Spyware

[Alex]

Hi,
My dial-up internet connection is being deliberately
terminated after a certain amount of time, by some
unauthorised software/spyware and dialing another number,
which happens to be a premium rate number. I have used
Adaware, Spybot 1.3 and my own cunning to try rid my
machine of this spyware, but i remove all registry keys
that spybot identifies and delete all Adaware found files,
but it is still doing it.
Is there a manual way of finding the culprit and removing
it manually from my machine.
Please help as it has already cost me £20 in unauthorised
premium rate calls.
You see the problem is it, disconnects me and dials this
new number silently. So I can miss it if i am away from my
machine.

Thanks.

Alex.

 

[DZ]

Best thing you can do is rebuild the machine from
scratch. Once it's compromised there's no way of telling
what else has been compromised on the machine.

Dan Zimmerman, SSCP, MCP

 

[Thomas Storm]

Best thing you can do is rebuild the machine from

scratch. Once it's compromised there's no way of telling
what else has been compromised on the machine.

No! Don't rebuild the machine! It is impossible for software to compromise
hardware. Worst-case scenario, you'd simply have to reformat your HDD and
reinstall your OS and other apps. What I would do is trace that number your
computer is calling and find out who it is. Once you do that, you most
likely have your culprit. Report them to the FBI (or in your case, Scotland
Yard), because what their doing illegal in almost every country on the
globe. The detective will probably ask if you want to press charges. Do
that, and also sue the shorts off that person/company for all the money they
have. They'll probably settle for much more money than they've taken from
you.

 

[DZ]

When I say rebuild the machine, I mean reinstall the OS
and applications. An individual has very few means, if
any, of tracing back a phone call without a court order
(in the US). A law suit would be lucky to make it to the
courts, and my experience with both the FBI and the SS is
they will not press charges until a threshold of $5,000
has been met.

 

[Thomas Storm]

When I say rebuild the machine, I mean reinstall the OS

Whew! You had me worried there. I could just see someone reading this
message and proceed to rip components out of their box trying to rebuild it!
LOL

and applications. An individual has very few means, if
any, of tracing back a phone call without a court order
(in the US). A law suit would be lucky to make it to the

I think this person is from the UK, since they gave their money in pounds...
I'm not sure how Scotland Yard works over there in regards to this. In know
in Michigan, though, the FBI will hear you out as long as it's over $500,
not $5000. As for tracing the call, any phone company can do that...