SpywareBot

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SubJunk

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Firstly, I know it's pretty obvious they are copying SpyBot's name, and I don't like that.
But in SpyBot it picks it up as spyware. I'm not sure if it's spyware or not, but I know I had adware that somehow attached itself to IE7, so that no matter what page I went to an ad would pop up in a new window, and I tried Ad-Aware and Spybot and a few other programs to get rid of it and neither worked. Then I tried SpywareBot and it got rid of it.
Well actually it didn't get rid of it, because I only have the trial version, but after the scan it had the folder and registry hierarchy visible so I was able to go through and delete the spyware myself.
So I don't know whether SpywareBot is spyware itself, but I do know that it also gets rid of spyware.
Does anyone know what it does that makes it spyware? Or is it just that the guy who makes SpyBot doesn't like it 'cause it stole his name? I understand if it's that, I would probably do the same thing.
 
Hello SubJunk.
SubJunk said:
Or is it just that the guy who makes SpyBot doesn't like it 'cause it stole his name? I understand if it's that, I would probably do the same thing.
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No small matter:
Trademark issues. 4. August 2006

As a result of our ongoing efforts to protect our users from frauds, we're happy to announce that we were able to shut down three major mock sites: spybot.org is now registered to us as well, and the misleading selling of anti-spyware software on spybot.cc and spybot.biz has been shut down.

Our main targets now are free-spybot.com (with a dozen other very similar domains) and spywarebot.com, who still cheat many people each day into paying for something they believe would be Spybot-S&D. If you are one of those who were mislead by one of these pages, please let us know at legal@spybot.info.
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http://www.safer-networking.org/en/news/2006-08-04.html

exploits name "Spybot Search & Destroy"; same app as AdwareAlert [A: 5-14-06 / U: 5-14-06]
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Rogue/Suspect Anti-Spyware Products & Web Sites

I don't know if their program is clean, their methods are not. :)
 
tashi said:
I don't know if their program is clean, their methods are not. :)
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I realise that people definitely confuse the two programs, but as a long-time user of SpyBot I didn't have them confused. I'm sure SpyBot detects spyware that SpywareBot doesn't, but the opposite is also true, they detect different things.
All I know is that even though SpywareBot is capitalizing on the SpyBot name, which I don't take lightly, it seems to me as if they also happen to make a program which is good and doesn't fit the category of spyware at all.
It also seems slightly counter-intuitive that SpyBot would tell computer users it's spyware as a protest against SpywareBot being mistaken for SpyBot, because obviously if a user has both programs on their computer they are already aware that they are two different programs.
It's not a big deal really, I only used SpywareBot to remove a single piece of spyware that slipped through the cracks when I changed firewalls (IE7 is so freakin' useless on it's own! I was only without a firewall for 10 minutes! :p) and now it's deleted anyway, but I think it's pretty underhanded and wrong to pick it up as spyware.
SpyBot's purpose is to detect spyware, not software made by dishonest/sneaky companies who don't make spyware. If that was it's purpose then why doesn't it detect Windows XP itself? :p
It's dishonest to call a program spyware just because they company are assholes and are capitalizing off your hard-earned name is all I'm trying to say, maybe come up with a different detection or popup window that says "this program isn't spyware but we think you should delete it anyway" or something like that, I dunno :)
 
First of all, SpywareBOT is not detected as Spyware, it is detected as malware. Today there are many rouge anti-spyware products like SpywareBOT and AdwareAlert, which are definetly the same tools with different names. Additionaly you do not find any information about the company behind these two rouge anti-spyware products. If you look who the owner of the domain of these company is, you will see that is a anonymous service. So why should a company that tries to make a "good" program use such methods to hide themself?

I warn everybody, do not use SpywareBOT! It can be dangerous for your computer. And don't get cheated by those guys!

If you want to see which tools are rouge anti-spyware tools you can have a look here:

http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm
 
In my opinion it tries to frighten users by showing false positives as "high risk problems". Often such entries are made by rouge antispyware tools themself. Additionally it picks up harmless cookies as high risk problems and tries to make people buying a licence to get problems (that do not really exist) resolved...
 
Hello,

The reasons why Spybot - Search & Destroy detects this software as malware are several ones:
There are anti-spyware tools like 1stAntivirus, Ad-Protect, AdsAlert, ADS-Remover, AdwareAlert, AdwareBazooka, Adware-Patrol, AdWare Pro, AdwarePunisher, Adware Remover, AdwareSheriff, AdwareSpy, AdwareX Eliminator, AgentSpyware, Alfacleaner, Antispywaresoldier, AntiVerMinsPro, Antivirus Gold, AntiVirusPro, BPS Spyware Remover, CyberDefender, DiaRemover, Doctor-Adware-Pro, DriveCleaner2006, Easy-Spyware-Killer, ErrorGuard, EDT-Security-Scanner, ErrorSafe, EyeSpyNow, Goodbye-Spy, KillSpy, NoAdware, PC-Health-Plan, Pestbot, PSGuard, PurityScan, Registry Cleaner, Repair Registry Pro, ScanSpyware, Spionfrei, SpyAxe, SpyBlocs, SpyCleaner, Spycontra, Spydeface, SpyDestroy-Pro, SpyFalcon, SpyGuard, SpyHeal, Spyhunter, SpyOnThis, SpySherrif, SpySpotter, SpywareBomber, SpywareBot, SpywareCleaner, SpywareNO!, SpywareSheriff.FakeAlert, SpywareSoftStop, SpywareStormer, SpywareStrike, SpywareQuake, SpyQuake, SystemDoctor2006, Trek Blue Error Nuker, Trojan-Guarder, TrueSword, Virusblast, VirusBurst, VirusRescue, WareOut, WinAntivirusPro2006, WinFixer, WinHound, WinSoftware.Winsoftware.WinAntiSpyware2006, WorldAntispy, X-Con-Spyware-Destroyer, X-Spyware, XSRemover, YourSoft-AntiVS or YourSoft-AntiVT which have a very dubious or bad character. They state to be an anti-spyware tool but employ questionable advertising methods: In the form of a PopUp they offer a scan of your system. They refer you to an infection of viruses and spyware on your system which is actually not true, because the listed items are not really on your pc. After downloading the software you can only scan for the threats. If the threats (pseudo-infections) are detected you have to register first and pay (up to $30) in order to remove them. Some of these dubious anti-spyware tools do also create a toolbar in IE and create recurring PopUps.

Screenshots are availible at: http://board.protecus.de/showtopic.php?threadid=15694

More dubious anti-spyware tools you will find here:
http://spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

Best regards
Sandra
Team Spybot
 
spybotsandra said:
Some of these dubious anti-spyware tools do also create a toolbar in IE and create recurring PopUps.
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I can verify that the most recent version of SpywareBot, 1.4.1.2, doesn't create any toolbars or popups, it helped me to remove them, something no other anti-spyware program did.
They may not be the perfect company and you may see their product as being inferior to SpyBot but the fact still remains it works.
I don't see what is to be gained by lumping it into a category which it doesn't belong to, such as comparing it to programs that harm computers or don't work. This can be determined by law as libel and I'm sure the maker of this program (Patrick is it?) wouldn't be too happy about legal action from a company who was accidentally included in a list it shouldn't've been.
Again I'll point out you're probably right that the anonymity of the company being indicative of "sneakyness", but even sneaky individuals are able to file libel suits ;)

I have nothing to do with whoever is behind SpywareBot, in case you thought I did. I'm just sticking up for them because the program helped me identify spyware that no other program I tried detected.
I also think SpyBot is great, I use it mostly for it's immunization features as well as it's a nice GUI to go through Windows settings in the advanced options, it has been a program I've installed on dozens of computers over the years.
 
MisterW said:
Additionally it picks up harmless cookies as high risk problems and tries to make people buying a licence to get problems (that do not really exist) resolved...
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Haha yeah I've noticed it does that. Products from the legitimate company PC Tools (like Registry Mechanic) operate in the exact same way as well, but they are still good and widely recommended programs (although they don't seem to like Adobe products very much) :)
 
:funny:

I don't think that other legitimate tools are trying to sell their products by frighten people and claiming that there computer is totally infected...

If you think that SpywareBOT is not a rouge antispyware tool :eek: , you can ignore our detection. But there are enough reasons to save our users by detecting it :ninja:
 
MisterW said:
I don't think that other legitimate tools are trying to sell their products by frighten people and claiming that there computer is totally infected...

If you think that SpywareBOT is not a rouge antispyware tool :eek: , you can ignore our detection. But there are enough reasons to save our users by detecting it
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I haven't seen any reasons on here so far. What are the reasons you have?

Here's a simple illustration:
I had adware
SpywareBot detected it
I removed it and now as a result of that detection I don't have any adware

Here's another:
Company != product

Detecting a product as spyware because the company sucks doesn't make sense. There are a lot of companies who do dodgy things but still make good products. Just look at all the lawsuits Microsoft loses every year, it doesn't stop me from using good products like VirtualPC and DirectX.

I have seen no evidence at all that SpywareBot, the product, acts in any harmful way whatsoever.
If you have that evidence I would like to see it so that I can delete it from my computer (it's already uninstalled but I still have the installer)
If there is no evidence of SpywareBot being harmful in any way it would of course mean the people who labelled it as malware are doing the exact same thing you accuse the makers of SpywareBot of doing, that being exaggerating the harmfulness of something.
The intentions may be different, but the outcome is the same. I would've hoped a legitimate company such as PepiMK (or is it Safer Networking now?) wouldn't stoop to the level of the companies they are against.
 
Hello,

Do you think this link is fun?
http://spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

And lot of cheated users is also very funny......

I will laugh later.....

We find it also very funny that SpyWareBot claims to be our software and uses our name for their advertisings to catch users and get lots of money....

i love also the dozen e-mails very much that i get everyday from cheated users that paid for SpyWareBot ( because they were misleaded by this illegal advertising ) and thought that they have downloaded our software - and want to get a refund from us because they state that our software is free.

Very funny....haha
 
spybotsandra said:
Hello,

Do you think this link is fun?
http://spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

And lot of cheated users is also very funny......

I will laugh later.....

We find it also very funny that SpyWareBot claims to be our software and uses our name for their advertisings to catch users and get lots of money....

i love also the dozen e-mails very much that i get everyday from cheated users that paid for SpyWareBot ( because they were misleaded by this illegal advertising ) and thought that they have downloaded our software - and want to get a refund from us because they state that our software is free.

Very funny....haha
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Why are you spybot people laughing? This is serious. First MisterW makes fun of it and now you, I don't understand it.
 
It's obvious you aren't going to address the point at hand, we are just going around in circles. I keep asking questions and you guys keep giving answers that don't relate to the questions, I get enough of that on my forum! Come on you guys, focus, please. I know you are probably busy people, as am I, but that is even more reason to really read eachother's posts and respond on topic.
I've clearly stated I don't like the SpywareBot company, that is something we agree on, for the 5th time!
I've clearly stated that the reason I am baffled is that the SpywareBot program itself does it's job, doesn't do any damage, it does the opposite.
All I've seen is confirmation from you guys that 1) the company sucks, and 2) you have no evidence to contradict what I'm saying about the program.
 
tashi said:
I don't know if their program is clean, their methods are not. :)
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Exactly, thanks for being honest :)
So the detection is a protest against the company as opposed to the program actually being malware.
Doesn't that seem a little dishonest? I mean, telling your users a program is harmful when it isn't seems to me to be just as bad as what you are angry at SpywareBot for. Why stoop to their level?
 
SubJunk:

Evidently you feel passionately that SpywareBot helped you identify and rid your system of some form of malware and are annoyed that SpywareBot is being be identified as malware by Spybot-S&D. I assume that the passion that you are defending SpywareBot with is because of a desire to help others overcome the adverse affects of the malware that you experienced.

With that in mind, I suggest that you consider trying to help your fellow users of Spybot-S&D by publishing what was found by SpywareBot in the New or undetected forum so that those detections could possibly be added to Spybot-S&D's detections and help more people.
 
md usa spybot fan said:
SubJunk:

Evidently you feel passionately that SpywareBot helped you identify and rid your system of some form of malware and are annoyed that SpywareBot is being be identified as malware by Spybot-S&D. I assume that the passion that you are defending SpywareBot with is because of a desire to help others overcome the adverse affects of the malware that you experienced.

With that in mind, I suggest that you consider trying to help your fellow users of Spybot-S&D by publishing what was found by SpywareBot in the New or undetected forum so that those detections could possibly be added to Spybot-S&D's detections and help more people.
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Great idea, thanks :)
 
There's one thing about their program that's absolutely not clean, and that's the name. And speaking about quality, why do you think do we get a hundred times as much requests for refund for SpywareBot as we do receive for Spybot-S&D?

Wait... what did I just say? Yes, that's right, we receive requests for refunds for that application. Simple because many people do mistake it to be our software - then we have to tell them they got cheated. And just those who mistook it are a huge multiple of those complaining about our real product. So if even the small number of refund requests that reach us instead of them is way larger than those about our software, that imho tells a lot about its quality.

So we've got a product name that's intentionally violating our trademark and more important, fooling people, both by pretending to be something else, and pretending to be free when they actually charge the credit card! Detecting it as a threat is not an "angry reaction", but an attempt to prevent at least a few people to be cheated into paying, or if they did, letting them know so they can get their money back. And again, the numbers seem to confirm that this is very very necessary.

Good for you that it did its job on your machine :) but on a lot of machines, its job seems to be to charge the users credit card without him knowing :sick:
 
PepiMK said:
There's one thing about their program that's absolutely not clean, and that's the name. And speaking about quality, why do you think do we get a hundred times as much requests for refund for SpywareBot as we do receive for Spybot-S&D?

Wait... what did I just say? Yes, that's right, we receive requests for refunds for that application. Simple because many people do mistake it to be our software - then we have to tell them they got cheated. And just those who mistook it are a huge multiple of those complaining about our real product. So if even the small number of refund requests that reach us instead of them is way larger than those about our software, that imho tells a lot about its quality.
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I agree, as I've said on this thread at least a million times now.

PepiMK said:
and pretending to be free when they actually charge the credit card! Detecting it as a threat is not an "angry reaction", but an attempt to prevent at least a few people to be cheated into paying, or if they did, letting them know so they can get their money back. And again, the numbers seem to confirm that this is very very necessary.
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That's interesting, I never thought it was free. I wonder why people think that. Doesn't it say when it's finished the scan that you need to register it to remove the things it detected?
I didn't go through that part, I just manually removed the files it detected.

PepiMK said:
Good for you that it did its job on your machine :) but on a lot of machines, its job seems to be to charge the users credit card without him knowing :sick:
Click to expand...
Well that certainly is sick, I had no idea it charged them without them knowing. How does it find out their credit card information?
 
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