are a couple other things I normally check. But like I said she had a major build up. It was 3000+. Took 6 minutes to delete the contents of her system32\temp folder.

EDIT: these were just the files too. I had to uninstall a few hotbars that effecting even the explorer. And she had about half her screen filled with "toolbars" on IE. And about 4-6 search assistants. I hadnt seen one so bad in a while lol.

She said "I only bought it last June" <--- 2003 NOT 2004.

 

thanks for those folders, ill use that next time i have a spyware issue

 

Quick question...everything in the system32 folder is spyware? I hope not...cause if that's the case then I believe i have you beat rofl

EDIT: They can't all be spyware...cause I see things in there like mspaint. But there's no 'local settings' anywhere...im gettin confused

 

no, just stuff in the folders he posted up there

 

Ok good...kinda scared there for a minute Anyways...I deleted cookies and it looks like that pesky toolbar is gone...but now I got another! :rage

 

Try MS AntiSpyware 1... it will remove bars/spyware/etc... and you can use tracks eraser instead of manually going to those folders.

 

And those would be found in...Handy Tools I assume?

EDIT: downloading the ms antispyware now...going so slow. I mean don't think I'm complaining, I can wait a minute 40 secs to make my comp work But I can usually top out at 600 somethin kbs...why's it goin under 50 kbs now? :?

 

(sorry for double post) Ran MS Antispyware...9 threats lol. Got rid of those, but there's still some random toolbar on my browser

 

Haha!!

Snugglez and I recently built a new computer for a friend of ours, and as "payment" we took his old computer to part out. So I put his HDD in my computer to re-format it, but as soon as Windows booted up my AV said it had a Trojan. So just out of curiosity before I reformatted I ran scans... he had 19 Trojans!!!!:shock:shock:shock After I deleted pretty much all his internet files, temp, etc... about 500 files total, he still had 11 spyware/adware/malware files 9 of which were just browser tools...:lol2