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Copyright 2005 Randy Charles Morin
Part of the KBCafe blog network
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The McAfee virus protection I paid for ($40) didn't protect me from this virus either.
The 1st time, I decided to fire up some anti-virus software to see how they coped with the virus. I installed Spyware Dr, as this was recommended on several message boards.
But let me tell you, finding information about viruses in Google searches is near impossible. Software vendors have injected tons of pages and to redirect troubled users and sell them their software.
I installed Spyware Dr. Unfortunately, it didn't find the virus, but did find a lot of cookies. That's one of the biggest problems with anti-virus software. They find a lot of false positives.
I decided to purchase the software license since ppl were insisting it worked. I bought the license, upgraded and still found nothing. Wasted $40. And waste of time.
I contacted their support and asked why it wasn't catching, never mind removing the virus. Their support said I had to purchase the $50 version to get that virus removed. Nice catch.
I purchased the $50 version and got a refund on my $40. But... The new version wouldn't install. I had to install it 3-4 times before it worked. And once installed, it didn't find the virus either. Wasted $50. And more time wasted.
I then decided to manually remove the virus myself, which took 10 minutes. Too easy. I opened the Task Manager, killed the process and removed all references to it from the registry. Simple.
I few days later, I got the virus again. Then a few days later again. Each time, I was using chess.com app on Facebook. I guess I'll stop that and see if I get the virus again. If I don't, then I'll know it was in fact chess.com app on Facebook.
Oddly, McAfee caught the virus the 3rd time. I imagine it was updated with new code to catch this virus. It wasn't a new virus though. It's been around for quite awhile.
Honestly, I'm very good with computers. I have a bachelor of computer science, wrote 7 computer books and write my own software.
If this is difficult for me, then I can't imagine how anybody who is not an uber-geek uses computers.
Anti-virus software is the worst malware out there. I don't know how many computers I've seen boot up with numerous warnings to update and purchase the latest version of Norton or McAfee.
And I don't know how many times I've had to kill an anti-virus program because it decided to start a scan while I was working on something important and slowed my computer to a halt.
And even if you have anti-virus software, there's no guarantee it'll find the virus you do get.
The state of anti-virus software sucks. This is mostly Microsoft's fault, but also the fault of Norton and McAfee who are more concerned with their bottom line, then creating real solutions.
I've gotten a tremendous about of link spam directing to phpbb3now.com. This add-free forum appears to be a haven for link spammers. And, of course, it's assigned to DomainsByProxy, which is a great indicator that they intended all along to be Web malware. If you work at Google, then please de-index them. Thanks!
Lately, www.Talk-Sports.com was attacked by a link spammer and they posted tons of links to BitComet. I checked the whois data and it's associated with DomainByProxy which is a sure sign that it's sole intent is to serve as an SEO spamming tool.
If you work at Google, then please de-index them. Thanks!
I've noticed that link spamming is on the rise. Of late, I'm getting hundreds of comment link spams per day. I can tell that it's a person doing the spamming, because they are surfing thru my website trying to find blog entires where they can leave their spam. I figure I make $2 per day from them simply on AdSense ad views. Every few days, I run a script that deletes all the spam.
In addition to link spam, I'm getting an enormous amount of paid link requests. It's become a good source of income. If all else fails, I know I can return to simply blogging full-time and getting paid to write articles with paid links. What an industry Google has created with link counting.
Just deleted days of comment link spam. Why do they bother? I can tell from the logs that it's a real person leaving the comments, not a bot, so captchas don't stop them. I just run a script every few days and it's all gone. I wonder how much I make from comment link spammers visiting my websites and giving me CPM $$$. I guess I have to love them for it.
Skype has become quite an annoying program. I don't use it, but my daughter does. What I found is that Skype installs a plug-in in Internet Explorer that causes an annoying repeating popup in Internet Explorer everytime you fetch a new page. You have to either give permission to skype to access the content of every webpage you surf or uninstall the plug-in. I cannot believe that someone at Skype is allowing this plug-in to annoy the shit out of people with this stupidity. Skype recomments that you allow the program to access the content of every webpage webpage you surf. WTF!?
Further, I can't seem to figure out how to shutdown Skype. When I logout, it goes to login window with no option to completely shutdown. I have to go into Internet Explorer and kill the process. I'm sure some design moron thought this was a great idea. Fire him please!
Not sure if this is a business name or a person's name, but whomever they are, I caught they leaving link spam in the comment of my blogs. You can get this spammers full address and phone number from their who is record. If you know who this is, then make sure you tell them you know they are scum.
Today, I got comment link spammed by South Honda, a Honda dealership in Miami. I deleted most of it, but left one for my readers to check out; http://www.destroyallmalware.com/?guid=20051202064601. Note that they posted HTML, which I escaped. A very lame attempt to link spam, which will have zero benefit.
I get comment link spam all the time, but it's usually from China or similar. I was shocked today to find it coming from a car dealership. I wonder how much of it they've posted around the Internet.
Today, I got some blog comment link spam from John Moore of San Diego. Another spammer caught. You can find his address and phone number on his whois page. If you know this guy, then call him a loser for me next time you see him.
Yusep Rukmana owns a massive amount of domains and has been posting a lot of link spam on my websites. If you know this guy, then you now know what kind of scum he is.
This Abi Kabar is likely the most persistant spammer yet. I've already contracted his hosting service and they seem unconcerned, if not supported of him. I'm now contacted Google FeedBurner about his feeds. Hopefully, they'll take notice.
Here's his whois information for one of his dozens of domains.
I caught this dude from Santa Clara posting comment spam on one of the blogs. He owns hundreds of domains. Each domain and website is massive relinked to all the others. Quite a link farm.
Here's his address and contact info on one of his domain registrations.
http://whois.domaintools.com/abibakarblog.com
But he uses all sorts of names and addresses all over the world. On this blog, he goes by the name Abi Bakar.
Update: Guru Lakshman responded that he is simply the host, not the spammer.
And the problem is getting worse. The service that called me today, called back in 15 minutes when I hung up immediately. In fact, it kept calling me every 15 minutes until I listened to the message.
Now the worst part. I listened to the message and its the mother of the best friend of my daughter telling us that her daughter can't attend her birthday party. The human personal touch. Wow! I guess she's too busy to call and have us answer the phone. Rather, she waste our precious time with this stupid service.
Today, I finally moved Destroy All Malware to its own domain; DestroyAllMalware.com.
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