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Subject: Help! My default dial in and homepage keep chaging
Posted by: JeffG
- [53239160] Wed, May 26, 2004, 00:42
Something strange is happening on my home comp, and I am seriously worried. I noticed it today when I first connected.
My internet explorer home page default keeps changing in my settings. Additionally, the default dial in number for my ISP also keeps changing to an overseas number. (01123902964).
Obviously there is some software that covertly made it to my machine is doing this. I need to figure out how to correct this.
I use a dial up, so I have no firewall software, but do keep up with my anti virus updates and scans.
Any advice will be much appreciated. |
| 1 | KrazyKoalaBears
Leader
ID: 517553018
Wed, May 26, 2004, 08:38
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Start with Spybot and see if it detects anything. With the changing homepage, my guess is that you have something working behind the scenes that Spybot should be able to catch.
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| 2 | JeffG
Leader
ID: 1584348
Wed, May 26, 2004, 08:55
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Thanks. I'll try it tonight at home.
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| 3 | biliruben
ID: 5061711
Wed, May 26, 2004, 09:28
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Even with a dial-up you should use a firewall.
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| 4 | PermDude
ID: 2343587
Wed, May 26, 2004, 12:12
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Yeah. Sounds like you got a trojan.
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| 5 | clank
ID: 2673511
Wed, May 26, 2004, 12:19
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It sounds like what was in the news Monday. What they said was that it happened through a pop-up that wasn't a pop-up. It looks like one though. When you close out of it by clicking on the X it will hang up your modem, turn the sound off and re-dial to the overseas number. The phone company said the only way you can stop this is to tell them to block international calls. This only effects dial-up users.
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| 6 | JeffG
Leader
ID: 1584348
Wed, May 26, 2004, 13:06
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Clank. Re #5, I did not hear that news story. But am googling I now learned alot about these 'trojan horses'. Do you have any links to any articles from Monday because that is likely when this occurred for me.
Yikes, I better call my phone company and deal with that. I'd hate to think that is what happened, all I need is a 2-hour 'collect overseas call' on my phone bill.
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| 7 | clank
ID: 2673511
Wed, May 26, 2004, 13:27
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I haven't found the story I saw yet but here is one from Canada.
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| 8 | JeffG
ID: 434172721
Thu, May 27, 2004, 22:42
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Update.
First. My local phone company, Verizon, does not provide an option for blocking international calls, but nothing has shown up on my bill as of this morning. They said I should contact them when my bill comes in if there are any charges I want to contest, but most likely will have to pay them.
Secondly. Thanks to the advice above, and that of my friend and old college roomate (who now owns an upstate New York company that does computer repairs and upgrades, and networking solutions for homes and businesses), I am back in business
.
His advice pasted below.
Hi Jeff,
You have a 'trojan' dialer. To remove it you need to do the following:
Download ADAware from this website:
www.lavasoft.de
It's free, install it, run the program. That should get the majority of the stuff.
Next go to this page and download:
http://www.safer-networking.org/
This will give you spybot search and destroy. Run this program. Follow all prompts and let it immunize your system. Then run it to search for problems after that correct the problems it finds.
After all this is done go back to AdAware and do an update. You'll need to be online to do this. You should be able to dial out by now. After the update run it again.
Finally, if your browser is still stuck on an unwanted home page, called browser Hijacking, go here and download this program and run it:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html
The program you want is CW Shredder it is about halfway down the page. Unzip it and run it. Just click on fix.
All these tools are free.
If you can't get them from work, let me know, I'll send you all this stuff on a cd. Obviously you can't download at home if you can't dial out.
Triple check your phone bills. These programs have the nasty habit of dialing out in the middle of the night to toll numbers. There are stories of people getting nicked for thousands.
Call me if you need any help with the programs, we do this all the time at PHPC.net.
Anyway, reading up on this and having experienced this minor inconvenience, I learned a few things.
- when closing pop ups, right click and select close, instead if clicking on the X.
- there really is no consumer protection from this type of fraud.
- when your friend is throwning a bachelor party, do not do offer to assist and do the research for him by going into a search engine from your home PC, and typing in 'Strip Clubs NYC'.
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| 9 | Farn
Sustainer
ID: 451044109
Thu, May 27, 2004, 22:53
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if you want to be safe unplug the phone chord from your PC anytime you aren't sitting at. That way you don't get middle of the night charges. Probably a good, safe move until you get it all cleared up.
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| 10 | Khahan
ID: 364131722
Thu, May 27, 2004, 23:08
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JeffG, check out this link I posted about coolsearch/searcheverything
Its getting to be a nasty business. But if you are comfortable enough with your computer, even after running CWShredder, Spyboy and Adaware, go into your regedit and look for files that don't belong.
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