Advice on Trojan removal, Avast, MSSE, etc.

[Lurch]

Hi,

I bought a newer Dell PC with dual core processor and Win 7. The seller recommended Avast AV. I had been using MSSE for the last few years, but I thought I'd try Avast and see how I like it. After I installed Avast I could not send email out, so I called their toll free "support" line and got some man with a foreign accent that got onto my PC and said I have a Trojan and Koobface, and wanted me to pay $99 fee to supposedly clean it up [which I didn't do]. I didn't like talking to the man, he seemed push to get me to pay some money, and I ended up hanging up on him and unchelcked logmein123.com on my firewall. He claimed he works for MS, but I doubt he does. Ths gave me a bad feeling about Avast.

Anyway, how do I remove a Trojan, if I have one?

I ran Malwarebytes but to tell you the truth, in all the years I've had MWB, I have never seen it detect a single tghing from any of my PCs.
I ran SAS and removed 7 tracking cookies but nothing else.

Which free AV is the best? I installed AVG and I now have that running. I've heard that Avira will remove a trojan, is that true?
What should I do to clean up my PC and hopefully not pay someone to do something that can be done at no cost?

I love my new Dell PC. It's Pentium D dual core with 3 GB RAM, 2.8 Ghz, Win 7.

Thanks in advance.

L

[YeOldeStonecat]

Where did you get that phone number to call? I suspect it was a fake one. Avast employees don't work for Microsoft.

I like Microsoft Security Essentials for a free antivirus. I hate AVG with a passion...I'd uninstall AVG and all it's other bloated stuff (like web browser protection)...reboot, go straight for the MSE install.

MalwareBytes is very good...are you updating it? Usually finds at least some minor harmless stuff at the very least.
SAS is fine too.
Check TDSSKiller....from Kaspersky. Quick small download to run and scan for rootkits.

[Lurch]

Hi YOSC,

I chose the wrong number. It began with 877, I do know that, and if I logged nto my Magic Jack account I could get that number. It was scary to have some guy controlling my PC as I sat there. I could see him moving the pointer and doing things on my PC. I should have never allowed that to happen. He had a heavy India accent.

I'll do as you say and remove AVG and go back to MSE. Thanks. I'll let you kow how I do.

[Lurch]

Hi,

I got the TDSSKiller and ran it and it found nothing. Now I'm wondering if I really have a trojan or if that outfit was just out to make some money on me. I have MSE again too, and I'm gong to run Firefox, not MSIE. I tried MSIE or a while and it may be fast but I[m not used to it and it's bookmarking always seemed to be something I was never fond of.

I found that site when I googled Avast support. He went into "Run" on my PC and caused things to happen, then he told me I have about 2400 issues with my PC.

MSE an Ff, I'm not going to argue with what has worked for me for years.

[Lurch]

I probably clicked on one of the @#$%^&* ads that show up on top of the real search results. It seems as tho they're trying more and more these days to push products down our throats.

[RaisinCain]

I had a customer who fell for this. I ended up having to reload her PC and she ended up having to change all of her passwords and getting her credit/debit cards replaced.

[Lurch]

Gotta watch out for the ads google now places above search results. I wish they'd put them somewhere else. With me, I clicked on it by accident, thinking it was a real avast rep number. The least google could do is not allow these ads links on top of real search results. They are creating an obstacle for the public to stumble over. I should start using a different search engine than google. I'm starting to dislike google.

[YeOldeStonecat]

Hi YOSC,

I chose the wrong number. It began with 877, I do know that, and if I logged nto my Magic Jack account I could get that number. It was scary to have some guy controlling my PC as I sat there. I could see him moving the pointer and doing things on my PC. I should have never allowed that to happen. He had a heavy India accent.

I'll do as you say and remove AVG and go back to MSE. Thanks. I'll let you kow how I do.

Yeah the scammers are getting crazy.
Over the past 2 weeks I've been doing a server migration at a big accounting firm that does books for a lot of pro football players. I was down in their server room a few days ago, and their office manager came down and said "Did you call Microsoft support? They just called and said your computers sent them a signal that was very urgent and it's about to crash....can I remote in to assist?"

She said she thought I must have called for support and was waiting....

I looked at her and laughed..."Scam!!! Hang up!"

It's odd seeing other people move your computers cursor around....I hear that comment a lot as I do that to clients.

Avast is a good AV....I just like MSE because of it's simplicity....requires no license or renewals, auto updates, simple dialogue for end users. And in my experience it's quite effective. Not the best at detection, but still pretty good. Actually this morning MSE detection is better than Kasperskys and Authentium....we filter our SMTP mail at the office with those...and today I got a phish e-mail through my mailbox on our Exchange server...the AV/spam filter didn't catch it, but as my Outlook loaded the preview...my laptops MSE jumped up and cleaned the e-mail. The e-mail spoofed Microsoft partner e-mail...looked like it came from my reps at MS, very authentic looking. Yet the embedded links were clearly phishing links.

Cain brings up a valid point...regarding credit cards. Did you give your number to the scammer on the phone?

[Lurch]

Cain brings up a valid point...regarding credit cards. Did you give your number to the scammer on the phone?

Hi YOSC,

No, I didn't give out my CC number. I felt afraid when he was controlling my pointer though. After a while I got fed up with him and hung up, then unchecked his URL in my firewall. I won't make that mistake again.

I'm running MSE and as soon as I installed it, my emails went out with no problems. I don't know what it is about MSE but it seems to work very good for me and I may as well stick with it.