Is this a scam?

[Humbucker]

I've had my new PC for just over a week now and apart from a few problems with Spyware/Adware everything has ran reasonably smoothly.......... until last night that is. I was online and out of nowhere this message comes up informing me that I need to re-activate my Windows XP OS and I have to pay $9.99 with my credit card to do it. I said no(clicked on cancel) and everything seemed to be OK but this message comes up everytime I log on to the computer and it's really annoying. There surely is no reason why I would have to reactivate Windows XP after just 1 week of having it.(BTW bought this PC brand new with XP already on and I did the activation thingy straightaway.) I've done a couple of google searches and I have found people that have been prompted to reactivate but ONLY when they made big changes to the hardware etc. Also I have found NOTHING saying they have been asked to pay money to do it.

I have ran Virus and Spyware scans and got rid of all the stuff they have turned up and still this message comes up. Is this somebody hacking into my system and trying to con me or is it genuine? If it's genuine then I have to say this is totally ridiculous In 4 years of using Windows 98 on quite a modest system I didn't have anywhere near the amount of problems I have had in just a week with this system/Windows XP. Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[tOny mOnt4n4]

Ok thats definatly spyware, if you clicked the cancel button it probably loaded the spyware onto your computer. Run spybot 1.3 and ad-aware, and dont use internet explorer instead use mozilla firefox 1.0 (no spyware)

 

[Humbucker]

Hi Tony, I run Ad-aware and Spybot S+D reguarly(a little TOO reguarly for my linking infact ) and this doesn't stop this problem. I do have Firefox and I know it's supposedly safer than IE but I find the layout and such a little bland so usually use IE. If this IS spyware then all my spyware/adware programs aren't getting rid of it so does anyone have any suggestions on how to stop it coming up?

 

[tOny mOnt4n4]

You could try system restore, then if that doesnt work and you are really desperate you can reformat

 

[U-Toast]

you might wana rely to a firewall here. try zone alarm personal firewall. but that is definately a scam. DONT EVER use IE again. use a combination of firefox and opera. use one all the time, and when u have a problem with one, itl usually work in the other. hehe

 

[Humbucker]

Thanks for your replies guys I have a program(Advanced System Optimizer) where you can disable/delete programs that run from startup and when I look at the list of things that run there are at least a few that I am positive shouldn't be there. The problem is, I don't know which SHOULD and which SHOULDN'T. If I could just find the application that is making this ridiculous Windows message come up I could get rid of it. I really don't want to have to see it everytime I log on to the computer

 

[MrWynd]

firewall isnt going to help that. you can probably remove it with hijackthis, but you have to know what you're doing or you can take stuff out you dont want to.

 

[derrmc]

Thanks for your replies guys I have a program(Advanced System Optimizer) where you can disable/delete programs that run from startup and when I look at the list of things that run there are at least a few that I am positive shouldn't be there. The problem is, I don't know which SHOULD and which SHOULDN'T. If I could just find the application that is making this ridiculous Windows message come up I could get rid of it. I really don't want to have to see it everytime I log on to the computer

try spy sweeper

 

[Humbucker]

Spy Sweeper doesn't find it.........

 

[intercodes]

Humbucker,

post the 'start-up' items from your msconfig in here...

Maybe someone here might know ,which one to disable and the keys to delete in the registry manually..

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