AntiSpywareBOT- HELP [Archive] - Safer-Networking Forums

flapjack

2009-08-26, 20:58

:sad:My daughters laptop did not have Spybot, but I have just installed it and it has got rid of most of the Trojan/malware - forgive me if I get phrases wrong I am a novice!!.

What remains are 6 items which even if I follow back to the source I am unable to remove manually, nor is Spybot, from the computer. The first 3 all have same address with different endings and are all Registry keys, under the heading in Spybot of "Adware Alert" and they are:

HKEY-LOCAL-MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\DisabledRun
HKEY-LOCAL-MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\DisabledUninstall
HKEY-LOCAL-MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\DisabledBHO

Under the heading in Spybot of "AntiSpywareBOT" the registry key is:

HKEY-LOCAL-MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\Folders\C:\Programme Files\AntiSpywareBot\

and the remaining 2 are Directories and their addresses are:

C:\ProgrammeData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programmes\AntiSpywareBot\
C:\Programme Files\AntiSpywareBot\

I have run Spybot a number of times but am unable to delete as not an administrator, although registered in Users as one.

No idea what to do next all assistance gratefully received.

Many thanks :confused:

MalwareS?c?s

2009-08-27, 10:06

On Sunday 8/23/09 I was installing a fresh copy of xp on my daughter's P4 notebook. The drive pc's was only 10GB so things were pretty tight (2.7GB) once I had the office suite loaded.

I went to my trusted "Optimize XP" website to start the optimization of this install. The first step is malware removal, but I had not optimized an installation in a couple of years, so I decided to download the latest SpyBot S&D app from this trusted site. Well, the link I thought was for SpyBot S&D appeared to have been redirected to the "free" AntiSpywareBot 2009 download, that is authored by the 2Squared software Co., of which I downloaded & installed because it appeared legitimate.

I'll spare you the details of the install that eventually reported several spyware cookies on my system, and then asked for my e-mail address and for payment of $29.99 to actually remove the spyware from my system. I just deleted the cookies and then went to find I could not uninstall AntispywareBOT (nothing logged by this app in xp's Add/Remove Programs). When I finally realized my bufoo, after a couple of re-boots and subsequent warnings that popped up from this app, I located and installed the latest version of SpyBot S&D, which identified AntispywareBOT as malware, and removed 18 entries of AntiSpywareBOT from my windows system folders & registry.

Unfortunately, when I rebooted xp after the AntiSpywareBOT app's removal, xp loaded to where it was ready to display the Welcome screen and suddenly the pc spontaneoulsy re-booted itself. Neither xp's "Last Known Working Configuration" or any "Safe Modes" can overcome the re-boot. All I can get is a continuous loop of starting xp & the pc rebooting.

In researching AntiSpywareBOT on Google I found the search to be saturated with Spyware apps claiming they could remove the "Rogue" AntiSpywareBOT app, as well as numerous pages with what claimed to be customer testimonies applauding AntiSpywareBOT as the best antispyware on the market. What's interesting is that most of these sites were strangely alike, and many used the same sub-title within their company logos -- "Applications For The Masses". That phrase I eventually tracked to many apps authored by Enigma Software Group, LLC, which has many complaints posted about their SpyHunter software/service -- that also claims to remove AntiSpywareBOT. These complaints include, the company not publishing a telephone number, failure to reply to most of the tickets submitted by these complaining customers, and overcharging and recurrent charging of these customers for Enigma's software/service product, and the customers seem to have no recource but to complain to their bank or CC company.

In this post I have not accused the 2Squared or Enigma Software companies of anything -- I've merely stated the observations I made during my installation, removal, and susequent research of the AntispywareBOT 2009 application. I also observed a statement posted in reply to a customer's complaint by an Enigma Software Group, LLC representative, that used what I felt was intimidating language to the customer, through the use of legalese and a seeming implication of the customer perpetrating civil rights infringements upon Enigma Software Group, LLC. It is my sincere hope that Safer Networking Ltd. will not be smehow be compelled into removing this post. :lip: