On Sat, 14 Oct 2006 10:18:03 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:


"Clams Canino" wrote in message
link.net...

"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message
news:356Yg.3062

To infiltrate and then what? Call home with what info it finds?


Most spyware is benign and just tracks marketing preferences so as to spam
you better. Dangerous spyware can indeed phone home vital info you type
in, so as to rob you.

I've never seen a single thing come to me via Ebay. It's usually those
"freeware" sites that come complete with "free spyware" added in. That's
why I specified a *safe* place for whatshisname to download DVDShrink3.2.

The best way to be safe is to download nothing, past that, be SURE of your
source for "freeware".
The best source for getting spyware added is the "free anti-spyware"
sites.
etc....

-W


Question for you computer experts:

How safe is it to buy something on-line with a credit card using the
vendor's "secure" encrypted ordering page?

Eisboch


Bought lots of stuff, never had a problem. Always bought from known names.

"Harry Krause" wrote in message
. ..

Yup. That was me. And 4 days after I said it my computer at home picked
up some kind of spyware thing. I keep getting pop-ups trying to sell me
everything from cars to vacations to dates with beautiful, single women.
It's not porn crap or anything ... just annoying junk. I went to
Microsofts's Security Website and did an on-line scan and fix doober. It
found and corrected a worm, but there was one file it said it could not
fix. The computer ran ok for a while, then the stupid pop-ups started all
over again. I adjusted the pop-up blocker to prevent *any* pop-ups, but
they still come through.

I'll take it to a computer shop and let them clean it up.

Eisboch

Spyware Doctor. It will clean that one off, run in the background, and
update itself. Works for me.

Thanks. It's not a huge issue, but more of a pain. My prior experiences of
trying various monitoring and protection software like Norton and others
were that they bogged the computer down sometimes and were constantly
requiring you to upgrade, download, or something. Plus, my computer has
always run fine while my wife's computer which has every protection device
known to the computer world installed, is always slow and bogging down.
They are basically the same computer (HP 8000) running on the same home
wireless network.

Oh, well. Time to clean it up and add some antispyware, I guess.

Eisboch

Eisboch wrote:
"Eisboch" wrote:


Question for you computer experts:

How safe is it to buy something on-line with a credit card using the
vendor's "secure" encrypted ordering page?

Eisboch



"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote:

Been doing it for 6 years without a problem. But, go to www.visa.com and
sign up for the "Verified By Visa" thing. And do NOT use your debit card,
ever, for an online purchase.



"James" wrote in message
link.net...


If you browser is showing the lock on that web site then that means that
the all the exchanges between you and the web site are encrypted. It is
not a completely foolproof encryption but nobody outside of places like
nsa have got the computer horsepower to break it. Plus they would have to
intercept your actual traffic to even begin and the comm companies have
got the major routing nodes and lines pretty well locked down.



Thanks. I've also done it for years without any problems so far but as a
precaution I always use the same credit card that I specifically asked to
have only a $1000 dollar limit on. I figured that way my liability, if any,
would be limited if someone was able to get the info.

Eisboch


I think your legal liability for a stolen credit card is $50, but I don
't believe any of the major credit card companies actually hold you
responsible for the $50.

I had someone write $2700 of credit card "checks" to pay off another
credit card (which was probably a stolen credit card), and they
immediately wrote off the total amount. I also had a $8000 card appear
on my card, from Turkey. They wrote that off without any questions.

I had Citibank Security call one day because someone in a town close by
had made 7 charges at the exact same gas station during a one hour
period. I told them they were not mine, and they wrote all of them off.

All of these charges occurred in the same month, so somehow someone got
my credit card number and was using it. I immediately purchased a
shredder and shred anything with any personal info on it. Since I
started using the shredder, I have not had any problems. According to
the credit card company, trash hopping is a common way to get credit
card numbers and is much easier than cracking a secure web site.

"Reginald P. Smithers III" wrote in message
...


I think your legal liability for a stolen credit card is $50, but I don 't
believe any of the major credit card companies actually hold you
responsible for the $50.

I had someone write $2700 of credit card "checks" to pay off another
credit card (which was probably a stolen credit card), and they
immediately wrote off the total amount. I also had a $8000 card appear on
my card, from Turkey. They wrote that off without any questions.

I had Citibank Security call one day because someone in a town close by
had made 7 charges at the exact same gas station during a one hour period.
I told them they were not mine, and they wrote all of them off.

All of these charges occurred in the same month, so somehow someone got my
credit card number and was using it. I immediately purchased a shredder
and shred anything with any personal info on it. Since I started using
the shredder, I have not had any problems. According to the credit card
company, trash hopping is a common way to get credit card numbers and is
much easier than cracking a secure web site.



I had that happen once with a Discover card. We were home in MA and
Discover called me one Saturday morning asking me if I was doing a lot of
shopping somewhere in Florida using the card. They asked to to verify that
I had the card in my possession, which I did. Someone, somehow had made a
counterfeit card with my account number on it and was having a ball to the
tune of $3,400 in one morning before Discover decided to verify the charges.
It's not known how they got my account number, since I very rarely used that
card.

Eisboch

"Eisboch" wrote in message


Thanks. It's not a huge issue, but more of a pain. My prior experiences
of
trying various monitoring and protection software like Norton and others
were that they bogged the computer down sometimes and were constantly
requiring you to upgrade, download, or something. Plus, my computer has
always run fine while my wife's computer which has every protection device
known to the computer world installed, is always slow and bogging down.
They are basically the same computer (HP 8000) running on the same home
wireless network.

Oh, well. Time to clean it up and add some antispyware, I guess.


Start Run Regedit

Look under: Hkey_ Local_ Machine Software MicrosoftWindowsRun

Get to know what's in there (runs at startup) so you can tell if something
gets added.
Most new crap will hide THERE, not in the statup folder of your start-menu
..

-W

"Eisboch" wrote in message
...

"Harry Krause" wrote in message
. ..

Yup. That was me. And 4 days after I said it my computer at home
picked up some kind of spyware thing. I keep getting pop-ups trying to
sell me everything from cars to vacations to dates with beautiful,
single women. It's not porn crap or anything ... just annoying junk. I
went to Microsofts's Security Website and did an on-line scan and fix
doober. It found and corrected a worm, but there was one file it said
it could not fix. The computer ran ok for a while, then the stupid
pop-ups started all over again. I adjusted the pop-up blocker to
prevent *any* pop-ups, but they still come through.

I'll take it to a computer shop and let them clean it up.

Eisboch

Spyware Doctor. It will clean that one off, run in the background, and
update itself. Works for me.

Thanks. It's not a huge issue, but more of a pain. My prior experiences
of trying various monitoring and protection software like Norton and
others were that they bogged the computer down sometimes and were
constantly requiring you to upgrade, download, or something.

The problem with just saying "Norton" is that there's more than one product.
The suite is a resource pig. The straight AV product is pretty lean. And, if
you are more than slightly aware of its maintenance needs, you've probably
messed with the settings. When it's set up right, it updates itself in the
background. At most, you'll sometimes see a brief message saying "I just
updated and all is cool".

Combine this with the free version of ZoneAlarm (www.zonelabs.com), and your
machine is solid. You will not notice the minimal resource usage.

There's one more reason why some users think their machines are being
"bogged down". You need to turn OFF email monitoring in Norton. It's
redundant, because if you open an email and try to run or save an
attachment, THAT is when it gets scanned a 2nd time. Inbound scanning would
be the first time, but there's no reason to do it. It definitely slows down
Outlook Express, Outlook, and the Mozilla products.

I don't use any safety software. My rule is "Don't open nuthin" unless it's
a .doc or a .jpg AND you know WHO sent it, and WHY they sent it. I've
never caught anything.

-W

"Harry Krause" wrote in message
. ..
On 10/14/2006 11:12 AM, Eisboch wrote:
"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message
...
I was wondering about keystroke loggers. I don't recall, but it might've
been Eisboch who said he had no need for a firewall that monitored
outbound nasties because he'd never been infected with anything nasty.

Yet.


Yup. That was me. And 4 days after I said it my computer at home picked
up some kind of spyware thing. I keep getting pop-ups trying to sell me
everything from cars to vacations to dates with beautiful, single women.
It's not porn crap or anything ... just annoying junk. I went to
Microsofts's Security Website and did an on-line scan and fix doober. It
found and corrected a worm, but there was one file it said it could not
fix. The computer ran ok for a while, then the stupid pop-ups started all
over again. I adjusted the pop-up blocker to prevent *any* pop-ups, but
they still come through.

I'll take it to a computer shop and let them clean it up.

Eisboch

Spyware Doctor. It will clean that one off, run in the background, and
update itself. Works for me.

Good program.

I use Webroot Spy Sweeper (running in the background).

One has to be careful not to purchase or download the rogue antispyware
programs out there.

Here is list: http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_...e.htm#products

BTW: For those interested PC Tools (the maker of Spyware Doctor) is
offering a free download of Registry Mechanic v 5.0 until 10-16-06:

Download


Free registration code
http://www.pctools.com/registry-mech.../promo/VNU0306

"Clams Canino" wrote in message
ink.net...



Start Run Regedit

Look under: Hkey_ Local_ Machine Software MicrosoftWindowsRun

Get to know what's in there (runs at startup) so you can tell if something
gets added.
Most new crap will hide THERE, not in the statup folder of your
start-menu
.

-W



Holy Crap! I just looked at that on this computer (not the one with the
problem).
How would you possibly know if something new was added? There must be a
ga-zillion files there.

Eisboch

"Clams Canino" wrote in message
link.net...

I don't use any safety software. My rule is "Don't open nuthin" unless
it's
a .doc or a .jpg AND you know WHO sent it, and WHY they sent it. I've
never caught anything.

-W

Your policy will work well until someone you know sends you an infected .doc
file. It happens all the time. It's not a matter of "if", but a matter of
"when". The worst offenders are people who, for various reasons, have no
protection on their machines.