Micro Billing System scam

superscaper

marleyboy wrote: »

Ive never heard of this one, but if they dont have your bank details, what have they got??, certainly not a leg to stand on.

Exactly, if they're operating legitimately then why resort to these bizarre "marketing" procedures of being billed AFTER the fact from a simple one click agreement without requesting any personal details at all. What's wrong with the normal procedure of getting credit card details etc up front instead of these stealthy pop up methods instead.

lipsthefish

I have a friend who had this problem and we are 100% certain she wasn't on any such sites. If it was a "real" bill then surely they would keep contacting you even after you have removed their various "crap" from the computer. I think its just a nasty scam that preys on people who would maybe just pay up to get rid of the message (possibly embarrassed at their partners or parents finding out).

fatnbald

I can recommend prevx for shifting this particular little blackmail scam.

https://www.prevx.com

Prevx is free to download and use for 30 days after it removes you first infection, for just scanning it stays free.
I had a pop up that was beating all the free offerings like ad-aware, spyblaster and so on, this found and removed it with no fuss, I was that impressed I bought a 12 month subscription to it.
A friend got this very same thing you are experiencing and Prevx removed it for her.
Can i suggest you also report it to your local trading standards, I believe they are taking this lot on at the moment.

superscaper

fatnbald wrote: »

Can i suggest you also report it to your local trading standards, I believe they are taking this lot on at the moment.

The last I read, the West Yorkshire Trading Standards (which is the one that covers the area MBS is based, actually supports MBS position and business practices. technology.guardian.co.uk/online/insideit/story/0,,2091393,00.html

bat999

That Guardian link doesn't seem to be working.
I think this is it:-http://technology.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329946551-111452,00.html

dickibobboy

follow this. Exact

https://www.orbitalzone.com/virus.htm

superscaper

bat999 wrote: »

That Guardian link doesn't seem to be working.
I think this is it:-http://technology.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329946551-111452,00.html

Thanks, now edited (accidentally overwrote the "http://") but yes yours is the printable version of the same article. Luckily someone knew what I meant to put

fatnbald

superscaper wrote: »

The last I read, the West Yorkshire Trading Standards (which is the one that covers the area MBS is based, actually supports MBS position and business practices. technology.guardian.co.uk/online/insideit/story/0,,2091393,00.html

It is a difficult situation for people who fall into this I suppose, to use a program to disable someone's PC is the computer equivalent of the rogue car clamper. I believe their operation should be making sure people are paying up front for their services then access by minors and the naive will not be so easy.
Perhaps they should be prosecuted for not having enough control on preventing minors viewing their sites in the same way as if they were selling adult mags, cigarettes or alcohol to minors in a shop?

superscaper

fatnbald wrote: »

It is a difficult situation for people who fall into this I suppose, to use a program to disable someone's PC is the computer equivalent of the rogue car clamper. I believe their operation should be making sure people are paying up front for their services then access by minors and the naive will not be so easy.

Absolutely, it is completely disgusting and I don't for a second believe that every single one of these people/victims really did click on the !!!!!! site's agreement. As I mentioned it would be quite easy for another piece of spyware to maliciously pseudoclick and sign up the pc without the pc owner's knowledge, which a payment upfront scheme would prevent and would also prevent (in theory) minors from accessing. Personally I'd rather put myself through complete windows reinstallation to completely get rid of it rather than pay them a penny. Of course if it happened to me then I'd know for sure I hadn't "signed up" as I'm the only user of my pc.

The car clamping analogy is quite apt as it is equally still open to abuse when you park completely legally.

Nenen

I would really appreciate some help as my desktop PC has now been almost completely immobilised and I think the MBS scam is responsible. I have tried doing as is suggested on another thread to get rid of it but to no avail. The story so far...

We have btinternet broadband and run a desktop from it with wireless connection to the laptop (which is what my ds usually uses).

I've noticed my desktop running slower and slower lately and then finally last week every time I tried to turn it on it would start to load windows XP and suddenly grind to an abrupt halt... screen went black and nothing would work. The only way I could then get it to shut down was to press and hold the start-up button on the desk-top unit. I don't remember getting any pop-up bills from MBS on my desk-top but then we had a pop-up blocker installed so maybe it couldn't get through.

As I'm such a PC clutz I was going to take my PC to a mender but over the weekend but had such a lot of work to do I started to use DS's laptop instead. I kept getting the MBS bill pop-up on the laptop (which i ignored at first thinking it was some sort of scam thing or advertising). When I started to get more and more of these I searched MSE and, lo and behold, found out what it really was. DS is mortified and highly embarressed!:o I'm a fairly liberal mum and am not too worried that my 17 yo has been looking at !!!!!! (providing it is not including children or animals which I find abhorrant) but I am disgusted that MBS have so blatenly tried to trick people out of money by burying their **** on page 9 of 13 of their terms and conditions!

Anyway, following the instructions on the link given for BFU, I cleaned the laptop last night (I think this has been successful as I haven't had any more popups in the last few hours). I then decided to boot up my desktop PC in safe mode and try and do the same thing to that.

As it would not let me connect to the internet I had to use a memory stick to copy the necessary programs & files from my laptop to desktop and then ran them as instructed and all appeared to go well, same as on laptop. However, when I rebooted my PC on completion, it still won't start up normally.... just begins to boot and then screen goes blank with no keys having any effect.

Do you think that the desktop is doing this because of the MBS on the laptop or is this just unlucky coincidence?

I've even tried starting DT in safe mode and running a virus checker using Bullguard but it doesn't find anyhting and still won't boot unless in safe mode.

If anyone can give me any advice re what to do next I'd be really grateful.

PS apologies for cross-post but the original thread had been somewhat hijacked so I thought it would be better posted here.