Larian Studios Forums General Chat Windows Messenger Spam in XP

Recently, a few of you might know, i had a very irratating problem with pop-up spam using the Widows "messenger service",not to be confused with "Windows Messenger",an istant messaging service included in XP.
If anybody else is suffering from this problem and would like to stop it, then i was sent this link by a good friend here on the forums The Kim Komando Show .
There are several different ways of getting rid of the problem, and it stopped them instantly on my PC <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />, now at last i can let my children on the internet without looking over their shoulder every 5 seconds to close these annoying pop-ups. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

Yes. And ignore the advice I mistakenly gave Spick about removing Windows Messenger over in MeaCulpa's thread.

That's quite old.

The German Mag C'T has an article on hijacking PCs using Trojans and Keyloggers that are hidden beneath nomal looking Fan-Pages, that's even worse.

BLESS YOU!!!! I could kiss you! Thank you for the info!!!!!!!!! I was going crazy trying to figure out where all the dang pop-ups were coming from even when I wasn't even online!!!!! Thank You!!!! Thank You!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

thats sweet <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/kissyou.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/kissyou.gif" alt="" />

Ewwww! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

Glad to be of assistance Lost Angel <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />
@Alrik, Sorry i'm living in the past. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/sad.gif" alt="" />

You can also do the following:

START -> Run

you type in:

Did you have the same problem then DATD?

No, sorry, I mistook "Windows Messenger" for Windows "Messenger".
I had problems with the first: each time I logged online, Windows Messenger would keep harrasing me, even if I turn the settings off.

Ok recently I have been plagued by popups using Internet Explorer and I have done everything at The Kim Komando Show and I am STILL getting the damn popups. What can I do next. It appears that Ad-Aware has no effect either. Please help me I am going out of my mind because of the things. Also I am using AOL 9.0 Optimized


ADDED NOTE:
Kim does not mention to restart your pc. After doing everything and rechecking everything again I restarted my pc and now have been on-line for about 1/2 hour with no pop-ups.

You might like to take Mozilla or Firefox out for a spin sometime. They really are very very nice. No popups, adblocker extensions available and the great and wonderful tabbed browsing.

So you're sorted then Goldie, good to hear. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />.It does get right up your nose doesn't it. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/memad.gif" alt="" />

Yes it does. I thought that I had the problem corrected, but the f***ing things are back today.

Is it the grey windows, not advertising ,but little grey windows?

no little gray windows,
regular Interner Explored pops up with adds, the first one is "AdSever-Micrsoft" and then up to three more right after it.

Maybe you need to download and run Spybot and Adaware.

ran Ad-Aware about four times and each time it finds 'PurityScan' and one other, the last time it was 'NCase'. I put both in quarantine, 'PurityScan' for the fouth time. I have also ran regedit and deleted 'PurityScan' four times and it keeps reappearing.

Has anyone heard of this problem,(other than from the forum), and what about this SpyFerret it cost $39US for the uninstall version. Is there anything else that does the samething for free?


Found this piece of news

PurityScan Ad Server
The PurityScan Ad Server (WINSERVS) is installed on computers when the user visits www.purityscan.com and initiates the "FREE Scan" to scan your computer for potentially offensive material. In reality, the product installs its own pop-up ad serving software on your computer that will display pop-up ads when you surf the web. The product does NOT provide a standard uninstall in the Control Panel and places itself inside your startup group so it starts every time you start your computer!

SpyBot is supposed to detect and remove PurityScan, and SpyBot is free. You can download it here , and don't forget to run the update to get the latest reference files.

SpyBot doesn't detect all the tracking cookies that AdAware does, but it does seem to catch more of this type of threat. I use both.

You might also be interested in reading this manual removal info from Pest Patrol's site.

p.s. Just noticed this on SpyBot's site re SpyFerret:

"This software is infringing our copyright. Please do not use it!

Evidence: installs one file that is copyrighted by myself (Wsock.dll, which is an exact copy of my file Tools.dll. Threats are also named exactly the same way, including some invented threats."