Author Topic: MSN.com installs Spyware...  (Read 1481 times)

linuxubernerd125

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 1
  • Kudos: 0
MSN.com installs Spyware...
« on: 17 January 2005, 00:50 »
As if the maggots who put spyware on your computer without your knowledge or consent aren't bad enough, now Bill Gates and his band of merry morons are in cahoots with them.

There is a widely known piece of spyware called "Avenue A", which places it's spyware program and tracking cookies on your computer, and one of the cookies is "[email protected] This spyware will slow down your computer, give you more pop-ups for "advertising" whatever junk they want to pop up in front of you. I have had this "Avenue A" in one of my computers, and it's a bastard to remove.

The program called "Spy Bot Search and Destroy" will BLOCK the download of Avenue A before it gets into your PC, and will give you a message that it blocked that "bad download"

I just went to MSN.com looking to search for something, and Spy Bot gave me the message that it had blocked the download of Avenue A as the page opened. I looked at the HTML code of the MSN.com home page, and sure enough, there was a link in the code to atdmt.com/avenuea right in the code of the page. So I went immediately into my Temporary Internet Files folder, and deleted the cookies out of it, then closed out the page. After closing out the page, I looked again, and the atdmt.com cookie was back again. I deleted it again, and I will NEVER EVER visit MSN.com again. They place the cookie when you load the page, and again when you close the page, and download known spyware into your computer in the process. If you do not have Spy Bot Search and Destroy, I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you get it, install it, and use it (and check the box marked "block bad downloads in the program) Otherwise, Bill Gates, Microshit, Avenue A, and atdmt.com will slow down your computer and bombard you with pop-ups, and track your surfing habits.

Refalm

  • Administrator
  • Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 5,183
  • Kudos: 704
  • Sjembek!
    • RADIOKNOP
MSN.com installs Spyware...
« Reply #1 on: 17 January 2005, 01:22 »
Or don't use Windows  ;)

Anyway, the Avenue thing is a link to MSN 9 premium service, and is meant for advertisement. I'm not sure it installs spyware or not, and I'm not going to try out  

JanusChrist

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 119
  • Kudos: 15
MSN.com installs Spyware...
« Reply #2 on: 24 January 2005, 23:49 »
I suggest AdAware, Spybot, and AVG antivirus for keeping your computer clean.
On your way out of Microsoft Land feel free to smash a few Windows.

Giorgi

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 34
  • Kudos: 58
MSN.com installs Spyware...
« Reply #3 on: 1 February 2005, 23:06 »
I suggest using Trillian (Like i do)
Word is Born
Fight the war
F*ck the Norm!

Refalm

  • Administrator
  • Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 5,183
  • Kudos: 704
  • Sjembek!
    • RADIOKNOP
MSN.com installs Spyware...
« Reply #4 on: 1 February 2005, 23:08 »
In a test I saw in PCM recently, the 3 best anti-spyware programs were:

Lavasoft Ad-aware
Spybot S&D
Webroot SpySweeper

NegStar

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 6
  • Kudos: 10
Re: MSN.com installs Spyware...
« Reply #5 on: 6 February 2005, 16:18 »
Getting back to cookies, WinPatrol.(free) will monitor and filter any cookies with the text string you enter in them.  I used to have that same atdmt.com cookie and many others.  It also monitors many critical system processes in real time and alerts you to any changes in startups, host file, etc.  Not only that but you can edit your services, startups, host file, and examine your task  list  (and kill processes) all within this same program.  I had this program for quite a while before I realized just how convenient and accessible it made things :
Download and install WinPatrol:
http://www.winpatrol.com