SOS! PC being spied!

[Pleiades]

Dear all, the purpose of this thread is to seek help and advice from te available pool of IT gurus/network engineer on SB.

Suspect my PC is hijacked or commonly known - spied. It runs unusually slower than what its capable of. Just yesterday, I was informed by the local telco that I had clocked up a hefty amount nearing US$50 for an international modem dial up (just a day charge) :11: which obviously i did not. There's other symptoms on top of the slowness in system execution:
1) Too many ads pops up whenever I'm on line;
2) Just recently, have problem even launching the internet. Instead of opening the default homepage, am routed to an alien IP address: 66.219.108.xxx (cant recall the last 2 digits);
3) Noticed 2 unfamiliar icon residing on my PC;
4) And, of cos the baffling phone bills :06:

Need advice on the following:
1. Do i have a case with the telco for refusing to pay for the service i did not use? If yes, how should i position the case?
2. How do i troubleshoot and ascertain its really infected by spyware? ANy other symptoms i might have overlooked?
3. How do i solve it?

Any help and advice is very much appreciated. Am so handicap without computer.

HELP....HELP...

 

[Kim]

The first thing to do is to download Adaware from:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
This might clean it up completely.
The second thing to do is run a virus check. AVG is a very good free one - you can get it here:
http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/1/

I don't know the answer to the charges question - but it can't hurt to contact them, explain what has happened, and see what they say.

 

[Corigan]

Also try running spybot search and destroy on the PC. It will find items that adaware doesn't find and vice versa. Also another decent program is called HiJack This. It will create a log of everything running. Most people that don't know what they are looking at post the logs up on forums and people help them out.

Matt

 

[ShakaZulu]

I would rather use Spybot Search & Destroy. It's freeware and really good. You have too many bad cookies on your machine.

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

Also install a Firewall such as "Sygate Personal Firewall"

 

[Kim]

You can use SpyBot as well if you like. As Corrigan said - Adaware and SpyBot will find different things sometimes. The only problem using them both is that they sometimes get confused with each others definition files.
I would definitely also get and run AVG though - it sounds like you may have a few more problems than just a few bad cookies - I suspect some kind of browser hijacker virus. Once AVG is installed it will also protect your computer on an ongoing basis - make sure that you have the automatic update feature turned on.

 

[Pleiades]

I have problem even launching my net. It doesnt even allow my to run and route directly to the ip address as mentioned...

Could i save the .exe files on a disk and run it on my computer instead?

 

[Corigan]

I have problem even launching my net. It doesnt even allow my to run and route directly to the ip address as mentioned...

Could i save the .exe files on a disk and run it on my computer instead?

Possibly, have you tried booting into safe mode with network support?

Matt

 

[Pleiades]

You can use SpyBot as well if you like. As Corrigan said - Adaware and SpyBot will find different things sometimes. The only problem using them both is that they sometimes get confused with each others definition files.
I would definitely also get and run AVG though - it sounds like you may have a few more problems than just a few bad cookies - I suspect some kind of browser hijacker virus. Once AVG is installed it will also protect your computer on an ongoing basis - make sure that you have the automatic update feature turned on.

Gee thanks... its very helpful.

 

[Pleiades]

Possibly, have you tried booting into safe mode with network support?

Matt

Huh?? How do i do that? Do you mind giving me step by step guide?

 

[fishnchips]

Temp fix of the phone bills. The virus software in your computer will initiate long distance calls and run up your phone bills. Go to your modem setting and set calling rules ie prefix before dialing local and long distance. Only you know the prefix. This will prevent the automatic dialing of the virus software.

Go to download.com. CHeck out: All in one Secret Maker, SpyBot, Webroot spy sweeper, Ad-Aware, spyware Doctor.

Google tool bar has good ad blocker. Yahoo toolbar comes with an Anti spy Scanner which I found to be useful and fast. Check out Zone Alarm.

Always delete your temp internet files.