Spyware Doctor™ 4.0 for Windows - New Version!

Thanks for the screenshot, very nice image. I will ask for just one thing: what 'innocent' app or system file in your computer for example is Spyware Doctor falsely identifying as HOOG (CWS) from your registry or whichever location. Your result will be very easy to reproduce.

Thanks in advance.

 

its all fp's...they should fix it already..

removing MVPS hosts entries and tada nothing detected...

 

Thanks Fred22, it is annoying for a product that is showered with so many awards to cry foul over genuine hosts file. I hope you contacted PC Tools, I do not have anything from myself to raise a 'ticket' or complaint. Cheers.

 

Well I raised an 'issue' about FP outcry that PC Tools must give an answer, even though it is a generall complaint, I hope something is done.

 

Re: Spyware Doctor™ 4.0 for Windows - New Version!

I think PCTools should be aware of the FPs of Spyware Doctor during their internal beta testing. I cannot believe if there are no or only a few FPs during internal testing but there are many in the hands of the end users. If they really found no or only a few FPs in their internal testing, they should be using very unique machines for testing.

I can hardly imagine that they can roll out a product if internal beta testing revealed that there are so many FPs. I really don't know what they are doing in their quality control. Confidence and reputation is the key to success.

 

Hi, folks: If my memory chip is still functioning, I do remember there was a member of this forum claiming himself "maker of SD", frequently posted replies and comments during SD v.3.5 era and around march-june 2005. He was well liked by majority of viewers. I just wonder if he is still around.

 

Hi,

I am new posting, but wanted to say something important about spyware doctor. I believe that it is a scam. I had had a horrible trojan attack and had to reformat. Following that, I looked at some new spyware as TDS had stopped their trojan scanner.

I did the drive by scan by PC tools, and lo and behold I had over 300 horrible key loggers. No other product said that. I was upset from two recent formats and purchased the software, and had my husband check his computer with the scan. He is in the software business, but before he said no, I had purchased the product for both of us.

We entered the key, and rescanned.

We had clean computers. No problems. It was a memory hog, did little and I just stopped using it. I almost loaded it today when I saw some positive remarks about version 4.0.,

Then same thing, several of you have reported several hundfred to thousands of problems.

It was a number of months ago and I don't have a screen shot, but it had labeled the hosts as spies but only on the drive by scan) and some of my drivers,

Tol this day, I wonder if it caused my next computer failure, which happened to my husband about a week later with same errors. Different environments.

Is Spydoc related in function and approach to spy sherrif?

Think. How do we do that audit that was suggested.

 

Let's hope he will return to the forum soon:

I use a licensed version of Spyware Doctor 4 and do not get the 'crazy' FP experience others are talking about. As for memory hog, that can be said about almost any application.

As for OPINIONS I have seen on this forum (and elsewhere) about SD, the two OPINIONS that I share with others are:

1.An unlicensed version of Spyware Doctor must allow 'cleaning' so that someone can make an informed judgement as to whether SD is any good. To show hundreds or thousands of 'infections' and tell someone first to buy inorder to clean is not a 'wise practice' at a time where their competition is allowing 15 – 30 days of fully functioning trails.
2.The constant and unnecessary overwriting of process memory by SD help that complicates settings in some firewalls.

 

Hi all,

This is PCTools, maker of Spyware Doctor.

Perman: Please perform a full scan using Spyware Doctor and send the log file to us here at PCTools. We will follow up and get back to you. Please use this website: http://www.pctools.com/mrc/submit/

fred22: Can you please also do a full scan using Spyware Doctor and submit the log to us here at PC Tools? We need to find out why Spyware Doctor has detected so many false positives as shown in your screenshot submitted earlier.

Ngwana: Thank you for submitting your ticket to us raising your concern regarding this thread. We have replied to your ticket.

The trial version of Spyware Doctor is only one or two updates behind for all aspects of Spyware Doctor like update definitions, scanners and tools.

It is unusual to detect such a high volume of false positives and we do a thorough quality assurance before release. We do take false positives seriously and we are here to assist anyone with false positives. We do appreicate all the feedback from people with false positives.

Once again, thank you all for using Spyware Doctor.

Regards,

PC Tools

 

its easy to reproduce..just install the MVPS HOSTS file on any test machine and there u go

anyway heres logfile...
remove ".txt" part

 

alright..i know what it causes the FP's

i'll use hostman from abelhadigital.com
when i use REPLACE IP: 127.0.0.1 > 0.0.0.0
arr 5000 infecties?! (check screenshot)

using : 0.0.0.0 > 127.0.0.1 ..
now im getting 6 infecties!!

+ that weird "backdoor.Redghost" shows up randomly

im 99% sure its all fp's

ty for fix?!

 

I have been using Spyware Doctor for a long time and was always frustrated by the false positives, system resource hogging and the lame generic responses from support. I provided details, screenshots etc.. over and over for many issues (i.e. bugs) to support, not a single one of them was corrected in the software in the last year, I'm talking about hilarious FP's like my Microsoft-SQL database engine and if I blindly followed the advice from Spyware Doctor I would have deleted legitimate commercial programs I use every day.

If this were not bad enough it came time for me to renew my Spyware Doctor software so I followed the link provided to me from my Spyware Doctor software and was frustrated to see that they were not offering ANY discount to a loyal customer renewing the product. I contacted support and was led to believe if I "upgrade my current version" among other things the discount would show.... after a full week of chatting back and forth with support and jumping through every hoop they put up I still did not see my discount, instead.... I was finally told that if I check the box "enable convenient automatic renewals until canceled and save at least $10! Otherwise you will pay full price." again I was told this 7 days and 7 emails later! Sure, I give them up supervised access to my credit card and I save $10? The same clueless company that took a week to tell me how to renew with a discount? Sure I trust them with full unsupervised access to all of my money, they never make mistakes

Folks, that last incident was just the final straw on the camels back, don't waste your time, money, energy with this product there are many others that do just as good of a job and better.

And when one of the Spyware Doctor Representatives post a nice / sweet reply below me with a thought-out rational explanation to my post just know it's bullcrap and a desperate attempt to cover the ass I have exposed. I have nothing to gain or lose from this post, this has just been a heads-up to an overrated software product (they know how to promote we'll, I'll give them that)

 

I agree with softbaked, Spyware Doctor is an overated, bloated piece of software and with all the false positives this software gave me made this product is more of a nuisance than anything usefull.

 

Hello,

This is my first post here but still would like to tell everyone that Spyware Doctor is a complete SCAM. We have run this program for 4 month's now on 4pc's and 2 servers.

All threats are fals positives!! Even on a clean machine it still manages to find some threats! Besides this we have monitored this piece of software with CAPSA 5.0 which is a professional port scanner and network packet scanner. It appears Spyware doctor is making contact with several servers in the Ukraine!!! Upon further investigation it also appears that their socalled Australian, London, USA and UK office's are nothing more then a telephone number which is provided by one of those offshore service companies which probaly host a number of companies who need a "representation" is such a location to "appear a real company". Inactuality they are nothing but a piece of asshole russian scam artist's stealing money from their customers by providing them a GUI that only looks like it is doing something!! The reviews at site's like TopTenreview etc...etc... are all paid for by them!!

 

Hi,folks: Wha, this is the most serious allegation(for the time being) I have ever heard against a reputable(given a benefit of doubt) company. If these findings hold some sort of merits. I would expect the following: (1) I do hope that wise guy from PCtools should come to this forum to clear this air up.(2) That expert from spywarewarrior web site should initiate a full investigative project to conform or deny these allegations(again,for the time being).Do'nt they have a reliable list of so and so software ? And if i were a SD user, i would hold my breath and keep my fingers crossed. Good luck.

 

i kind of agreee with the statment that its a scam but it gets highly rated by alot of mags and stuff but probaly all payed
lets hope we can clear this up
lodore

 

For Spyware Doctor 4 users, and any other security software out there: Please download your software from the right places, and use only legitimate software( not modified, cracked, patched). Other than that layer non-conflicting security sofware and regularly update/scan.

There is no need to chase after 'most popular' or 'most highly rewarded/awarded/rated' products, just ensure you have the best/safest configuration(that suits your system) for each security product. The good thing is that there is plenty of choice.

As for rogue/scam lists, leave that to security experts. At best you can notify them of whatever you suspect/prove to be rogue. As for reviews and comparative tests by Magazines/Websites, you have to take the results with a pinch of salt(they depend on samples and test methods that are subject to change). Of course many of you are aware that some reviews/tests are questionable, so should be some opinions expressed on forums. some of them border on misinformation and outright lying. Do not worry, the experts and moderators will deal with such issues.

 

Hi,folks: Thank you, Ngwana, for your impartial comments.

 

Dooku, this guy sounds like he's jealous of SD, he must be someone from competitor.

Guys, any altered hosts file will be detected as possible hijack by any standard AntiSpy, it's normal, it just SD4.0 have Hosts file scanner built into their tools. Just add them to the ignore list if they are FP and disable Hosts file scanner from SD4.0.

Also SD4.0 seems detecting Cookies and other temp Internet files as infections, they should be listed as "low" status infection, you guys should remove all temp files before scanning with any AntiSpy to rule out any FP.

SD4.0 & Spysweeper 5 are still the best out of top five AntiSpy programs, I know this because they have large research centers which smaller players can't match just like Symantec's Norton AV & McAfee/TrendMicro.

I've heard SD4.0 main office is in Sydney, they only have sales offices in UK/US.

I have all top ten AntiSpy & AntiVirus software running on my PC, I'm beta tester, you guys should have seen XoftSpy, NoAdware, StopSign, ZeroSpy and many more they claimed to be legitimate but they sure do a lot more FP detections by any standards.

Consoleman

 

What a waste. Your story went so well.

 

Consoleman,

We are a company that have nothing to do with spyware software manufacturers. However we do have far more knowledge about network security/traffic/protocols then you can ever imagine. Why are you defending them anyway?? I might also place a stupid remark like" consoleman has probably some PCTools stock" (if they were a stockmarket noted company

The problem with this kind of software is that consumers just DO NOT KNOW and WILL NEVER KNOW if these programs like SPyware Doctor really does work! Reviews on the internet or mags aren't worth the paper they are written on. And please don't make me laugh about those research centers you are talking about from SpySweeper or those other companies......untill you have seen the laborotories of some network security companies who you probably have never heard about.

Spyware Doctor is a piece of **** software and it will stay a piece of **** software. All it is, is just a GUI with an animation running as if it's scanning your memory and harddisk......nothing more. This is probably the case for most of this kind of software.....if not for all!! It's nothing but a black box for consumers...they are looking at the screen but WILL NEVER KNOW what the hell is going on under the hood!

PCTools are however a very good study case example for marketing business student's: a perfect example of "printing your own money" business!

Please note I am not attacking you, just stating what we have found sofar by testing this software.

 

Hello,
Dooku, I'm not disagreeing with you, but could you tell what company you work for?
Mrk

 

I'm also curious and much prefer empirical evidence over unsubstantiated statements. It would be nice to see what testing was done, results, etc.

BTW - I don't use the product but am curious to see how this shakes out.

 

I'm not so sure that would be wise or even advisable at this point.....especially not after these comments:

Not only is that post "unprofessional"...but it sounds more than just a bit slanderous (on many fronts, including towards the PC magazines, etc.), and quite possibly even agenda driven as well.

 

Based on all this I don't think I'll renew my SD subscription when it runs out.

It's a nice product but the bloat, startup slowdown, "automatic" yet manual updating, false positives (I've noticed as well), and such just make it not worth it.

Spyware is annoying and can steal data, but it's not as horribly urgent as a virus, so I feel fine relying on freeware to remove it. Please don't give me a big argument - I'm not trying to start a fight - I'm just saying spyware is probably not bad enough to warrant PAYING to remove it when free utilities will remove the majority.