WARNING ! Life is in danger...

what's this? everytime I type google or yahoo the page changes to warning ! you're tracked ! and my IP, my OS and some specs about my pc is displayed ! How to remove this? I can't go to yahoo nor google nemore...

'AdAware' - download, install and run.

'Spybot' - try this one, too.

These are programs that search for and remove any sort of 'Adware' programs that might be installed on your PC. I wouldn't worry about your problem too much, as the vast majority of Adware programs are completely automated. Just run these two programs and remove any Adware programs that they might detect, and your problems will cease.

You see, whenever you visit certain web pages, little programs are installed that do various different things. Some simply collect pointless bits of information about the people that visit their website, and some track you - for whatever reason. Like I said, it's not overly serious - just make sure you use these programs regularly after you've downloaded them.

Are you running an anti-virus program?

If not, get one. Make usre it's updated. That sort of thing. I don't think this is (or at least not entirely) a spyware issue, rather, it sounds like a virus.

i got 73 files ! is it safe to remove them? like its not needed. i find it too many, is that natural?

The program will create a backup of the files in case anything does go wrong, so go ahead and remove them. If the problem does persist, follow Doomgaze's advice, pronto.

If AdAware/Spybot or a virus scanner found those files, then yes, it's likely it's safe to remove them. If anything stops working due to it requiring Spyware installed e.g. Kazaa or newer "free" DivX encoders, then consider that a nasty program too - programs shouldn't be insisting that you install such garbage to make them work, and I'm sure there are alternatives you can use instead :p

Yes, having any spyware on your PC is "unnatural" :p


To be honest, browsing and using your computer "safely" and sensibly with stable programs (i.e. not IE :p ) is enough to never get viruses or spyware - I can't remember the last time I had a virus or spyware etc. on my PC. If I did get one, my virus scanner would alert me anyway, which it's never done. To quote someone else on the internet whom I can't remember, viruses and trojans almost always "exploit user stupidity more often than program bugs", although not always. :p (Ignorance might be a better word than stupidity, I think.)

I used Adaware for a while, then decided it was easier to just delete cookies from the IE Tools menu. Adaware would always come up with 30-40 unsafe files on my computer, and they were always just cookies.

it goes something like this, and it didn't go away after doin' the adaware thingy...

DANGER! YOU'RE IN TROUBLE!


You're beeing watched and all your activity is tracked!
YOUR LIFE IS IN DANGER! CLICK HERE TO STOP THE THREAT

How much is already known:

IP ADDRESS: 210.23.165.78
(logged)
BROWSER: MS Internet Explorer 6.0
(recording every page and picture you've opened!)
SCREEN SIZE: 1024x768
OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows XP
(logging every click you make)
POSSIBILITY OF EVIDENCE RESTORING: Guarantied
Recent pages, stored at your computer:

http://google.com/

OOPS, does anybody know about that?


Your computer is full of tracking info and continue storing it every second:
Every page you visited and all pictures opened by you or your browser,
all movies you downloaded or viewed online!

All that info can be easily obtained and can be used against you!

YOUR LIFE IS IN DANGER!
CLICK HERE TO STOP THE THREAT
AND TO AVOID IT IN FUTURE!

I can only assume that it's a virus - after considering all that you've told us. If it was a form of ad-ware, the Spybot program would have destroyed it. I suggest you either download or invest in a very good virus scanner and search your entire machine. There's definitely something lurking in there, you just need to find it.

Is that in a pop-up window, a pop-up dialog box (a window with an OK button), or in the actual browser window when you try to go to those search engines you previouly mentioned?


Just to let you know, the IP address, browser and OS is sent automatically by your browser when you surf even normal web pages anyway, and doesn't require a virus etc. to find those out - I'm not sure about the screen size though, although I think that might also be obtained quite easily using JavaScript. As for browser history, the most recent page you visited or came from is somtimes also sent (in the form of a referrer) so that information is also usually available to any page you visit, unless you've somehow changed your browser's behaviour.



Out of curiosity, could you attach your C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file? There's a possibility that that file is hijacked and causing those weird things when you visit search engines. You might need to put copy it and add a .txt after the filename so you can uppload it here though.

what will I attach?

1) Open a new browser window on your PC - not an Internet page. You know, the browser window you'd open as if you were looking for files on your computer.

2) Copy and paste 'C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc' into the 'address' bar, and it should take you to the correct location.

3) See the file named 'hosts?' Right click on it and select 'open'. When it asks you to choose a program to open the file with, choose 'notepad' or some other text program. Save the file as a .txt file (or any sort of readable word document) somewhere else on your machine, and attach it to this thread using the 'attachment' option after you've hit 'add reply'.

here:

Yep, that file's been hijacked. Delete it, and restart your browser(s), and everything should be back to normal (assuming AdAware/SpyBot have removed whatever program changed that file for you).

hijacked? what do you mean by delete? whole hosts file? will that affect the performance of my pc if i delete it all?

Either drag that file (Eg - the file you've just attached) to your recycle bin, or right click it and select delete. And no, it won't affect the performance of your PC. Just get rid of it completely, and you'll be fine.

I also recommend switching from Internet Explorer to another browser so you don't get this problem again. Internet Explorer often auto-executes ActiveX scripts without telling you, which generally leads to you getting spyware without your knowledge.

Never heard of that problem before. Heh. Weird stuff.

First time I myself have actually seen it happen too :p

Did it actually work?

Will you ever post again? Heh.

Is that you looking up the porn site? (*snip*) Because alot of porn sites put virus'/spyware onto your computer, so I'd suggest stop looking it up. ;)

Edit by crono_logical: Do NOT link to porn sites, even in jest.