AntiSpywareMaster atack

May 7th, 2008

A few days ago, while I was working peacefully at my computer, I was suddenly bombarded with a lot of popups, telling me that my computer is very infected with a lot of trojans, spyware, malware, malicious code and other. My desktop has become red with an ugly, red, big mug in the center. A program came from nowhere and called AntiSpywareMaster scans my computer but when I push the remove button, it asks me to buy it. Fortunately, I was still able to use my computer, so I’ve searched on Google for AntiSpywareMaster to see how effective it was for cleaning my computer. And here is what I’ve found:

AntiSpywareMaster is a rogue anti spyware infection whose intent is to fool the user into believing that their system is infected with various viruses. AntiSpywareMaster is typically downloaded through video codecs on some less than desirable sites. AntiSpywareMaster comes complete with a compelling spyware search tool that runs a fake system scan of your system on its own. Upon running, AntiSpywareMaster will prompt the user to download and pay for a full license copy in order to remove the infections. DON’T BUY IT! AntiSpywareMaster displays infections that are false and do not exist. Here are some screenshots:

Many people have buyed it and said that the application didn’t do anything. It’s a worthless application, created just for trick you.

I’ve found on the internet some programs which pretend they remove this application from your computer, but they require buying a license. So I don’t know how trustful they are.

The only thing you have to do is to remove manually this malware from your computer. I’ve found 2 methods and I give here the links, because these methods are too long to display here entirely.

1. On the first method you must stop the process from Task Manager, to find some files called AntiSpywareMaster.exe, AntiSpywareMaster7.3.exe, or the same with .dll extension and to remove them and also you have to remove some registry keys. You can see here detailed instructions.

Of course, in my case, I didn’t found any of the AntiSpywareMaster file, and my Task Manager didn’t worked anymore. It says that “Task Manager was disabled by administrator”. Though the application was still running in my computer, because more and more popups have coming and saying that my computer is infected. So I’ve searched for another method.

2. Here is a detailed removal process in 15 steps. You must follow all of these steps and do exactly what they told you to do. It’s a long process, but it worth the effort. Finally, after 2 days and a night while I was struggling with this malicious program, at step 10 I was get rid of it. I’ve followed all the rest of the steps though, to be sure that everything its ok.

In conclusion, my advices are:
1. Don’t download anything from a site you don’t trust it!
2. Don’t buy AntiSpywareMaster program!

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Entry Filed under: General