Dell & Spyware: Open Letter

Thank you Paul,thought that it might have ben old news

 

Thought you might like to know.

With Spywareinfo, tomcoyotes and NI all off the air due to the DDOS attackes.

DELLS forum with its anti-spyware fighters are open for business and have been for several months. If the going gets rough so that you are attacked join me at Dell, PM me there and I will add to our known experts list.

Join me here http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums

We have one board for spyware/Virus removal and information.

 

Dell & Spyware

Well, if this is the case of any of their stuff even in south africa, you can be damned sure I aint gonna buy any of their products. No till they clean up their act and the word is out on the street, in a manner of speaking. I have enough problems dealing with the every day scum out there on the web, I dont' need the company I buy from installing that sh** on my system as well.

TheApostate

 

I don't if this will clear anything up or what but this is what I found at the dells website. http://support.dell.com/us/en/kb/document.asp?c=us&dn=1077228&l=en&s=gen

 

I hope you notice the link at the bottom to the delltalk community virus board where I post.
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Dell Community Forum - Virus Information and Removal
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It has my posts pegged by the Dell Mods giving clear instructions for using SpyBot S&D, Ad-aware and for the posting of hijackthis logs so that we can give advice in Dells own forums, on malware removal.

Several TomCoyote trained people are registered at Dell and we have some 20 - 30 hijackthis logs a day being done.

I have been adviced by several Dell Employees that they do now advice that 'the anti-spyware industry' recommends Spybot S&D and Ad-aware as good products (inspite of them selling an paid for competetor), and that the support personnel point people with problems DIRECTLY to my pegged posts for support.

 

You know now it got me thinking. I think I'm going to call Dell support (being I have a Dell with a warrenty) and ask them a few questions about this spyware junk and see what they tell me. I'll post back on when I get.

 

I would be pleased to know. I only know the work load on the forum is getting higher each day.

 

Make sure you follow through and post your hijackthis log for me LOL

 

I called. I'm just going to make this short and sweet. The person I talked (no names) ran around the problem even thought I told them that I downloaded a program that is a known spyware program. I ask if it might be spyware and the person ran around in circles. I got pretty annoyed with this persons voice. But take that for what it's worth. But this person did say I can get help at the dell forum. And just for kicks and grins I asked if Dell puts spyware on their computers before they shipped them and this person got a little upset about that and said have a good evening. Maybe I was to upfront about it.

 

I am not supprised at the run arround, they still don't wish to say 'do this or do that' for fear of being sued.

But am pleased that, what I was told by my contacts, has been proved correct, that they will advice the dell forum, for other dell users to help people with malware.

Edit : 23/2/04 11:15 am GMT - Spelling etc. LOL

 

I'm waiting to see if Dell sends a how did we do letter or email or call or something. I'll tell them how they did alright.

 

Attempting to access your open letter, I get: "The requested URL /~swidotcom/support_letter.php was not found on this server". Is that what everyone else is getting, or there some special reason for this?

 

Hi Mathew Pollock

Welcome to Wilders.

Look at reply no#24 in this thread.




snowbound

 

Hi, I am new at this, but, Dell has been a "boogieman" in my life, lately, so I wanted to read the open letter, my computer said there was no such link, then when I typed in the 218........ numbers for the letter, all I got was a message saying "Apache OK" WHAT Very curious newbie, Marja

 

Hi

Wow i am slow to read this thread too. The lsite is still down.
You don't think Dell had something to do with it do you?

Anyway HP used to add Wild Tangent to their laptops a few years ago but Spybot did clear most of it out. I have a new laptop now from HP and they didn't add any spyware this time so I am happy with their progress.
Most of us don't want to take the time to build our own laptops as we do a desktop but it really isn't that hard to do.
Maybe one needs to make arrangments with some of the software makers here at Wilders and build our own.
We could become famous as the best built and most secure Windows systems on the market today

 

Hi Marja

Welcome to Wilders.

Take a look at this link,

http://www.spywareinfoforum.com/newsletter/archives/1203/2.php

It is not the original letter but it gives u some idea of it's contents.

Hope this helps.


snowbound

 

Hi - no Dell had nothing to do with the continuing attacks on spywareinfo (and the other forums).

Dell in fact it has a lively malware removal forum of its own. Try the links below, and look in the virus (information and removal) board.

 

The Spywareinfo page does link to the original letter

http://www.spywareinfoforum.com/articles/dell/support_letter.php

Nice job paul and the others that signed.

controler

 

Thanks, I wrote a different post, but, it is either verrry late or tooo early for me! The little faces came out all wrong and my .jpg, is lost!
I am really tired of companies and people not taking a stand, instead they hedge around and around, acting as if doing nothing makes them innocent, when what they are really doing is CTA(like CYA), if the OTHER guy does it, and we make money from them, it's not OUR fault! GRRRRR!! Thanks, Snowbound, I am really glad I found this site!!

 

Your welcome Marja

Hope u enjoy your stay.




snowbound

 

Time for me to turn my lamps down, the computer off and hopefully give my brain a rest! Before I go, I wanted to say that I found this site at the Dell forums. The message that caught my eye often was like a beacon of light, a force to be reckoned with - a tireless crusader for the light was Chris's !! I was really intrigued with the whole Hijack This, wishing I could help do that. AND who could resist an organization called "WILDERS" With so many cool sounding characters involved? Not ME!! Good Days, All!

 

This was all posted (including the letter) at my home site DSLReports as it unfolded so I have known about this for some time, but I hadn't read this thread until now. I have a new Dell 8300 Dimension, well, new in November which was just before all this came to light. I had no spyware on my new box. I did have several programs, Dell and otherwise, wanting to call home to check for updates so I had to stop that behavior, but that to me, while not something I want happening on my box, is not exactly spyware if looking for an update is all it does and that is all these were doing.

Dell installed antispyware on my box in the form of dsentry.exe which automatically runs at boot and is a program that stops a company from putting spyware on your box when you watch their DVD movie. So, you cannot, on a Dell that has DVD, watch the "extra" features present on many DVD movies because those install spyware. So, I thought it very strange that Dell would, on the one hand, install anti-spyware but on the other hand, not help anyone who called and had symptoms of spyware infestation!

So, I called Dell Small Business Premier tech support to ask about something else and mentioned something about spyware and the tech readily discussed options and professed to know nothing about the controversy and this letter. I then called Dell Home support because my older Dell was bought through that department and was met with hostility when I tried to ask about spyware.

That was back in December. Earlier this month, I needed to call Dell Home support again and I was stunned at the turn around! I listened to new messages that were not there before while waiting (you have to wait a LOT longer if it is Home support than if it is the separate number for Small Business support which is answered almost instantly). The messages were very explicit about spyware and told me I should get Spybot, Adaware, HiJackThis and may have mentioned others that I don't recall. Since then I have called Small Business a couple of times and the wait time is too short for any recorded messages but the techs are happy to discuss spyware and do point you to the Dell forum.

(edited to fix a garbled non-sentence).

 

Mele20. When I called Dells home tech I didn't have to wait long, maybe about 2 minutes and there was no message on the phone for me. The guy I spoke was a little rude and ran around the problem I claimed I had ( was a real problem but easy to fix) but I did ask about spyware and he told me to run my AV that came with my computer and that would take care of it. After reading your post early this morning (midnight) it made me wonder so I called dell tech this morning and found that there was a new message. The techie also helped me with my other small problem and it was fix from the phone. I think the people at dell must of read the opne letter and change their ways.