Unwanted Viral Browser Toolbars

Microsoft Security Essentials and avast! Free are good.

Never had any problems with either.

Thanks M1GU31, a Cnet download was responsible. I backtracked and discovered that the Spyhunter prog that I downloaded was spelled differently to the REAL one, which explains things to gied! The real Spyhunter is priced a lot less than $99.99.

I found and killed 2 Snap.do 'Helper Bars' in the Registry, nothing in there from Babylon or Claro Search Bars. I then used my purchase of Malwarebytes Pro, to carry out a Full Scan. It found nothing. The 'puter is much quicker now and I have concluded that the false SH prog was giving me false information to make me "buy" their "product".

I take note of the advice about AVG, which I intend to replace with Bitdefender ASAP. I had BD on my 'puter for 2 years and changed it, due to cost of the next version. False economy I guess.

Lesson learned, but many thanks to all who advised me, this Forum still rocks!

Cnets pages and download clutter make it very easy to miss things. It is very easy to miss lots of unwanted things. I use FileHippo. I sure some here won't agree with FileHippo. That being said it works well for me. You still have to watch because sites change policies often.

You will get Babylon whether you put a check mark in the box or remove the check mark. You will get it either way. If the Babylon option is there I recommend finding another place to get the download you want.
Been there done that.

Layback Bear said:

Cnets pages and download clutter make it very easy to miss things. It is very easy to miss lots of unwanted things. I use FileHippo. I sure some here won't agree with FileHippo. That being said it works well for me. You still have to watch because sites change policies often.

I think Filehippo is one of the 2-3 good download sites left. Softpedia, MajorGeeks, c|Net, Download.com all are getting crappy and bundle crapware.
Sometimes one has to look through the license agreement before an opt out box is shown.

Bertison said:

Thanks guys for all of that great advice.
I had an appointment yesterday and did not return until this morning, so apologies for not responding sooner. A little more info:

I had downloaded what I thought to be an Anti Spyware programme from the USA - anyone used "Spyhunter"? That is the source of all the infection reports . Listed as a "Free" Download, it came up with a total of 14 'Infections' all based upon Snap.do, Babylon and Claro Search. When I asked to "Fix" the problems, it asked for $99.99. I uninstalled it, wiped it from the Registry and received a message asking why I uninstalled, then offering the same programme for $10! - thanks, but no thanks!

Purchased & downloaded Malwarebytes Pro, carried out a Full scan, no reports of any Nasties.

gied - thanks, I already tried your suggestions. Kept a note of them though, much appreciated.

cottonball & NightHawk - thanks to you both, I will try them in order. I will report any further results later. I really appreciate your assistance guys, thanks.

It's called "Scam Ware"! A bogus program will download a list of bugs and then claim you can see them removed when buying the full version when no program actually exists or the fake poses as a genuine article.

Have a look at the notice I posted about one that had the gui of Advanced System Care black and dark theme and all with the words "Security Essentials" as the program name mocking the MS SE genuine article and then charging for it? New Variant of "FAKE" Security Essentials to be aware of!

SCAMWARE! is precisely what you ran into apparently. The one I cleaned off of a few laptops last year downloaded 4 trojans and blocked the taskmanager with a fake "Windows Process Doctor" to prevent killing the program. GFI support was a little upset when I hadn't used their special remover tool but opened the file location to find the offender and move it to another location and then boot up in Safe Mode to manually remove the one main file. The regular av program then took care of the rest which included the 4 trojans and rogue scamware gui.

gied said:

Bertison : know some guys at company there, as far as I am told, they have no version for 99 USD, but who knows :)

By the way, AVG got some bad publicity recently due to similar toolbar /search hijacker distributed through its free version like the ones you remove :) J

The AVG Internet Security toolbar alerts you to bad sites allowing you to back off or close the browser window fast to prevent something from being stuffed on your system when hitting a bad site. Someone apparently put out a bogus version mocking the original addon since the actual toolbar doesn't hijack anyone.

As far as these types of "First Buy and then We cure your pc" nonsense the volume of scamwares has been on the rise for the last two years roughly over trojan droppers and other malwares. With everyone having been seeing a slower economy some clowns want to cash in on gullibility by pumping fake versions with close sounding names to valid programs.

Britton30 said:

Layback Bear said:

Cnets pages and download clutter make it very easy to miss things. It is very easy to miss lots of unwanted things. I use FileHippo. I sure some here won't agree with FileHippo. That being said it works well for me. You still have to watch because sites change policies often.

I think Filehippo is one of the 2-3 good download sites left. Softpedia, MajorGeeks, c|Net, Download.com all are getting crappy and bundle crapware.
Sometimes one has to look through the license agreement before an opt out box is shown.

I have been watching for the opt out box in the agreement because you mentioned it before. They know that nobody reads those.
I thank you it is great advice.

I think you may find a few things at FileHippo that are tainted as well if you were to go through everything. It's becoming too common place in seeing the "unwanted extras" tossed into the mix when going to download any supposed freebies. That's where they get you with other things tucked away nicely! c/net downloads is seeing this as well.