Unknown Spyware

[CecilBritton]

I had a call from a neighbor lady to look at her Windows98 computer and see if I could fix a problem. When I turned the computer on all was okay but as soon as I went on the net, up popped a pretty large window announcing a MAPI problem and asking for the email account, server names and the user's password. I closed the window but it kept popping back up about every 30 seconds. I later found that the same thing happened when I was off line. I have seen MAPI errors before but I have never seen one that asked for a user's password so my guess was that she had downloaded some kind of trojan or spyware of some type.

I found HBinst.exe, the Hotbar installer on the machine so I know she has played around with some mildly dangerous spyware. When I tried to put Hijackthis on her computer via a utility CD I carry at all times I was unable to read it from her CDROM drive. The contents of the drive were shown as a couple of files that I know are not on the CD and I also couldn't find them on the computer.

Has anyone seen an occurrence of this type before and if so what is a recommended solution.

Thanks,
Cecil Britton

[Peaches4U]

Hi and welcome to Wilders. I have removed Hotbar & Hbinst on several computers and it is not quick nor easy as I did it differently from the site I am pointing you to. Hbinst has a tendency to write protect itself, deny access to name a few.
You will find removal instructions on this site as well as a description of the spyware/trojan: http://www.pestpatrol.com/PestInfo/h/Hotbar.asp

If you go into your registry, be sure to back it up first. Good luck.