Results 1 to 7 of 7

Thread: Spyware Doctor

  1. #1
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    United Kingdom: Bridlington
    Posts
    17,188

    Question Spyware Doctor

    I just visited a site and was offered a free online scan by Spyware Doctor (I think) So I ran it and it came up with 4 items in around 2 minutes. A full scan of this system with AdAware, SpyBot, Ewido or Microsoft Antispyware takes between 10 and 20 minutes each.

    I am then told that to remove this spyware I have to purchase the product.........

    Go figure

    I ran a safe mode scan with all the products I have mentioned and they found nothing..................?

    I rest my case.


  2. #2
    AO Senior Cow-beller
    Moderator
    zencoder's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Location
    Mountain standard tribe.
    Posts
    1,177
    Did it indicate exactly what 2 items? I'm guessing "no".

    Reminds me of, back in the days when Back Orifice was the media darling, some guy (think GRC.com) had a site that was a clearing house of info on BO, and he attacked some software product that was supposedly going to clean and protect your system, which then did neither. They sued his ISP and him I think, and of course he shut up because he was intimidated by the spectre of legal fee's.

    There were a lot of these software offerings to protect from that boogey-man of the day. This is not surprising that the same trend occur's today. I think it goes beyond technology though; I know that here in the US, a lot of companies were offering back yard bomb shelters for sale around the time of the Cuban missle crisis. And I know some car dealerships will STILL offer to sell you 'clear coat protectant' on a new car.
    "Data is not necessarily information. Information does not necessarily lead to knowledge. And knowledge is not always sufficient to discover truth and breed wisdom." --Spaf
    Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made president should on no account be allowed to do the job. --Douglas Adams (1952-2001)
    "...people find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right." - Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore

  3. #3
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    United Kingdom: Bridlington
    Posts
    17,188
    Hi Zen~ ,

    Here is an interesting review:

    http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1645384,00.asp

    Sue and be damned?.............they will get a quick introduction to UK anti-fraud legislation

  4. #4
    Member
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Posts
    41
    I found that most of these products are frauds. A couple days ago I formatted my drive and had installed a clean copy of windows on it, within 4 minutes of being plugged into the t1 at work it was infected with over 70 viral programs, and I know for a fact our network is clean, just our hardware firewall is disabled for upgrades. It auto downloaded a program called "Spy Sheriff" and about 50 spyware items and I had a hell of a time getting them off, ended up formatting the drive again after this. Now I just have to deal with the drive not registering as a 160gb drive, it thinks its a 33gb, and I know its not BIOs its the drive... Any one have any ideas as to how to fix this?

  5. #5
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Posts
    118
    Now I just have to deal with the drive not registering as a 160gb drive, it thinks its a 33gb, and I know its not BIOs its the drive
    My guess would be the jumpers. Maybe you've accidentally put them in the restricted mode rather than master or slave?
    Never trouble another for what you can do for yourself.
    -Thomas Jefferson

    http://www.AntiOnline.com/sig.php?imageid=777

  6. #6
    AFLAAACKKK!!
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Posts
    1,066
    On some HDD's there's a jumper setting that makes the drive only use a portion of the disc space... I don't know the name of the setting, maybe it's restricted like alamuru said, but I would check the manual that came with the drive...
    I am the uber duck!!1
    Proxy Tools

  7. #7
    AO Senior Cow-beller
    Moderator
    zencoder's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Location
    Mountain standard tribe.
    Posts
    1,177
    Nihil thanks for the info...that is interesting to see...especially after seeing this the first time I did a little background snooping for this thread.

    http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/
    "The most effective of all the products tested at both blocking and removing spyware and keyloggers, and it's our current Editors' Choice"
    - PC Magazine, June 19, 2005
    I wonder how much that Editor's Choice cost them? Probably a 1 year membership at a local country club for several executives at the parent company of PC Magazine.
    "Data is not necessarily information. Information does not necessarily lead to knowledge. And knowledge is not always sufficient to discover truth and breed wisdom." --Spaf
    Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made president should on no account be allowed to do the job. --Douglas Adams (1952-2001)
    "...people find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right." - Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •