I Need Help!!

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KellyFrancis

Holo the Wise Wolf
Jul 13, 2012
80
0
0
My grandma's computer has a bug she can't shake. She has an up-to-date Macafee subscription that's supposed to keep her safe. Yesterday she spent 2 hours on the phone with a guy from Macafee who uninstalled whatever he needed to and got rid of the malady. Today, it's back. So she calls them back and now they want money to help her. She's running around in circles with these people, has been for almost another two hours, with three different people.

My question is: can we get rid of this our ourselves with a virus software that is obviously not doing what it's supposed to? Is there a way for us to circumvent whatever is wrong and fix the problem?

It's some adware thing called snap.do.com. It has taken over her homepage completely. She can't use her computer at all. It's a Dell desktop computer, 3 years old, with Windows 7.

Can anyone suggest a course of action? She just doesn't have the 180 dollars they want to fix the problem that never should have happened in the first place. Right now, we not recommend Macafee for virus protection software. :thumbsdow



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authmal

Pseudonovice
Aug 4, 2011
2,621
62
51
Phoenix, AZ
Macafee and Norton are largely money pits. There have been many allegations, I emphasize, allegations, that if you cancel your subscription, they brick your computer. Even if it turns out those are false allegations, they have a relatively large footprint, and use a noticeable portion of your processing power if you're doing any real time scanning.

I'd go to Trend Micro's website and run their free trial. Kaspersky also seems to be well regarded by my IT and programming friends.

I've used AVG, but stopped, largely because..... I'm not sure why. The slight performance degradation is probably a factor (I have a fairly old PC) but wary surfing habits largely eliminate the need for security. Largely, not completely, but I'm willing to operate with my current level of risk. Even emails that seem the slightest bit hinky generate a call/text/email including an inside joke/reference to the sender before links get clicked.
 

KellyFrancis

Holo the Wise Wolf
Jul 13, 2012
80
0
0
I, unfortunately, am not. Lol.

I did forget to add that yesterday, before the tech call, I went on and ran Rkill and Combofix for a different issue in safe mode. That other issue seemed to be resolved after that. It was running super slow but it's faster now. But it didn't catch this snap.do thing.

I just wish I was more tech savvy so I could help her. :(


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KellyFrancis

Holo the Wise Wolf
Jul 13, 2012
80
0
0
Macafee and Norton are largely money pits. There have been many allegations, I emphasize, allegations, that if you cancel your subscription, they brick your computer. Even if it turns out those are false allegations, they have a relatively large footprint, and use a noticeable portion of your processing power if you're doing any real time scanning.

I'd go to Trend Micro's website and run their free trial. Kaspersky also seems to be well regarded by my IT and programming friends.
Thank you! I appreciate the nudge! I'll have her do that.


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Khemul

Sea Bunny
Oct 14, 2010
1,617
1
0
South Florida
Did they simply uninstall Snap.do or did they restore/reset the browser settings also? Both are usually required, as the changes remain after the program is removed.

Those programs usually aren't that persistent. They just need to be uninstalled through the control panel before any fixes can be made, since the program will fight any changes.



Not sure if any antivirus would help in this situation. It's a legitimate program, albeit one with way too much power.
 
Last edited:

dougall

...
Mar 29, 2005
3,480
900
120
Yes Kelly, Yes you do!


and, you don't say how you know it's back. If it was picked up during a scan, as opposed to symptoms being observed, it could be possible that it's being found in a system restore archive (The location the scan shows should make that fairly obvious)

If that's the case turning off system restore and then back on should remove any old archived restore points.


and, I personally use Kaspersky and don't have any problems with it, if you shop around it can frequently be found for free after rebate... unfortunately it won't work with your mac.
 
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