"Clark" <Clark_throwaway@yahoo.com> wrote in
news:IRbuk.20205$Rs1.15532@newsfe08.iad:

> Dustin Cook wrote:
>> "Clark" <Clark_throwaway@yahoo.com> wrote in
>> newsiStk.14471$4s1.2629@newsfe06.iad:
>>
>>> Dustin Cook wrote:
>>>> "Clark" <Clark_throwaway@yahoo.com> wrote in
>>>> news:%EUsk.19942$9u1.9114@newsfe09.iad:
>>>>
>>>>> Dustin Cook wrote:
>>>>>> "Clark" <Clark_throwaway@yahoo.com> wrote in
>>>>>> news:rZTrk.13097$Is1.11858@newsfe04.iad:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> siljaline wrote:
>>>>>>>> The evil genius of XP Antivirus 2008
>>>>>>>> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08...omy_of_a_hack/
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Silj
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I love XP Antivirus 2008, This thing is everywhere, I have been
>>>>>>> getting calls to remove it two three a day on a good week.
>>>>>>> Well it is good for me but bad for my customers, I did not read
>>>>>>> the whole article but, this thing comes in a few variations.
>>>>>>> some are easy and just are removed with a scan in safe mode,
>>>>>>> others, disable regedit, task manager, system restore, Windows
>>>>>>> update and control panel. The latter is usually a 90 min
>>>>>>> removal, but only because most of my customers have sub $800.00
>>>>>>> PC's and they tend to be slow. I charge $60.00 an hour, (around
>>>>>>> here that is almost half the charge of the other local computer
>>>>>>> repair shops..
>>>>>>> It is very easy to get infected with this one...
>>>>>>> Clark...
>>>>>>> WCFP.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 90 minute removal? Malwarebytes AntiMalware can cut that down for
>>>>>> you. Of course, you wouldn't be able to exploit people so easily
>>>>>> then...
>>>>>
>>>>> OH by the way thanks for accusing me of exploiting my customers,
>>>>> no wonder folks don't like you...
>>>>
>>>> Heh, some folks don't like me due to my past activities; and if it
>>>> took you 90 minutes to deal with a trojan, You'd really be screwed
>>>> and out of your league dealing with ANY of my former work.
>>>>
>>>> And yes, As far as I'm concerned; and by your own post, You are
>>>> exploiting people. Personal Attacks aside. You remind me of one of
>>>> those punk ass college educated doesn't know a ****ing thing
>>>> outside the classroom technician that I once had to train to reload
>>>> windows without formatting the ****ing hard disk....
>>>>
>>>> Seriously dude, if a trojan can beat you, your in the wrong field.
>>>
>>> Hey Dustin,
>>> I charge by the hour, I'm on the road most of the day, my hours of
>>> operation are 8am to 7pm Mon-Sat
>>
>> I used to do that, now I'm a bit selective with clients I will bother
>> with. If the client doesn't care about his data, bestbuy will do them
>> just fine.
>>
>>> I own two homes, worth about $500,000.00, I own three SUV's, Jeep
>>> Grand Cherokee (limited) a Jeep Wrangler. and a Santa Fe,
>>
>> Great! You have titles to all of these, or does the bank? Where I
>> live, the vehicle isn't really mine if I don't have the title in
>> hand.
>>
>> Should I be impressed by your choice of vehicles? Or the amount of
>> them that you have? I Guess I'm wondering what if anything your
>> vehicles have to do with your fleecing, Except to say you seem to be
>> doing well.
>>
>>> I am a former DBA for a large bank, now part of BankNorth.
>>> I have been in business for myself for over eight years and I have
>>> never been busier.
>>
>> Great. While you've spent time for the last, 8 years, learning how to
>> run a small business; I've been doing the stuff your still learning
>> to do, for much much longer...Anyways, this isn't a pissing contest
>> to me...
>>
>> I suppose I attacked you personally. It's just that well, I get the
>> impression from your posts that your one of these guys who will dump
>> the box and its contents if you really get stuck, and I just don't
>> like people who are quick to resort to that... It doesn't show skill
>> nor expertise, your just starting over because you couldn't fix it.
>>
>> What other profession gives you such an escape route if your even
>> slightly incompetent? I think you understand the point I'm trying to
>> make here.
>>
>> You shouldn't make assumptions of people based on some rather
>> ignorant persons comments about myself. And, no, Your chronogical age
>> doesn't really even come into play. I have valid certs in IT, what is
>> it exactly you have, mr small business owner?
>>
>> I am sure you have been busy, plenty to go around with the malware
>> and tons of new users to the internet. Work won't go away anytime
>> soon.
>>
>> I am not liked primarly as I said due to a not so good past..I chose
>> to take advantage of peoples ignorance, almost the same as you, only
>> difference being, I didn't profit financially from any of it. It was
>> very poor of me, cost people alot of money and basically, I'm still
>> considered by many, and I suppose rightfully so, to be one evil ****.
>> Some have learned that I'm not the same as I once was, but I know not
>> everyone is exactly welcome to me with open arms.. A shotgun or
>> something mebbe.
>>
>>
>>> I cannot control the speed of a customers PC, plain and simple, and
>>> it comes down to that every time.
>>
>> You can do things to improve a systems overall responsiveness,
>> besides selling them more ram at a 20% markup, I meant.
>>
>>> I average $120.00 per appointment, and that is with discounts for
>>> *scan time* as sometimes I can be in a customers house for three
>>> hours. Locally the Best Buy or Staples charges $100.00 for a format
>>> and install of XP, *with no backup* of information, and nothing
>>> else.
>>
>> Perhaps thats the average going rate where you live... We didn't even
>> charge that where I was employed for the last 10 years, and I
>> certainly dont bill that high unless alot of driving is involved...
>> But, that's a personal choice. Demographics and such...
>>
>>> When we are talking about Antivirus 2008 PLUS the other infections
>>> on a PC we are not talking about a *simple* Trojan...
>>
>> But they are, really. They typically aren't capable of self
>> replication. Some hide better than others, and occasion you may have
>> to replace a file or two,, but otherwise, to any experienced person,
>> they can be removed.
>>
>>> My avg removal of virus, spyware,adware, is usually around 500, to
>>> 1000 files, my record is 40,000 on one PC.
>>
>> Sadly, AVG has a high FP rate...
>>
>>> I also guarantee my work, if I missed a part of the Virus and the
>>> system re-infects , I clean it again free of charge, (I had to do
>>> that ONCE years ago)
>>
>> a virus? XPantivirus isn't a virus, it's a trojan.... Really.
>>
>> It's a very important distinction. One can be much ****ing harder to
>> deal with, aside from resorting to good backups. And the other is
>> easier to render inoperative.
>>
>>> I have to go now I'm booked for the day, I have two residential
>>> calls and one commercial appointment,
>>> I should make about $400.00 as I should have about 6.5 billable
>>> hours today (out of ten or eleven worked), which is not as much as
>>> you might think when you take out gas, advertising, and other
>>> consumables..
>>
>> Considering it's all a tax writeoff for you, I don't sympathize with
>> initial cost. I bet your claiming oil changes and such too?
>>
>>> BTW MalwareBytes does *not* work on the UltimateBoot4win CD, why
>>> don't you get to fixing that??? *NOW*
>>> Clark...
>>
>> MalWarebytes shouldn't be on that CD, as it's not a portable
>> application. I can't control what people decide to include on their
>> cds. And btw, I am not the author of MalwareBytes; Just a researcher.
>> BugHunter is mine, for the record. Thanks.
>
> Sorry, yup Bug hunter is yours, I looked up the E-mail I sent you a
> while back,

No Problem.

> I never use it, I must admit, but I don't use Malwarebytes either, BUT
> I assumed you could contact the programers at Malwarebytes
> and set everything straight for them since your such a fricken genuis,

While I do appreciate your wiseass remark regarding my intelligence,
it's not as simple as you seem to think. MalWareBytes is maintained by
several individuals, and has several language translations. Any change
of significance to the engine requires input from ALL programmers, and
some things for portability are just not a priority at the moment. This
issue has been discussed at length for sometime on the forums and in
private conversations between myself and the others involved, it's a
huge undertaking. The application was never intended to be portable.
It's not a simple utility like BugHunter.

Eventually we plan to offer a portable version, but as I said, not at
this time.

> so I'm sure it will only take a second since I'm SURE you can clean a
> Dell with a Pentium III and 128 megs of RAM with XP installed on it in
> like 2 minutes....(I told you I have customers with slow PCs) and yes

2 minutes? For XP antivirus, that can be done, yes. Lesson time.

1. Acquire a bartpe disc.
2. Boot machine from bartpe.
3. Find the files associated; Most are hard coded filenames. I know most
of the variants by heart now... heh 4. Delete the files.
5. Mount the infected systems software hive in barts regedit. you know
how right, mr computer fixer? 6. Edit relevant registry entries.

options for even faster:

Boot bart, reconfigure bughunter for non recursive quick scan, hunt the
windows folder, then edit the registry. That should satisfy your anal 2
minute scan time.

> I tell them the money would be better spent buying a new PC, but all I
> can do is offer advice.....

They would be better off, imho, finding a more honest computer person
with more real world experience than what you display here.

You seemed to take great enjoyment over people infected with XP
antivirus, due to the money it makes you.

The helpers on the various forums seem to know more than you about this,
and they aren't all even techs.

>>> I own two homes, worth about $500,000.00, I own three SUV's, Jeep
>>> Grand Cherokee (limited) a Jeep Wrangler. and a Santa Fe,
>>
>> Great! You have titles to all of these, or does the bank? Where I
>> live, the vehicle isn't really mine if I don't have the title in
>> hand.
>>
>> Should I be impressed by your choice of vehicles? Or the amount of
>> them that you have? I Guess I'm wondering what if anything your
>> vehicles have to do with your fleecing, Except to say you seem to be
>> doing well.
>>
>
> No pissing contest here, I was just establishing the fact I do pretty
> well for myself, (you know by ripping people off by fixing their PC
> and charging less than the other shops)

Considering new boxes can be acquired for a few hundred more than your
service call, and based on how you bill, yea your ripping them off.

> You have no ****ing right to tell me or anyone else what or how they
> make money or how much they charge is wrong or to much etc,

Your absolutely right! But, I can call your competence into question,
Especially when you brag about your rates and methods of removal. Your
not worth the cost, imo.

> I have to go now, it is Saturday, and I have three PC's here that need
> to be fixed,
> I'm going to work on all three at the same time and it should take
> about 3 or 4 hours and I'm going to charge $150 to $200 bucks apiece
> (not to bad for a Sat morning)

Way to go, I hope some of your customers read this and realize how badly
your raping them over the coals, incompetent ****ing moron.


> I hope that is OK with you....

Sure is.


--
Regards,
Dustin Cook, Author of BugHunter
BugHunter - http://bughunter.it-mate.co.uk
MalwareBytes - http://www.malwarebytes.org