Spyaxe

[ChrisNicholls]

When I turned my PC on yesterday morning, after a few minutes a balloon appeared in the system tray down by the clock saying "System alert;Spyware detected", "click this message to remove" etc.

It looked pretty real although I did'nt recognise it.

So I clicked the balloon and got taken to a website that tried to sell me their spyware product, a nasty piece of kit called Spyaxe ($49.99)

Somehow this programme had installed itself on my PC without my consent.

I tried to remove it from the control panel using the Add/Remove programmes feature, it seemed to uninstall it but it in fact it was still there,

Ad-Aware and Spybot have not had any effect, they did not remove it, AVG anti virus had no effect either (it is not actually a virus)

I tried a system restore to the day previous and it worked up to a point, the point being about half an hour later it was back. This Spyaxe programme constantly pops up balloons telling you that you are infected and also there are other pop up's (that look like they are from Microsoft) telling you of products to remove spyware, all linked to Spyaxe.

A Google search for "Spyaxe removal" comes up with similar products that are apparently from the same company (and also $49.99)

 

Can anybody help with this?, does anybody know of a download tool to remove it, free hopefully, I did'nt ask for this and don't really want to pay to get rid of it.Thanks.

 

Chris.

[dazza]

This one is a b**stard :<

 

 

In order to clean your PC from infections related to Spyware Axe product, please follow the instructions below:

 

 

1) Save Uninstallers.zip from http://www.spyaxe.com/uninstall/uninstallers.zip to your desktop or HDD.

 

2) Extract 2 files "illegal_adv_uninstall1.exe" and "illegal_adv_uninstall2.exe" to your desktop or your HDD using WinZip.

 

3) Execute both of them one by one by double-clicking with your mouse.

 

4) Reboot your PC

 

5) Your PC is now clean from the infections. Hope this helps Chris

-------------

[Down South]

Chris, I'm not a PC buff but had something similar a while ago. A porn site got downloaded while my wife was looking for airline tickets. Virgin Atlantic popped up and would not clear unless you ticked yes. On the next start up it opened and connected itself to a porn site of the same name, it genuinly upset my wife.

I did a search using the name of the offending download to find where it was stored on my hard drive. I then explored my drive and deleted it from there. If you are patient there will be plenty of PC experts on line through the day.

BTW, I've now changed to a Mac and don't seem tohave problems anymore.

[tenbears10]

BTW, I've now changed to a Mac and don't seem tohave problems anymore.

Good man.

 

[SNAKEBITE]

A porn site got downloaded while my wife was looking for airline tickets.

Oh yeah

Blame the wife. I'll have to remember that

 

(No offence, only joking!!)

[ChrisNicholls]

This one is a b**stard :<

 

 

In order to clean your PC from infections related to Spyware Axe product, please follow the instructions below:

 

 

1) Save Uninstallers.zip from http://www.spyaxe.com/uninstall/uninstallers.zip to your desktop or HDD.

 

2) Extract 2 files "illegal_adv_uninstall1.exe" and "illegal_adv_uninstall2.exe" to your desktop or your HDD using WinZip.

 

3) Execute both of them one by one by double-clicking with your mouse.

 

4) Reboot your PC

 

5) Your PC is now clean from the infections. Hope this helps Chris

-------------

Thanks Dazza, but unfortunately this route no longer works, I downloaded the zip file and extracted it, there was only one file in it......illegal_adv_uninstall....... there was no .exe file extension, double clicking on the one file it contained did nothing, it would not open. I think maybe Spyaxe have stopped this one from working. Thanks.

 

Chris.

[dazza]

Plan B

 

The lastest version of Noahdfear's Smitfraud Removal Tool now works to also fix SpyAxe problems.

 

Please download http://noahdfear.geekstogo.com/click%20cou.../click.php?id=1 and save it to your desktop but do not run it until indicated.

It is necessary that you Close all other programs and windows including this one. So you should print or save these instruction locally in a text file for easy reference while offline.

Double click on smitRem.exe and then click on Start. When it is done, click on the OK button. You should now have a folder called smitRem on your desktop.

Next, please reboot your computer in Safe mode

Once you have booted in Safe Mode and your Desktop appears, make sure you close any other windows and only run what is specified.

Open the smitRem folder on your desktop and double click the RunThis.bat file to start the tool.

Follow the prompts on screen and wait for the tool to complete and disk cleanup to finish.

When the tool is finished, it will will create a log named smitfiles.txt in the root of your drive, eg; Local Disk C: or the partition where your operating system is installed. Examining that log should show that the infection was cleaned.

Now reboot your computer into Normal Mode.

[Gemini]

I had a problem with a site called Zango (180 search assistant) and these bast*rds were exactly the same. You couldn’t remove them from the PC using “Add/remove” and they kept on coming back.

In fact by trying to remove it, it actually took me to their site where they were then able to download even more ****.

I had to go into “Run” and type “msconfig”- “Startup” and then delete the box with the offending program in it.

I then had to clear all temporary internet files before going into “My computer” and searching though all the files to delete them manually.

You must clear the box in “Startup” first though otherwise it just comes back in when you re-start your computer.

G.M.

[ChrisNicholls]

Plan B

 

The lastest version of Noahdfear's Smitfraud Removal Tool now works to also fix SpyAxe problems.

 

Please download http://noahdfear.geekstogo.com/click%20cou.../click.php?id=1 and save it to your desktop but do not run it until indicated.

It is necessary that you Close all other programs and windows including this one. So you should print or save these instruction locally in a text file for easy reference while offline.

Double click on smitRem.exe and then click on Start. When it is done, click on the OK button. You should now have a folder called smitRem on your desktop.

Next, please reboot your computer in Safe mode

Once you have booted in Safe Mode and your Desktop appears, make sure you close any other windows and only run what is specified.

Open the smitRem folder on your desktop and double click the RunThis.bat file to start the tool.

Follow the prompts on screen and wait for the tool to complete and disk cleanup to finish.

When the tool is finished, it will will create a log named smitfiles.txt in the root of your drive, eg; Local Disk C: or the partition where your operating system is installed. Examining that log should show that the infection was cleaned.

Now reboot your computer into Normal Mode.

Cheers Dazza, plan B seems to have got rid of it. The first method I tried to get rid of it (found on google) seemed OK but it re-appeared after 20 minutes. The PC has been on for 2-3 hours now and so far so good. Thanks mate.

 

Chris.

 

 

If anybody else needs this I found this link to the stuff Dazza is talking about with detailed instructions and pictures etc

 

http://malwareremoval.com/plog/index.php?o...eId=48&blogId=3

[dazza]

Still ok Chris?

[ChrisNicholls]

So far so good Dazza, seems to have gone, stubborn ****** though but if you follow the instructions properly it works. Apparently Ewido gets rid of 95% of it.

 

http://www.ewido.net/en/

[Cranfield]

Chris, I'm glad dazza got rid of it for you and whats even better, he works cheap.

 

I created a seperate folder in "My Documents" a long time ago, where I put the meaty posts from threads like this (incl web links etc), just in case I get a similar problem in the future.

It has certainly helped me (and a few others) out over the years and its surprising how quickly you build up a knowledge base, that hopefully you never need.

[Hardy]

Couple of other useful tools you may like to use, depending on how comfortable you are with delving into your pc setup:

 

Microsoft Anti Spyware - It does require a genuine copy of windows to download though, just in case any bad boys This should block spyware products getting to your pc in the first place.

 

AdAware which is a spyware clean up tool, down load it & run against your pc like a virus scanner.

 

HiJackThis which I know sounds like a virus in itself but isn't! It's a neat little tool that tells you everthing that loads & is running on your PC & allows you to disable them. It includes the registry so means you can easilly get rid of the nasty bugs easily. This is a bit like 'Plan B' but requires you to know what you are looking for.

 

There are some sites which will debug the file list for you, however many of these will themselves dump a load on spyware back onto your PC so I'm not putting my name to any!! If I find a nice clean one I'll add a link.

[Axe]

I got hit by this SpyAxe last night, it really is a determined piece of kit isnt it! Thanks Dazza the advice was superb, im now back up and SpyAxe free. Well at least for the time being.

 

[Baldrick]

I got walloped by SpyAxe this morning, and I'm indebted to Dazza for his simple instructions. He saved a lot of bother and worrying.

[AdamW]

Here's a link that will give you a little more info about it,

It really is a little sh#t to get rid of though..

I had to blow a friend PC away to clear it (seems drastic but the PC needed it anyway!)

http://www.spyware-removal-guideline.com/spyaxe-removal

 

Adam

[henry d]

Nice one mate,don`t have it yet but fore warned is fore armed :thumbs:

[ChrisNicholls]

I have been infected again with Spyaxe, both times I have had it came after opening emails with attachments, both where just jokes but going by all the "forwards" had been around the world a few times, Spyaxe came on the next boot up.

 

I went through the same process as before but it did not work, I think Spyaxe had been altered slightly, so I deleted the Smitrem removal tool, re-downloaded it and ran it again, this time it was a little different, it must have been updated, I then ran Ewido which came up blank then I ran Ad-aware which picked up the offending bits, so I am now Spyaxe clean again.

 

The moral of the story is you must keep this stuff updated to keep it at full efficiency.