Spysheriff - urgent help please!

[ziggs]

Hi,

Very early this morning (3.00am) a pop-up that appeared to emanate from the windows systray (in the windows alert security style) told me it had downloaded the latest version of Spysheriff, I ran it and it said it had found 17 traces of spyware.

I went to their website and stupidly paid the license fee ($29.00) and did a re-scan and it said it had healed all the spyware. I did my usual AVG pro scan this morning and it reported that I was infected with all sorts of crap! I did a Google and apparently there is spyware that is call Spysheriff. The website for Spysheriff is very professional and in depth and when I paid for the program it was via a Thwate certificated site.

My question is, have I installed a virus or a legitimate program? If so, how do I remove it? (do not care about the money I paid.) I could kick myself, I am very computer literate but my illness does make me very fatigued and spaced out at times, so I sometimes act without thinking. If I am allowed to post the url, it is http://www.spysheriff.com/

Any help or suggestions would be most appreciated

[presto]

it sounds very dodgy,
i don't think windows would download (automatically) a non MS product - in fact i am pretty sure.

it souns's like spysherrif was just a pop-up - possibly spyware. it may be a legitimate program advertised by spyware and pop-ups (which i would never trust). or it could be installing all kinds of spyware / trojans etc..... which to be honnest sounds the more likely.

have a search for MS anti spyware - i use it - its free and is quite good. - it's always best to have 2 different ones - so they catch the ones the other misses.

[ziggs]

Thanks presto,

I installed and ran MS anti spyware and it removed spysherrif and all its footprints. I ran AVG Pro and all is clear now :)

I did a Google on removing spysherrif and it entailed a very lenghty procedure and mucking about with the registery, so I am glad I did not have to do that!

A costly and stupid mistake, thanks again.

Gonna knob off and change all my exchange and online banking passwords pronto :yikes:

[bigcumba]

If you need to get anti spyware software, always go to a reliable site such as download.com, or check out any online version of the many PC magazines out there for advice on what to use. You could of course ask here as well before trying anything new! :)

[Racer]

If you need to get anti spyware software, always go to a reliable site such as download.com, or check out any online version of the many PC magazines out there for advice on what to use. You could of course ask here as well before trying anything new! :)

I have to totally agree there.

All the well known spyware removal programs are featured on websites like download.com.

Please never purchase any software without doing a full search on Google (researching as much as you can and also asking others if they know anything about it). There are alot of rogue spyware programs out there that actually steal information from your PC and pretending they are defending you against all this....what a load of c***.

spywarewarrior.com (http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm)

Moderators/Win2Win the above link has nothing at all to do with myself. It is purely for all the members on this forum who wish to check what spyware programs are real and worth having and also it contains other useful information.

I hope that the link is ok, and not in anyway against any terms & conditions of the forum.

:)

[bigcumba]

Looks useful Racer, thanks for that!

[Racer]

Not a problem, like I say I just hope it helps people make a firm decision!

:)