Hacked

[Bertramp]

If you get an email from me trash it, i got hacked

[CaptPatrick]

Steve,

Highly recommend a maleware program called Malewarebytes that will all but eliminate this type of problem...

[Navatech]

My personal favorite to tackle malware (not viruses) on the Windows platform is Spybot - Search & Destroy... Free for home users... I see they now also offer anti-virus capability but I have no personal experience with that part...

Don't have anything like that on my Macs... Just an anti-virus which, so far, has found zero viruses...

[CaptPatrick]

Be highly leery of any program that is fee. Most freeware or shareware can damage your computer or hijack functions and easily cause more problems than what you thought might get fixed.

Remember: There's no such thing as a free puppy...

[Navatech]

Be highly leery of any program that is fee. Most freeware or shareware can damage your computer or hijack functions and easily cause more problems than what you thought might get fixed.

Remember: There's no such thing as a free puppy...

Actually, Spybot - Search & Destroy has been around for over a decade (IIRC)... It started as a labor of love (not unlike this web site), progressed to "donation ware" and turned fully commercial (for business users) only relatively recent... Quite a few software vendors in this field (anti-virus/anti-malware) follow this business model (free for home, paid for business)...

And regardless of anything else, I never use any software (free or otherwise) without checking out reviews... And while there's no such thing as a free lunch (or puppy) some things expect their payment in other ways... For example, the free software version may present commercial advertising (very common on the mobile platforms)... If you don't care for the advertising you can buy the "pro" version (sans advertising)... The anti-virus/anti-malware companies that follow the free for home paid for business model see their reward in the publicity and recognition their products receive in this scenario...

As another example, there's some Gentlemen's clubs around here that do free lunches (free admission included)... Sure, they expect you to buy an "adult beverage" and the girls certainly try to get you to get a lap dance but you're under no obligation to do either...

[Carl]

Be highly leery of any program that is fee. Most freeware or shareware can damage your computer or hijack functions and easily cause more problems than what you thought might get fixed.

Remember: There's no such thing as a free puppy...

So this companies Premium package is quality and their Free Trial version will cause problems? Doesn't sound like anybody would go the Premium route if the Trial version caused issues.

While it is true, there is not such thing as a free puppy...they do let you play with them long enough so you just can't say no.




It is always an issue for me seeing freeware/shareware for processes you use once every several months opposed to buying a program then the designer Sunsets the product forcing you to upgrade.

Then programs for Adware, Malware and Security Products I usually download the trial versions first...not all those programs play nicely together on my computers. After a few weeks I'll buy the program if it works well...but takes awhile to see.

I hate rolling the dice, and i guess that is what it is...but buying every program for extremely limited use is problematic too. I am far from having answers...

[Bertramp]

It was an email from someone I once worked with .... subject was his name .... there was a file in the email, which I didn't even open.
Changing AOL password seems to have cleared the problem.