Unwanted cookies that won't go away

[Blacksheep]

I unsuspectingly opened a spam e-mail with an innocent looking subject and was hit by a blast of non-stop porno sites that wouldn't stop. Had to shut down and re-boot to regain control.

No doubt that was a great joke to whoever sent in my e-mail address but now I've got a problem. I continue getting adverts for weird sites in my e-mail. Some are porn some are funny and others are just sick. Maybe I annoyed a member of the cult of the dead cow or something? Anyway, searching for a worm, 'Opt-Out' reported cookie links in the "Temporary" internet files sub-folder "IE5" The problem is these won't delete.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to get rid of these? I've used 'The Cleaner' tried moving them into another folder and tried renaming them first. I've renamed the folder as 'Tempoary Internet Files.old' and created a complete new folder but the old folder will not delete and as soon as I log on to the internet the cookies are back in the new folder (and still in the .old file!)

Any suggestions?

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Through difficulties to the cinema

[ESL]

1/2 your luck......nah just kidding.

Step 1 in explorer type C:\WINDOWS\Cookies in your browser address.

Step 2 Select edit from top menu

Step 3 Select all

Step 4 Delete

It will delete all cookies files, except for 1 a windows one which you need.

finished


Have fun and if you need more help email me mate

[Blacksheep]

Nope,

They're still there. If you highlight ALL the files in the folder 'Temporary Internet Files' and press the delete key all of the files delete except for:

Cookie:[email protected]/
Cookie:[email protected]/
Cookie:[email protected]/
Cookie:[email protected]/
Cookie:[email protected]/
Cookie:[email protected]/

and you get an audible warning but absolutely nothing else happens. After deleting all the other files PPRuNe doesn't know who you are and all the little envelope symbols at the side of the threads go yellow. Yahoo mail etc. don't recognise you but the spam keeps rolling in straight through the firewall. I guess they are locked files that were embedded in the e-mail and the b*st*rd who sent it intended this to happen.

I suppose I could finger the sites they point at and threaten legal action but, as I've already obviously pissed someone off enough for them to stick me with this lot, that could prove dangerous too. I would imagine that 'organised crime' are involved in the internet porno racket somewhere... http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/eek.gif

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Through difficulties to the cinema

[This message has been edited by Blacksheep (edited 12 May 2001).]

[Tinstaafl]

Are the files marked as 'read only' or 'system'?

To check, right click on each of them & choose the 'properties' option in the pop up menu.

Make sure the 'read only' & 'hidden' attributes are not ticked.

Now try deleting them.

If that fails you could try booting into DOS & deleting them that way.

NOTE: Boot directly into DOS, avoiding Windows, not just open a DOS window.

The following is just in case you don't already happen to know how to suck eggs... :)

The command to check the attributes of a particular file, at the DOS prompt type:

attrib <filename>

If the directory containing the file isn't in the DOS environment path you'll have to change to the directory 1st:

cd \<directory>\<subdirectory>

eg: cd \windows\cookies

To remove a read-only attribute:

attrib -r <filename>

To remove a system attribute:

attrib -s <filename>

To delete the file after all the above bumph:

del <filename>


Hope this helps

[Blacksheep]

All deleted. Great! Shut down and go to bed.

Start again today and there they are. All back again. And I never logged on in the meantime so they came from somewhere within the machine.

Looks like a reformat is the only solution. That's probably what the b*st*ard wanted in the first place. So I won't give in. When I do crack it I promise I'll kill the b*st*rd, so I will. :mad:

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Through difficulties to the cinema

[Feret]

Sounds much like the "Homepage" virus - VBS.VBSWG2.X@mm - which is doing the rounds in this neck of the woods at present. Check out the Symantec site, may help.

Cheers.

[Hew Jampton]

Don't know if it will help but try a freeware called Adaware http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?99486:18184825

It got rid of some advertising cookies on my PC so might do the job you want.

[spannersatcx]

Feret's right it is the homepage virus, sorry.