Spam is changing my home page!

TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
edited September 2003 in Science & Tech
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!

Comments

  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    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.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    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
  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    And yes, it could have been stealthed in something else. You may not have clicked 'yes'.
    But you weren't running ZoneAlarm were you?
  • TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    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.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited September 2003
    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
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    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
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited September 2003
    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
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    It's true - Opera and Mozilla cannot use the ActiveX controls that are what allow the Hijacking to occur in the first place.
  • TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    I just ran the Spybot killer through. It found 471 bad things.

    We'll see how it works now.
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