- Watch your bank 11/9/05
- Nasty ads from a nasty program 11/2/05
- The unwilling spam king 10/26/05
- A Better Internet? Not really. 10/19/05
- Putting the BargainBuddy dog to sleep 10/12/05
- P2P files: you can't trust 'em 10/5/05
- Not even repair shops are safe 9/28/05
- Sharing your PC can be hazardous to its health 9/21/05
- Wolves in sheep's clothing 9/14/05
- Burned by Freeze.com 9/7/05
Download.com users are no strangers to the frightening world of spyware. Each week, we'll share a new reader tale of spyware woe, so check back frequently for each terrifying episode.
Destruction of personal property
(11/16/05)
It started when I was looking for a cheap iPod online. I entered a strange site offering really cheap iPods, but when I clicked a link, a huge porn page suddenly appeared. I closed it and kept looking, when a message appeared saying Windows would close in 60 seconds and that I should close all programs. I thought this was just Windows installing some routine updates.
The next time I started my computer, I got an error message and another shutdown, not to mention very slow performance--and the same porn pop-up kept appearing, even when the computer wasn't online. One day, the wallpaper changed to a horrible black-and-blue message saying my computer was infected by spyware. So I decided to run my trusty copy of Spybot - Search & Destroy.
But before I could, a program called SpySheriff popped up (even though I never installed it) and detected nearly 1,000 spyware threats. I minimized SpySheriff and ran Spybot anyway. An error message appeared before the scan finished. The same thing happened when I tried to scan another two times--and happened again with three other antispyware programs. I tried to use the Task Manager to investigate and close any strange programs, but it had been disabled. They had me trapped.
I decided to run SpySheriff until I discovered it wanted me to pay $30 to erase all the spyware it had detected. No way. I decided to call a friend who's a computer technician, but he was very busy that week. He told me he'd come over Sunday to have a look (it was Wednesday) and not to use the computer until then. But I had important work to do, so I decided to use the PC once more. Wow--it was really damaged. When it booted up, it only ran for two or three minutes before shutting down without warning. It also was much, much slower than before.
Neither my friend nor his technician friends from the company could fix the computer, so they had to reformat it. Even then, it wouldn't allow Windows to be reinstalled. It turned out the malicious software had damaged the RAM, and I had to buy a new computer. All that from one simple click.
--Maria
Bucaramanga, Colombia
We've never heard of spyware physically breaking a computer before. Having to reformat your hard drive and reinstall your OS is definitely bad, but if the spyware actually destroys your hardware, that's worse. If folks can be prosecuted for performing real-world acts of personal-property destruction, why should cybercriminals get off the hook for doing the exact same thing?
Although you definitely should have had an on-guard spyware-monitoring program running on your machine, you made a very smart call by being suspicious of SpySheriff, a program you had not installed. As we mentioned in a previous horror story, many disreputable "antispyware products" are actually malicious software programs themselves. For example, the maker of Ad-Aware even classifies SpySheriff as a security threat. In general, we'd advise users to do serious research before paying for an antispyware program; that way you can weed out frauds who wish to do your PC harm instead of good.
--Download.com editors
Got your own spyware horror story you'd like to share? Let us hear it.
