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SpyKiller Pro Copies SpyWiper
On December 10th, 2003, my IE browser was hijacked again in the same manner as the SpyWiper hijack. This time advertising a program called SpyKiller Pro. The hijack came complete with the same pop-ups (shown on previous page) as used in the SpyWiper advertisement except these stated the name of the product as SpyKiller Pro. The hijack also forced open my CD rom drive door. The defaulted home page URL was http://default-homepage-network.com/index12.html which oddly enough is the same as the URL's used in the SpyWiper hijack with the exception of ending in index12. SpyWiper's URL's ended in index2 and index6. The page itself was the homepage of spykillerpro.com in image format and no opt-out link.
It seems rather odd that I've been hijacked a couple weeks apart by two different companies and I'm contemplating the reasons why. There may still be traces of a trojan on my machine allowing this spamming advertising company access to my computer. I'm still researching the matter and so far, haven't found any information on the company SpyKiller Pro, although I did find an email address on their site (spykillerpro@email.com) and sent them an email asking them what marketing techniques they're employing. I'll post their answer here if I receive one. One other interesting thing came of my visit to their website....an automatic download of the program spykillerprosetup.exe in the My Documents folder.
Their whois registry information is:
Registrant:
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
15111 N Hayden Rd., Suite 160
PMB353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com
Domain Name: SPYKILLERPRO.COM
Created on: 16-Sep-03
Expires on: 16-Sep-04
Last Updated on: 26-Sep-03
Administrative Contact:
Private, Registration SPYKILLERPRO.COM@domainsbyproxy.com
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
15111 N Hayden Rd., Suite 160
PMB353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(480) 624-2599 Fax --
Technical Contact:
Private, Registration SPYKILLERPRO.COM@domainsbyproxy.com
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
15111 N Hayden Rd., Suite 160
PMB353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(480) 624-2599 Fax --
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.SERVEPATH.COM
NS2.SERVEPATH.COM
Following is a screen shot of the defaulted God-awful long homepage of my hijack. It took 7 screen shots to get and an annoying little banner kept scrolling down the screen.
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UPDATE: I received a response from my email to SpyKiller Pro. I find it interesting that these companies keep DENYING responsibility for what their PAID advertising does. This email looks suspiciously like a "form letter".
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| Hello, You recently contacted SpyKillerPro with comments about one of our publishers. We advertise through many publishers from Sweeps to E-cards and many more. However, I believe we have tracked down the publisher that you are asking about. Please note, we are not responsible for the actions of our publishers. Please email them in reagards to any issues you may be having with their site. Visit the web site http://passthison.com and look at the bottom of their home page at the detailed instructions. (Now this was interesting because it's the same site info as default-homepage-network.com)
-To help restore your homepage, you may
use our customer’s only page. It is usually a
part of our paid service, but considering your situation,
we are sending it to you. -To stop pops, you can try: -To remove most adware programs, you
can try:
SpyKillerPro Support My IE browser was hijacked a couple of days ago and the home page was defaulted to <http://default-homepage-network.com/index12.html>. What this page is, is your homepage of spykillerpro.com. It also throws up pop-ups demanding that I download your product AND manipulates my hardware by forcing my CD rom drive door to open. Care to explain to me why an anti-spyware company markets their product through browser hijacks and hardware manipulation? Do you pay spammers and hijackers to market your product this way? |
If you have been hijacked by SpywareKillerPro, please visit http://spywarewarrior.com for assistance in removing it.
WEIRD UPDATE: A WebFerret search using spykillerpro as a keyword turns up the site http://www.mp3soundstream.com/ which is just a developer for audio marketing tools, and also posts testimonials from clients. Nowhere on this page will you find a testimonial from SpyKiller Pro BUT when WebFerret brings up the list, a mouseover on the link produces this balloon (apparently from a past testimonial): "I am currently using it for my 2 sites, www.restorationhair.com and www.spykillerpro.com I highly recommend this software to anyone who wants to put voice on...." What this means is that SpyKiller Pro also owns Restoration Hair (to help us after we've pulled out all our hair dealing with their hijacking marketing techniques??)
This website will be updated regularly with any new developments. Anyone wishing to contact me for inquiries or to relate their experiences with SpyKiller Pro may do so at nomorespyware@yahoo.com.