Don't pull a moonpie...Ada-ware is not AdAware

I have Spybot S&D and used to run AdAware awhile back. I decided that maybe I needed to run both and went to update AdAware. Well, my brain was taking a nap and somehow I found Ada-Ware. I noticed that I didn't think the spelling was the same, but it really didn't click. It downloads a file called spywarenuker, which semi caught my attention also. Anyway, I installed it and started a scan and in the meantime I started looking around and found a reference to it and trouble it had caused, so I immediately stopped the scan and uninstalled it and got the real AdAware.

Last night I updated my antivirus and lo and behold this morning when it ran, it found a trojan (Downloader Agent J) and fixed it. Wanna guess where it was? In the downloaded spywarenuker file.

I just wanted to mention this so folks would be aware. Don't pull a moonpie...if something doesn't look right, check it out first.

 

It is sneaky that with a name like 'spywarenuker', it turns out it is spyware. A program named 'history killer' is also ad/spyware.

 

Others to stay away from

The black sheep in the anti-spyware business, BulletProof and TrekBlue
http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=news&detail=2003-02-12
http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=news&detail=2003-08-05

AdWare Remover Gold
Online PC-Fix SpyFerret
SpyBan
SpyBlast
SpyGone

SpywareNuker
TZ Spyware-Adware Remover (Removed by AdAware as a target now)

these arent ripoffs But
SpyHunter <----
http://forums.spywareinfo.com/index.php?showtopic=28252&hl=spyhunter
SpyKiller <-----
http://forums.spywareinfo.com/index.php?showtopic=22844&hl=spykiller
=========
Places to stay away from:
searchdestroyspybot.com
spybot-search-destroy.com
www---spybot-spyware.com/
www---spy-bot.net/
www---spybot-download.com
www---no-spybot.com
www---spywareremove.com
www---1spybot.com/
.....and probably many, many, many more....