Error message

--Tony--

Hi all,

Can anyone offer any help on this, a friend asked me to look at their PC, it sounds an odd one. I'm looking tonight but it sounds a bit like a virus.

On startup the following message appears:

118 system errors detected

you have 118 system errors waiting to be fixed
these errors can lead to computer crashes, instability, slowness and full system failure.
Immediate repair is recommended.
Please click the fix error button now to fix your computer.

When he clicks the link it takes him to:

http://www.myerrorfixer.com/ef/register.asp?count=118
He says it says he is not registered but when I click the link on my PC it just says:

Error Fixer is not available for sale until further notice.
We apologize for any inconvenience.

Until tonight I have asked him to do a virus sweep (he has Mcfee and follow that up with a trend micro housecall sweep)

PC is a 1 year old Dell running XP

Many thanks Tony

horsenailbucket

Sounds like spyware to me, download and run something like X-cleaner free version.

Omertron

Try downloading Lavasoft's Ad-aware https://www.lavasoft.com it's free for personal use. Also, windows defender from microsoft https://www.microsoft.com/spyware.

If the problem is still there after that, try looking on https://www.spywareinfo.com and they have a lot of good information on how to remove the real bad stuff.

--Tony--

Thanks Guys I just got an email to say nothing came up for the virus scans so I have just asked him to run ad-aware http://www.lavasoft.com/software/adaware/

Browntoa

read this

http://www.atg.wa.gov/releases/2006/rel_Spyware_Lawsuit_012506.html

The suit, filed late yesterday in U.S. District Court in Seattle, accuses New York-based Secure Computer, as well as associates in the United States and India, of marketing software that falsely claims computers are infected with spyware and selling consumers a program that claims to remove it. In fact, the software renders computers more susceptible to attacks

According to the state’s complaint, Secure Computer, based in White Plains, N.Y., has marketed and sold Spyware Cleaner since at least 2004. Secure Computer owns several Web sites, including myspywarecleaner.com, myerrorfixer.com, and checkforspyware.com.
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]“Our investigations revealed that Secure Computer, its principals and associates advertised and distributed a product called Spyware Cleaner through spam, pop-up ads and deceptive hyperlinks,” McKenna explained. “However, not only did this product fail to detect and remove spyware on the consumer’s computer, it actually tampered with security settings to make the machine even more vulnerable.”[/font]

--Tony--

Thanks Browntoa looks like you found it for me, this spyware is getting out of hand its about time the big virus checkers started to deal with it along with virus detection.

I just have to work out how to get rid of it now. I hope just deleting all the files ad-aware comes up with will do the trick.

Thanks So much Browntoa

Tony

Browntoa

try

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=133269