T1B

My mother in law did something and now their computer is hosed. They can't get into anything. As soon as they boot up, all these pop-ups come up called "Police Spyware" according to them.

I am headed there over lunch to see what the actual issue is. I have a copy of AdAware to install and run.

Any other suggestions? Anyone heard of something called "Police Spyware" and/or know how to get rid of this kind of virus? Been searching online and can't find anything specific.

First, I've grown to hate Adaware, because the new versions run shit in the background.

Next, a very quick search shows "ppenvoke.exe" and "ppagnt.exe" to be common "PC Police" spywares.

If it were me, assuming it's running XP, I think I'd start up in safe mode, and search for those files. Delete them if found.

Instead of Adaware (and Spybot does the same crap these days), I've grown fairly fond of Malwarebyte's Antimalware (might have been a recommendation from this forum, actually). Make a copy (updated), and run it (in safe mode), and see what happens.


Looking over websearch results/websites (which are, by definition always 100% correct), there's lotsa shit that carries the word "police" in its infection.

http://www.2-viruses.com/remove-xp-police-antivirus

But it looks like there's a few. If the spyware removers don't catch it, it could be a long, frustrating fix.

Then again, there's always restoring to a previous date, before the problem... sometimes works, sometimes doesn't (some of the really nasty ones delete the restore points).

Dinsdale wrote:Instead of Adaware (and Spybot does the same crap these days), I've grown fairly fond of Malwarebyte's Antimalware (might have been a recommendation from this forum, actually). Make a copy (updated), and run it (in safe mode), and see what happens.

I went over lunch. It is actually Windows Police Pro. I found a fix on bleepingcomputer.com but it didn't work. It recommended Malwarebyte's but when I attempt to run the setup, it just prompts me which file I want to open it with. I didn't fucking know. Now when I boot up, I get a "cant's find file rundll32.exe" error message. I think it's fucked.

Everytie I tried to get in via safe mode, I got blue screened.

IndyFrisco wrote:
Everytie I tried to get in via safe mode, I got blue screened.

Yeah, that could be a problem, eh?

Did you try the restore? Worth a shot, however unlikely.