OHPE Ver 4.12_23 'Your computer is infected with spyware managing popup ads' Spywarequake

N

news.microsoft.com

Not sure if these two issues are related but on Thursday I installed PC
Relocator and immediately I got some kind of virus demanding that I buy some
annoying spyware program which pops up every few seconds; leaving me in no
doubt that THIS is the very spyware program which has caused the problem.
The popup appears every ten seconds or so from an exclamation mark in a
yellow triangle which has appeared in my systray along with (at the other
end of the tray to give the impression it isn't related!) a red circle with
a line through it which alternates with a green wheel chair.

I am also obviously worried about relocating anything to a new computer with
a virus! This program has done something to my Outlook which now both
reports untruly that it wasn't closed properly last time and runs a very
slow mini-scanpst on all folders each time I open it AND then hangs Outlook
with the Outlook splash screen still open in the centre of the window,
preventing the whole program from running

In addition every few minutes I get a red flashing error message just above
the red circle in my systray telling me that have a virus infection and a
mock system warning in the centre of the screen demanding that I buy its
virus protection because it has supposedly found 4 errors.

Tried googling OHPE Ver 4.12_23 'Your computer is infected with spyware
managing popup ads' and all I found was that sometime around last November
lots of people had this hi-jacking problem which no one seemed to be able to
cure. Admittedly since that time I have gone over from NIS to AVG. But I am
a bit surprised that neither Spybot nor Adaware have managed to counter it
yet if it has been around for so long?

I have a very advanced hosts file which blocks out most dangerous sites and
ads and when I try to identify which rogue program has infected my computer,
the IE page is redirected to 127.0.0.1. Sometimes I come back to my
computer after a few hours and find up to 27 IE screens open, all with a
Yahoo toolbar which I never installed and all blank of course. However
clicking on the red Critical System Error which pops up every ten minutes
brings up a Spywarequake page demanding that I buy their product to get rid
of whatever they managed to install on my computer.

I have run Trend, Kaspersky and (I think ) Sophos from AV-CLS and
coincidentally my anti-virus program which helpfully didn't stop this from
coming in (AVG) keeps duly reporting viruses (something called TROJAN HORSE
DIALER.btg) which it says it is healing. This may be just coincidence
although the incidence of detected viruses has increased markedly since
Thursday. Prior to then, virtually none, since then sometimes 5-20 a day and
both supposedly in emails and in my IE Temporary folder when IE hasn't even
been opened.

Is there any way of ridding myself of this and reporting the offending
company to the appropriate authorities?
 
R

Roady [MVP]

Running an extensive system scan with an anti-spyware tool like Windows
Defender and an anti-virus scanner.
Also check your add-ins for Outlook as it sounds like it tries to integrate
with it and keeps Outlook open (even when you close the application it keeps
the outlook.exe process running) which results in the additional error of
Outlook not being closed properly.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----
Not sure if these two issues are related but on Thursday I installed PC
Relocator and immediately I got some kind of virus demanding that I buy some
annoying spyware program which pops up every few seconds; leaving me in no
doubt that THIS is the very spyware program which has caused the problem.
The popup appears every ten seconds or so from an exclamation mark in a
yellow triangle which has appeared in my systray along with (at the other
end of the tray to give the impression it isn't related!) a red circle with
a line through it which alternates with a green wheel chair.

I am also obviously worried about relocating anything to a new computer with
a virus! This program has done something to my Outlook which now both
reports untruly that it wasn't closed properly last time and runs a very
slow mini-scanpst on all folders each time I open it AND then hangs Outlook
with the Outlook splash screen still open in the centre of the window,
preventing the whole program from running

In addition every few minutes I get a red flashing error message just above
the red circle in my systray telling me that have a virus infection and a
mock system warning in the centre of the screen demanding that I buy its
virus protection because it has supposedly found 4 errors.

Tried googling OHPE Ver 4.12_23 'Your computer is infected with spyware
managing popup ads' and all I found was that sometime around last November
lots of people had this hi-jacking problem which no one seemed to be able to
cure. Admittedly since that time I have gone over from NIS to AVG. But I am
a bit surprised that neither Spybot nor Adaware have managed to counter it
yet if it has been around for so long?

I have a very advanced hosts file which blocks out most dangerous sites and
ads and when I try to identify which rogue program has infected my computer,
the IE page is redirected to 127.0.0.1. Sometimes I come back to my
computer after a few hours and find up to 27 IE screens open, all with a
Yahoo toolbar which I never installed and all blank of course. However
clicking on the red Critical System Error which pops up every ten minutes
brings up a Spywarequake page demanding that I buy their product to get rid
of whatever they managed to install on my computer.

I have run Trend, Kaspersky and (I think ) Sophos from AV-CLS and
coincidentally my anti-virus program which helpfully didn't stop this from
coming in (AVG) keeps duly reporting viruses (something called TROJAN HORSE
DIALER.btg) which it says it is healing. This may be just coincidence
although the incidence of detected viruses has increased markedly since
Thursday. Prior to then, virtually none, since then sometimes 5-20 a day and
both supposedly in emails and in my IE Temporary folder when IE hasn't even
been opened.

Is there any way of ridding myself of this and reporting the offending
company to the appropriate authorities?
 

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