Spam is changing my home page!

[Tim]

In the last 2 days, while downloading files from Kazaa, when I get the file, the next time I try to access the internet (www.msn.com is my home page), It keeps taking me to some site called passiton.com . I never read it, but I'm sure it's just junk mail. Whatever it is, I don't want it.

But after the first episode, I checked my settings in the control panel, and the home page had been changed! WTF is this BS? I put it back to msn.com .How to fix this and keep it from happening again? It's happened twice now.

I don't know why a telemarketer / spammer thinks anyone will actually read an ad forced on us like this, let alone buy anything from those bastards!

[primesuspect]

You have spyware. It's not spam. You clicked "yes" on something and it installed a "browser helper object" or a "browser hijacker" that will always change your homepage as long as you have the spyware installed.

I highly suggest you download and run Spybot Search and Destroy v1.2 immediately.

[Enverex]

You will want to run -

Adaware - http://atomnet.co.uk/?p=programs&search=adaware

and Spybot - Search and Destroy -
http://atomnet.co.uk/?p=programs&search=spybot

This isn't anything to do with Spam, Spam is junk e-mail. You went and downloaded, then ran a spyware installer (not the smartest move ever) which then `infested` your machine.

NS

[edcentric]

And yes, it could have been stealthed in something else. You may not have clicked 'yes'.
But you weren't running ZoneAlarm were you?

[Tim]

No, no ZoneAlarm. I had installed it once, but it changed things I didn't want changed, so I deleted it.

I'll run those other things through the system. Thanks.

[Tex]

You can lock your home page where it can't be changed also. I now keep about a half dozen registry edit files handy to restore stuff like the search engine that gets hijacked or locking my home page so it can't get hijacked etc.

Tex

[primesuspect]

You could also stop using Internet Explorer, which is the ONLY browser that is susceptible to all these hijacker and spyware pieces of crap.

www.mozilla.org

www.opera.com

[Tex]

Not sure thats true at all. But since it has probably 90 percent of the market place right now it would be the browser of choice to try and jack with.

Tex

[primesuspect]

It's true - Opera and Mozilla cannot use the ActiveX controls that are what allow the Hijacking to occur in the first place.

[Tim]

I just ran the Spybot killer through. It found 471 bad things.

We'll see how it works now.