The Internet and Stalkers

[SOD'EM]

Think mine needs an upgrade ... its 1 GB. Yes, Norton is a system eater. Sometimes I also do a netstat run to look for certain things as well.

 

Just uninstall Norton straight away and install Avast Home Edition. 1GB is plenty for Avast to run in the background.

 

http://download.cnet.com/Avast-Free-Antivirus/3000-2239_4-10019223.html?part=dl-85737&subj=dl&tag=button

 

 

Registration is quite simple but I can give you a hand if you get stuck.

[Guest Cartaphilus]

It is, yes. I won't post precisely what happened to me, beyond the obvious harassment side. But it frightened me enough to go do it, run away. Since then I read often about others the same Thank you understanding for raising this, I was thinking about posting something earlier but because I got upset I decided to come off for a while.

[understanding]

Thanks for all that info.

 

You 2 have been busy typing over the last hour or so:-D.

 

Just one thing about the first post though (nothing to do with Cyberstalking). Although Norton will do a free scan for you, you will inevitably end up paying for it if there is anything whatsoever untowards. I suggest Using Malware Bytes (free) as a Virus detector and removal and either Avast (free) or Microsoft Security Essentials (free) as your real time protection. Or both if your system can handle it. I only have 2GB Ram and I have them running simutaneously with no problems.

 

I advise anyone (and other people more tech savvy than me do the same) to get rid of Norton as it is a memory muncher and slows your sytem down considerably, and install one of the many free (and better) Anti Virus Programs available (like the 2 mentioned above).

 

Heh, true that

 

 

 

As for the online scan, that should be a free one time scan.

 

Sorry, I should have made it clear and would advise anyone to check their pc in case of any threats lurking and if there is something found, my next suggestion would be to search for a free online virus cleaner such as can be found on sites like C.Net, clean the pc and then installing a freeware virus scanner such as the ones advised by SOD'EM.

[Guest Cartaphilus]

Thanks for the link. My prior PC was a lot more powerful, but things wear out, so got a cheaper tower one from PC World. Though I have plugged some hardware into it from my old one. Mostly because it had no CD rewriter or any way to save anything. I mean, a PC without a means of saving things to disk??

[understanding]

You have cheered me up tonight, thank you. I think everyone often needs it sometimes, to help them get through to tomorrow, the day after. Sometimes I forget my human side, well not 'forget' forget but sometimes. Compassions a very important commodity in life. Priceless, even. And if not for my phone 'dinging' to let me know I had a new post to read on here, I wouldn't have found the post again.

 

 

Well it was lovely chatting with you and maybe we have helped each other a little bit tonight.

[Guest Cartaphilus]

I, you ... communicating is a very powerful tool, as is discussing and talking.

[understanding]

Glad to be of some small help in raising awareness of this crime.

[understanding]

I, you ... communicating is a very powerful tool, as is discussing and talking.

 

 

yep!

[Guest Cartaphilus]

Well, the thing is I found out that in place like America for example they are way ahead in terms of cybercrime, with specialist offices that deal with it. Or so it seems.

[understanding]

Well, the thing is I found out that in place like America for example they are way ahead in terms of cybercrime, with specialist offices that deal with it. Or so it seems.

 

It seems as if the USA have only started picking up on this being a crime at all due to amount of reports as well as physical criminal activity resulting from stalker crime. I read a few of the stories on those sites I posted in the opening, some of it is mind boggling to be sure.

Edited September 26, 2010 by understanding
typos again

[Guest Cartaphilus]

I read a few of the stories on those sites I posted in the opening, some of it is mind boggling to be sure.

 

Well, I think in most instances, it's because most are waiting, hoping an avenue becomes available for them to get heard. So when it does, they talk about it. Which is only natural, of course. I only spoke of mine, because sometimes it can help others to come forwards. Very often, though, it's the fear that stops some from coming forwards. Bit like getting a DCA letter, or threats from that direction, what do you do, whom do you turn to? How do you react?

[understanding]

Yeah, I know the feeling of fear but it can also make the resolve to battle wrong-doing stronger.

[Guest Cartaphilus]

Just posting a test message. Because on your council thread, it's showing on the main board that you'd posted a few times and lastly at 0016, and posting on it nothing showed up so just testing in here.

[understanding]

good idea - yeah I can't seem to post a message on the council forum all of sudden

[understanding]

whoohoo - I can be seen 8)

 

another good freeware software for the pc is ccleaner from periform. What it does is clean your browser (and even registry etc if wanted) of anything that could pose a threat after internet use.

 

http://www.piriform.com/

 

have a look see and try it out

 

pm me if you want, Cartaphilus and if you ever need an ‘ear’, well, I got two.

 

I enjoyed our 'chat' and thank you for showing concern over my situation.

 

Have a good night.

Edited September 26, 2010 by understanding

[Guest Cartaphilus]

Yes.

[Guest Cartaphilus]

Goodnight. I think I worked out what was going on there ... perhaps.

[dx100uk]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11404284

 

is worth a read

 

and

 

dont forget

glary utils

 

for cleaning nasties

 

and then

spywareblasterfree

but dont forget to manually update every weeek or so

 

dx

[babybear39]

Personally, I've had a few incidents of people trying to stalk me but because I'm a writer and have been blogging since 2004, using MSN, facebook etc. I get clever with them and they seem to give up

 

Anyone can trace me with this nick and my others and find out who I am but that's because I have no worries about idiots who are so sad they having nothing better to do than stalking and scaring people.

 

However, I do realise that to many people this behaviour can be very frightening and should be treated very seriously.

[understanding]

hello, babybear39,

 

I'm going to google you ^^

 

What genre do you write? I dabble a little here and there and now I hope to have time to write for real.

[sillygirl1]

I had a couple of Facebook stalkers for a while but they gave up when I refused to converse with them and logged off every time they came online...

 

As for the security stuff, my sisters mate tried to break into my old PC (the one I gave my niece when I moved) and it took them 1/2 hour... they didn't find any personal stuff but commented that they liked one of the doily patterns I had stored!

 

I've been around computers for a long time and remember a program called Kermit which used to run on the early Amstrads, it was a dialler system that rang all the variations on a given series of numbers and returned the number which had a fax machine or modem linked to it... used to take ages before it found one but I bet now it would return thousands in the first 10 minutes of running... we used it to find out who was trying to send a fax to my dads home phone at 1.25am - turned out to be the local police sending details of stolen cars between stations!

[understanding]

That article is an eye-opener, dx100uk.

 

 

More than one million women and 900,000 men are stalked in the UK every year, according to the British Crime Survey.

 

It took almost two million victims BEFORE the CPS decided to enter the 21st Century by producing guidelines.

 

Apathy is something that needs to be battled every day it seems to me, no matter where you are.

[babybear39]

hello, babybear39,

 

I'm going to google you ^^

 

What genre do you write? I dabble a little here and there and now I hope to have time to write for real.

 

Hi understanding, I write mainly about my peculiar take on life but also some serious stuff. Google babybear3333 as well

[Guest Cartaphilus]

Avast there! Okay, done the scan, it picked up on 3 high threats that hadn't been by Zone Alarm.

 

Also, occassionally, when I have checked my control panel the remote access has been found to be turn back to 'on' when I have turned it off several times, as I don't need to use it for any reason. The last time I found it, there was a false positive in that in one menu it said it was turned off, then by chance checking it in another menu it was switched to 'on'. Not sure what could be causing that or whether it's because I have reset it by restoring a few times. But on the times odd things have happened, I have then found it's switched back to 'on'.

[understanding]

A stalker with hacker capability is a real nightmare!

 

I’m not a ‘techie’ by any means so this is just my personal view but if threats persisted after scanning and quarantine then I would be looking at further options.

 

Wary that my system was compromised, I would purchase a new hard drive and install from scratch, that is my preference but the cost of a hard drive relates to the age of the system and the cost of replacement by someone with technical know-how. New Hard drives can start from around £30 online.

 

If replacing the hard drive is not an option then perhaps there are some other ways to check what is going on with your system.

 

The following suggestions are all FREEWARE or FREE-To-Use software as far as I know.

 

One of the first things I would suggest is to use a port checker to ‘probe’ your system for vulnerabilities. A favourite of mine has been ‘Shields Up’ written by an independent programmer many years ago in response to the shoddy software then available for security. The link is: https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 and you should click the ‘proceed’ button and follow the online help and instructions.

 

 

If for any reason you feel you need a more immediate solution, maybe something like the ‘Emergency Toolkit’ from another established and recognisable proprietor of A-squared malware scanner, Emisoft, has provided. Before extracting the zip-file, check with your usual virus scanner if it is safe to open.

 

Please read the ‘Read Me’ notes first before use. The file is big, around 95 MB and can be downloaded for free from: http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/eek/

 

There is other freeware software available from Emisoft at this link:

http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/download/

 

 

Other on line scans have been provided elsewhere in this thread. However I will say that one piece of software, 'CCleaner, is a good tool to have on your system. It cleans browser files like history, temporary internet files and cookies etc in one click. It can also clean registry files while allowing you to back up the registry before change. The link for download is: http://www.piriform.com/ with full information on how to use.

 

 

Other software which may prove to be useful is ‘Spybot Search & Destroy’ which is a little aggressive perhaps but can be found at this link: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html

 

If any real technical people are about, maybe they will be able to offer more suggestions or even better solutions than my ‘layman’ efforts.

Edited October 1, 2010 by understanding