UBB.threads Forums General Interest Computer Help & Idea Exchange Forum spyware?

Hello again all,
It seems as if one of my online screen names had been hacked or something. I got a message from aol saying I had a tos, I called aol and they said that somebody had gotten into one of my screennames and tried to put objectionable pictures in the profile. I told them I rarely used the name and asked how that could happen. they said someone probably got my password and security question. How could this happen? Using spyware or what? I deleted the name completely and changed my main screen name password. What can I install to avoid this happening again? Also I have avg free version I use and supposedly the aol spy zapper I see runs on my comp. Isn't this supposed to keep things like this from happening. On my old computer(running windows 98) I never had a problem. I also had zone alarm on my old comp. Any help or info regarding this problem and free programs I can install to avoid this is appreciated.
Duzig(Bill)

AOL is renowned for designing software that takes over your computer and my faith in there anti-spy software is limited. Of course I am not saying that AOL have hacked your PC but there are far better programs for monitoring unauthorised access than AOL's gimmicks. Get SPYBOT ( freeware ) from here and invest in a decent anti-virus, personally I use NOD32 which is unrivalled in my opinion. I have also heard good things about zonealarm although I hate pop ups so refuse or have never had the need to install it.
Run Spybot and see what it finds then press ctrl/alt/del to see what processes are running on your PC and then do a google search for each and see whether the prcess is legit. Hope that helps.

Get on Microsoft download center and download a program called "Windows Defender Disk Cleaner".
It's free and does an excellent job warning and removing Spyware. It runs automatically and keeps your computer clean at all times. I had the same problem from a hacker and this was the only thing that removed his Trojan and worm virus he used to take over my computer.

I hope this helps, it sure took care of my problem and I have never had another problem since.

Hello again,
Degens and Donnie I thank you both for your replies. Degens I will check out nod32 and Donnie this windows defender disk cleaner,I already have windows defender on my computer which came with vista,but is this windows defender disk cleaner something else or an add on to windows defender? In any case I thank you both for your queries and surely hope this doesn't happen again. I've been on aol for over 9 years and this is the first time anything like this has happened. I wonder if it's something that has to do with the safety of windows vista or what.
Thanks
Duzig(Bill)

You are welcome Bill. I use Windows XP 2nd and I am not that familiar with Vista. It could be an add on or update for Vista, I just don't know. For my operating system this program was the only thing that took care of the problem when the ones I paid for failed in the attempt. Needless to say I'm not paying for those any longer. For Windows XP it works great and worry free. Check Vista for updates or patches.
Good luck.