This is crazy!!

**twisterX** · 10-16-2005, 05:53 PM

Allison Smith will never forget the week before Memorial Day 2005.

Roaming the Internet looking for some free clip art, Smith found a site that looked perfect. But before she could download as much as an icon, her PC was infested with adware.

"All of a sudden I was besieged with pop-up ads," says Smith, a CPA who runs an accounting firm in Conway, Arkansas. "Boom boom boom boom boom--I had so many Internet Explorer windows [open] that they completely stalled my computer."

Many of the ads Smith saw on her desktop bore a calling card from their creator: an adware program called Aurora, made by New York-based Direct Revenue.

Using another computer, Smith googled "Aurora" to learn more. She ineffectively tried using anti-spyware programs to remove it, tried killing the adware using Task Manager, and eventually hired a computer technician, who spent three days (at $50 an hour) trying to fix the problem. Each time he removed the software, she says, it would automatically reinstall itself under a different name.

Between repairs and lost revenue from downtime, Smith says her adware debacle cost her close to $5000. "What really surprised me was that the ads were from reputable companies, names you'd recognize," she says. "I got really angry that legitimate businesses would advertise their products using a program like this."

**Guillaume** · 10-16-2005, 06:24 PM

Indeed this is crazy:

Smith says her adware debacle cost her close to $5000.

format C:/ would have been so much more cost efficient.

Now, so that this post won't be considered spam, I've decided to post this link to a removal guide for those of us (or guests) that may face the Aurora spyware.

**zaphodiv** · 10-16-2005, 06:29 PM

Original article

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/...95,pg,1,00.asp

It's not crazy. People are stupid, it's a fact of life. Don't use internet explorer
and don't run software from untrustworth sources such a porn sites and you are unlikly to have a problem.

It's the same as not having backups then being surprised and devastated when your computer fails and your data is gone.

>format C:/ would have been so much more cost efficient.

The kind of people who have problems with adware have lost their windows, application and driver CD's, lost their windows ME key, don't have backups, don't know their ISP and email user names and passwords, have files they want to keep scattered all over the harddrive and are totally confused when the toolbars in office are in differnent places.

**peat moss** · 10-16-2005, 06:49 PM

Hmm $5000 could go a long way to update office equipment what a moron, Smith and her techie .

Thanks for the link Guillaume, think thats worth a bookmark .

**Virtualbody1234** · 10-16-2005, 07:12 PM

They say $5000? Looks like they're getting ready for a lawsuit.

**peat moss** · 10-16-2005, 07:18 PM

Originally Posted by Virtualbody1234

They say $5000? Looks like they're getting ready for a lawsuit.

I'd sue the techie VB , thats silly .

**Guillaume** · 10-16-2005, 07:52 PM

Originally Posted by zaphodiv

format C:/ would have been so much more cost efficient.

The kind of people who have problems with adware have lost their windows, application and driver CD's, lost their windows ME key, don't have backups, don't know their ISP and email user names and passwords, have files they want to keep scattered all over the harddrive and are totally confused when the toolbars in office are in differnent places.

Oh, come on. She knew how to google for "aurora" but couldn't google for a removal guide? That took me 1.5 minutes top. Then all she had to do was to follow the instructions.

When I first had my computer I didn't even know how to copy/paste. I learned through trial and error, but mostly by reading stuff on the internet (and joining here

).