Popup Warning about Spyware and Adware

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Hello,
This is my first post here. I need your help!

I keep getting this popup in a large yellow window - it shows most often when I first get connected to the Internet. (Note: I have both a popup stopper and Ad-Aware, which I currently ran and it got rid of any adware and spyware). This window has no X in the corner to get rid of it, so I have to go to another website in order to not see it. In addition, when I right click "Properties," there is no information available. What is this and how do I delete it from my computer? Thanks.

Here'e the exact text that comes up:
"We have detected that your PC may be infected with dangerous Spyware and Adware. Spyware and Adware typically record your online activity including e-mail passwords, Instant messnger, online banking transactions, chat rooms and all sites you visit. Once installed on your PC Spyware transmits your personal information to 3rd parties without your permission. Download our Free Scanner to find out if your PC is infected. Click here to download Free Scanner.

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In the first place, when you take up an offer of that kind, what you get is worth exactly what you paid for it. I paid about $40 for Spykiller, and it works a treat. Very likely, such a solicitation simply wants to lure to a site which will install its own spyware on your box. If you are comfortable with the use of Task Manager, one of the things you can do is hit "ctrl, alt, delete" simultaneouly, and select that popup window name from the list, and tell Task Manager to shut it down. Don't do that, though, unless you are familiar with and comfortable using Task Manager. Another option is to right-click the icon on the tool bar (the bottom of your screen) and select close.

Personallyh, i would just ignore it. But that isn't good advice is this bothers you. If you don't have a program like Spykiller, then you might try going to Yuckware thread at this site, and carefully read the advice Timber has posted. Good luck, Boss.

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Thanks.

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Make sure your AdAware is up to date, and that it is configured for maximum effectiveness. The brief tutorial you'll find under AdAware's "Help" button is very informative. I wouls suggest also that you get, update, and properly configure SpyBot S&D. Download and install it, then read the through its modest but quite helpful tutorial before you run it. Spybot should be configured to employ its "Immunize" feature, and to block unwanted downloads.

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Popup Warning about Spyware and Adware
I have seen this, too...it only appears at the top of the browser screen. If you scroll down, you see the page you were trying to display. I think it may be associated with being on Yahoo, but I'm not sure yet. It's not a pop-up.

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Could be Windows Messenger spam, too ... hadn't thought about that. See this Article about the critter.

If you have AdAware, you can download Lavasoft's Windows Messenger Control plugin.

GRC, Steve Gibson's great website, offers the free Shoot the Messenger which does more or less the same thing for those without AdAware.

Windows Messenger can be disabled manually in most Windows versions:

Windows XP Home:
Click Start->Settings ->Control Panel
Click Performance and Maintenance
Click Administrative Tools
Double click Services Scroll
down and highlight "Messenger"
Right-click the highlighted line and choose Properties.
Click the STOP button.
Select Disable or Manual in the Startup Type scroll bar
Click OK

Windows XP Professional:
Click Start->Settings ->Control Panel
Click Administrative Tools
Click Services
Double click Services Scroll
down and highlight "Messenger"
Right-click the highlighted line and choose Properties.
Click the STOP button.
Select Disable or Manual in the Startup Type scroll bar
Click OK

Windows NT:
Click Start ->Control Panel
Double Click Administrative Tools
Select Services-> Double-click on Messenger
In the Messenger Properties window, select Stop,
Then choose Disable as the Startup Type
Click OK

Windows 2000:
Click Start-> Settings-> Control Panel-> Administrative Tools->Services
Scroll down and highlight "Messenger"
Right-click the highlighted line and choose Properties.
Click the STOP button.
Select Disable or Manual in the Startup Type scroll bar
Click OK

Windows 98 & ME:
Windows Messenger Service can't be disabled manually, as far as I understand. I've heard of a couple pay-for products that claim to do it, but I have never tested them myself, so I can't and won't recommend for or against 'em.

Here's a sorta fun PopUp Blocker Test Page some of you might get a kick out of. I don't get much entertainment there, other than a couple of "Attempt Blocked" alerts on one or two of the tests Mr. Green

This is what an A2K (or just about any other) webpage looks like to me:

http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0VgDgAhMZujIHYwBUEMJdRW6y6WQfyLRXRdZjsNeZPt4LDAgOS1q0nLkLf30IJuZpoHyP12x2YiayQu3WCjGTcBit!3xtM47icnAVfJAYtkYgUg7qErtIBLVkV1oF*1FG/Capture_04252004_172011.jpg

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Popup Warning about Spyware and Adware
I now get other ads the same way, like Classmates. I think Yahoo Mail is slipping these in. It usually happens after being away from the computer for some time.

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I get this exact ad too. It's not something you can just ignore, it happens everytime I log on.

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I have now seen an ad for Classmates and some other advertiser in this same way. It must be Yahoo, which is how I do email. I am completely up to date on anti-virus protection, ran the latest Ad-Aware update, and use ZoneAlarm as a firewall.

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I believe this is due to:

http://specificpop.com

"SpecificPOP specializes in popunder ads, the highest-paying CPM ad unit on the internet. This translates into maximum profit for our publishers.
Our advertiser list includes familiar names such as Expedia, Orbitz, and X10. We target advertisements to specific web sites, so you can be sure that the popunders your visitors see are appropriate.

"All advertisements served on the network are frequency capped at 1 per 24 hours."

This site gives a way to block SpecificPop.com:

http://ca.geocities.com/williammcminn/helpfiles/onlineprivacy.html

I don't know if it works yet, but thought I would pass on the info.

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TulsaTV wrote:

I believe this is due to:

http://specificpop.com

"SpecificPOP specializes in popunder ads, the highest-paying CPM ad unit on the internet. This translates into maximum profit for our publishers.
Our advertiser list includes familiar names such as Expedia, Orbitz, and X10. We target advertisements to specific web sites, so you can be sure that the popunders your visitors see are appropriate.

"All advertisements served on the network are frequency capped at 1 per 24 hours."

This site gives a way to block SpecificPop.com:

http://ca.geocities.com/williammcminn/helpfiles/onlineprivacy.html

I don't know if it works yet, but thought I would pass on the info.

TulsaTV, I think you may have found the key here. I noticed something about specificpop.com in the toolbar the last time the ugly yellow window showed up. I used your link and blocked the site, plus all the others listed, so we'll see what happens. Will keep you posted.
Thanks very much for your help, and thanks to everyone else who has responded.

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Now I'm thinking that Yahoo's ad at the top of my.yahoo.com is sold to doubleclick.net, who is presenting the SpecificPop ad. I have now blocked doubleclick,net in the same way as the article recommends (and doubleclick.com, too, for good measure). Here is some code at the top of my page with the ad (I have added spaces to avoid making this page too wide):

 <IFRAME SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adi/N3390.yahoocom/B1346493.7;sz=728 x90;dcopt=rcl;click=http://rd.yahoo.com/SIG=124bn3dca/M=292672.488 4081.6023247.313120/
D=mail/S=150500004:N/EXP=1083327693/A=2117 383/R=0/*;ord=1083241293954428?"
WIDTH=730 HEIGHT=92 MARGINWIDTH=0 MARGINHEIGHT=0 HSPACE=0 VSPACE=0 FRAMEBORDER=0
SCROLLING=no BORDERCOLOR='#000000'>
<SCRIPT language='JavaScript1.1' SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/N3390.yahoocom/B1346493.7;
abr=! ie;sz=728x90;dcopt=rcl;click=http://rd.yahoo.com/SIG=124bn3dca/M=29 2672.4884081.6023247.313120/D=mail/S=150500004:N/EXP=108332769 3/A=2117383/R=1/*;ord=1083241293954428?">
</SCRIPT>
<NOSCRIPT>
<A HREF="http://rd.yahoo.com/SIG=124bn3dca/M=292672.4884081.
6023247 .313120/D=mail/
S=150500004:N/EXP=1083327693/A=2117383/R=2/SIG =13mslrm9i/*http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/N3390.yahoocom/B1346493. 7;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;sz=728x90;dcopt=rcl;ord=1083241293954428?">
<IMG SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/N3390.yahoocom/B1346493.7;abr=! ie4;abr=!ie5;
sz=728x90;dcopt=rcl;ord=1083241293954428?" BORDER=0 WIDTH=728 HEIGHT=90 ALT="Click Here">Click Here</A>
</NOSCRIPT>
</IFRAME>

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Guys, doubleclick is not the culprit in the cases of spyware. They are a legitimate business and what is probably happening is that one of their publishers is using their ad tags to make money through spyware.

Instead of blocking doubleclick contact them and give them the tags, it should have a member number that doubleclick can use to trace to the individual. They can seize all the individual's earnings and it would be much better to do that than to block doubleclick, who are actually another victim of this miscreant.

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merstar wrote:

TulsaTV wrote:
I believe this is due to:

http://specificpop.com

"SpecificPOP specializes in popunder ads, the highest-paying CPM ad unit on the internet. This translates into maximum profit for our publishers.
Our advertiser list includes familiar names such as Expedia, Orbitz, and X10. We target advertisements to specific web sites, so you can be sure that the popunders your visitors see are appropriate.

"All advertisements served on the network are frequency capped at 1 per 24 hours."

This site gives a way to block SpecificPop.com:

http://ca.geocities.com/williammcminn/helpfiles/onlineprivacy.html

I don't know if it works yet, but thought I would pass on the info.

TulsaTV, I think you may have found the key here. I noticed something about specificpop.com in the toolbar the last time the ugly yellow window showed up. I used your link and blocked the site, plus all the others listed, so we'll see what happens. Will keep you posted.
Thanks very much for your help, and thanks to everyone else who has responded.

UPDATE: Well, unfortunately, the ugly yellow window is still showing up. Back to the drawing board.

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TulsaTV wrote:

Now I'm thinking that Yahoo's ad at the top of my.yahoo.com is sold to doubleclick.net, who is presenting the SpecificPop ad. I have now blocked doubleclick,net in the same way as the article recommends (and doubleclick.com, too, for good measure). Here is some code at the top of my page with the ad (I have added spaces to avoid making this page too wide):

TulsaTV
How do you get the code to come up?

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Craven de Kere wrote:

Guys, doubleclick is not the culprit in the cases of spyware. They are a legitimate business and what is probably happening is that one of their publishers is using their ad tags to make money through spyware.

Instead of blocking doubleclick contact them and give them the tags, it should have a member number that doubleclick can use to trace to the individual. They can seize all the individual's earnings and it would be much better to do that than to block doubleclick, who are actually another victim of this miscreant.

Good idea! How do I get the code/tags to show up?

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I'm not sure, you need to look at the source code of the page and how to do so depends on browser, popup style, and what shows up in the popup.

It's sometimes hard to get the source from a popup so I usually use my hitory to open the popup in a full page and get the source from there.

Thing is, the ad tags are probably the ones posted right there above our posts. If it is the same miscreant the different infections might be running the same member ID code.

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You know, I think that Yahoo is simply serving this as an ad; I'm not sure you can avoid it if you use Yahoo for email as I do.

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Is it launching when using Yahoo or later on? I doubt that Yahoo would pull a delayed launch (except maybe on a page exit) but they do use some popup advertising and the tags have some yahoo references.

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And it happened to me again today on going to a completely different web site, so you're probably right.

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Popup Warning about Spyware and Adware

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