PhoneDog forums?

Viruses and worms
1

Does anyone here know anything about PhoneDog Forums?
The thing looks pretty dodgy to me - comparing the numbers of supposed members to actual posts.

The reason I ask is that, one day, I was hit with a heap of viruses/trojans and the only thing unusual thing I could find, at the time, was a mail notification that I had been subscribed to that forum.
I didn’t subscribe to it, but, apparently, all anyone else would need to subscribe me is my email address.

Anyway, I think avast! caught them all ok.
It was a thing called Win32:Delf-MZG [Trg], apparently.
It targeted all the security programs running at the time: Online Armor; SuperAntiSpyware; Spybot S&D and, apparently, TuneUp Utilities 2009.
It didn’t seem to affect avast! directly, but looks like it tried to get Online Armor to block some avast! processes. It succeeded in getting Online Armor to mess up my internet connection, but I got that sorted shortly.

I should say, according to avast! Vault, all this occurred on the 3rd of December.
I might have written sooner except that my system looks clean enough since then.

The reason I write now is that I think there is possibly something suspect about PhoneDog.

2

@ CCV

I see that you now have more than 20 posts which will permit you to update your profile to include signature information if you like.

Go to PROFILE then Modify Profile then Forum Profile Information then Signature: and put information about your system if you like just like my sigature.

I am sure you do not want your Gmail.com harvested by spammers and spammers that visit here so you should hide it.

3

Oh, thanks YoKenny. :slight_smile:
I don’t believe I got a notification re your post.

Anyhow, I think that PhoneDog thing did break some of my security stuff.
Very negligent of me but, I didn’t try to update Spybot in quite a while and, when I did, it wouldn’t work till I reinstalled the program.

Couldn’t manually update avast! either. Tried reinstalling that too, but no success until I rebooted, booted, my system a couple of times.
Still couldn’t get the Upgrade to Professional link(s) to work. I think Online Armor was blocking that one, tho I can’t understand why.

Now, (changing the subject) can I expect any conflict between Online Armor and avast! Pro firewall function?

4

avast! Pro does not have a firewall like avast! Internet Security.

You can not run 2 firewall applications with Online Armor.

As avast! application changed with avast! Pro you need to re-train Online Armor for the new application.

I do not use Spybot S&D as it has not kept up with today’s new detection applications like Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware (MBAM) and SUPERAntiSpyware.

Are you talking about PhoneDog Forums?
http://forums.phonedog.com

Please read:
Every 3.6 seconds a website is infected
http://www.scmagazineus.com/every-36-seconds-a-website-is-infected/article/140414

5

Oh, I see. I went and bought avast! Internet Security. Doh! That isn’t what I meant to do. I just wanted to upgrade my antivirus.
Still, it looked like a pretty good deal - 2yr license for up to three machines.
I got a two year license for Online Armor not long ago too. So that’s a bit of a bummer.

Yeah, I use MBAM too, free version, just forgot for the moment.

And, yes, that is the PhoneDog site I meant. Looks like there has been a bit more forum activity since I last saw it. Still seems to have a lot of zero post members tho.

Actually, I have come across a few infected websites and got myself infected as a result. That is one reason I switched to Opera (as was suggested to me on this forum, somewhere) and don’t use IE unless I must.

The infection I’m talking about here, however, didn’t come from visiting any website as far as I know. I wasn’t even browsing at the time. My browser was probably open, it usually is. Apart from Gmail I couldn’t say what pages I had open at the time.
The viruses seemed to just appear, like, out of the blue. The only thing I could see that looked suspicious was a message in Gmail, arriving at about the same time, to the effect that I had subscribed to some forum - which I hadn’t. Never heard of it before, and not interested anyway. Maybe it picked up my IP address, or something… I don’t know.

Btw, I’m still not getting reply notifications for this thread. [?]

6

You don’t indicate if you are running XP, Vista or Windows 7.

There are a lot of Zero post members here as well.

Have you selected Turn notification on when you post or reply to a topic. and When sending notification of a reply to a topic, send the post in the email (but please don’t reply to these emails.) in Notifications and Email in your Profile

Update MBAM then run a Quick scan and let it remove what it finds then post its log here.

7

OK. Thanks again.

I have now updated some of that, I think.
It used to be automatic notify for topics posted to. Didn’t it?
Oh, and I see there is a “Notify” option provided in the thread. 8) 8)

I have actually run MBAM Full Scan a few times, in the interim. But, since you ask:

Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware 1.44
Database version: 3765
Windows 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3
Internet Explorer 8.0.6001.18702

20/02/2010 1:02:24 PM
mbam-log-2010-02-20 (13-02-24).txt

Scan type: Quick Scan
Objects scanned: 112942
Time elapsed: 7 minute(s), 11 second(s)

Memory Processes Infected: 0
Memory Modules Infected: 0
Registry Keys Infected: 0
Registry Values Infected: 0
Registry Data Items Infected: 0
Folders Infected: 0
Files Infected: 0

Memory Processes Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

Memory Modules Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

Registry Keys Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

Registry Values Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

Registry Data Items Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

Folders Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

Files Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

Btw, is there any way to un-buy avast! Internet Security? Not that I don’t like it and, if memory serves, it was a better deal than the antivirus upgrade. I mean, the antivirus upgrade is only for one machine and one year - so, doing the sums for 2 machines and 2 years…
I rather like Online Armor; particularly the licensed version, But, as you point out, it can’t be run concurrently with avast! Firewall.
I might get to like avast!'s firewall too - just see how it goes… I might have figure how to stop it marking some of my email as SPAM tho.

8

I don’t use the AIS version of avast, but I would have thought that you could either disable or remove the Firewall element, keeping the other two and try OA firewall.

9

Ah! Topic Reply Notification seems to be working now. ;D

Thanks DavidR, yes that might work - as long as I can put up with permanent ! on avast! icon.
The spam filter might be ok, except it marks some things (in Outlook Express) as spam which really aren’t - they are automated posts from a mailing list to which I am subscribed. I suppose there is some ‘exclusion’ possibility somewhere… Haven’t had time yet to check out all possible configurations.
Anyway, I don’t get any spam, personally, ever since I learned not to publish my email address, undisguised, anywhere on the net.

10

Try this - Add Remove programs, select ‘avast! Anti-Virus,’ click the Change/Remove button and scroll down to Change, this may have options to uncheck the firewall option, if so uncheck it and OK your way out. This would effectively remove the firewall element and you wouldn’t get the ! on the icon.

I can’t answer your questions about AIS as I said I don’t use it, check out the help file as I’m sure that you should be able to exclude or add addresses to a white list, like any other anti-spam application.

11

Thanks.
Yeah, I figured out the spam exclusions - I think.

The Add Remove Programs setup looks like you can remove the Firewall component, but it just keeps coming back on.

What I did was go into avast! Settings, and in Status Bar unchecked Firewall in the list of Components Monitored.
That did the trick - no more ! on the tray icon.

Hopefully…

12

You’re welcome.

Though that is a bit like shooting the messenger and not the sender of the message, but at least it is confirming that the firewall is off so you should be able to test the other firewall.

13

Given it was me who ‘sent the message’, by turning avast! firewall off, then I think would rather prefer the option of shooting the messenger - in this particular case. ;D