Microsoft pop-up harrasement

  • Thread starter Thread starter Heidi A. Dunson
  • Start date Start date
H

Heidi A. Dunson

Please enter your comments here: (Original message sent
to Microsoft) Hello, I am recieving 30-50 unwanted pop-
up/spam ads per day with your name (Microsoft)on them, it
directly coincides with my disabling the other form of
harrasement you participate in, the Messenger Service. As
soon as I disabled the garbage from the first problem the
second version of trash started in less than 24 hours. I
am assuming you sell/install your XP and other current
Windows PC packages with this feature because you make a
great deal of money off of your trusting customers in
this way. I would like to know exactly how this works,
how to disable all spam pop-ups and internal forms of
harrasement if there is a way, and why a company of your
size and level of success would need to resort to
supporing trash advertisers. i have minor children in my
home and am recieving ads for body jewelry that vibrates,
there is no question as to the purpose of this item, does
microsoft support selling sexual aides to children? I
have also recieved many ads about contacting old friends,
high school chums etc. and one that says: "save Kobeee"
regarding his sexual liason with someone other thatn his
wife that may be a rape case. All of the ads say
microsoft on the top of the banner, regardless, I do not
want to see this trash on my screen any more. I make a
rule of not EVER buying from unsolicited advertisers
regardless of product as this form of forced advertising
is offensive and gives even a good product a bad name.
Please let me know why you do this to your customers and
how it can be stopped.

Thank you,
Heidi A. Dunson
 
If you want to get rid of that go into Administrative
tools in you Control panel...then into services and then
click on "Messenger" Disable it and turn it off and then
you will be able to use MSN Messenger or Windows
Messenger and Not have the annoying pop ups
 
If you want to get rid of that go into Administrative
tools in you Control panel...then into services and then
click on "Messenger" Disable it and turn it off and then
you will be able to use MSN Messenger or Windows
Messenger and Not have the annoying pop ups
 
On Mon, 18 Aug 2003 17:45:09 -0700, "Heidi A. Dunson"

*********** CUT ***********
Please let me know why you do this to your customers and
how it can be stopped.

Thank you,
Heidi A. Dunson
Click to expand...

Is this a serious inquiry? Microsoft is not responsible for those pop
ups except for their crappy software that does not provide a native
means of stopping it.

You might want to go here;

http://www.opera.com/

or here;

http://toolbar.google.com/

for a solution.


Rich Piotrowski

To reply via E-Mail use rpiotro(at)wi(dot)rr(dot)com
 
You seem to have the mistaken idea that this newsgroup is actively supported
by Microsoft. They provide the server, and I have seen MS employees on some
of their news groups, but I doubt that they are serving in any official
role.

Most of the people posting responses here are amateurs, who may (or, as in
my case, may not) know a fair amount.

For starters, read in the XP help about activating the built-in firewall.
That will render your machine invisible to external probes.

You can also go into administrative tools/services and kill the Messenger
service. This shouldn't be confused with Microsoft's instant messenging
service (MSN Messenger). Windows Messenger was intended to be used by system
administrators to send messenges, but it is popular with spammers. It's bad
that it is active by default - seems like it is useless for legitimate
purposes, outside of corporate networks.

I hope that the above, taken together, gets rid of the desktop popups
without requiring you to buy any software. (It won't do anything about Web
browser popups.)

However, if (as it appears) you've just posted your email address in a form
that is harvestable by "spambots", be prepared for an increase in junk
email.

Good luck.

Bob Knowlden

Spam dodger may be in use. Replace nkbob with bobkn.
 
Greetings --

Before you send off another long-winded tirade to the wrong
people, you might want to spend a little time learning to use and
secure your own computer.

There are at least three varieties of pop-ups, and the solutions
vary accordingly. Which specific type(s) is troubling you?

1) Does the title bar of these pop-ups read "Messenger Service?"

This particular "sales method" is strikingly similar to the
"protection" rackets offered to small businesses by organized
criminals. Yes, it's a scam; no reputable business would need to
resort to extortion. Particularly since they're trying to sell you a
type of protection that is already available to you free of charge.

This type of spam has become quite common over the past few
months, and unintentionally serves as a valid security "alert." It
demonstrates that you haven't been taking sufficient precautions while
connected to the Internet. Your data probably hasn't been compromised
by these specific advertisements, but if you're open to this exploit,
you may well be open to other threats. Install and use a decent,
properly configured firewall. (Disabling the messenger service, as
some people recommend, only hides the symptom, and does nothing to
secure your machine.) And ignoring or just "putting up with" these
messages and the problem they represent is particularly foolish.

Messenger Service of Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;168893

Messenger Service Window That Contains an Internet Advertisement
Appears
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=330904

Stopping Advertisements with Messenger Service Titles
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/communicate/stopspam.asp

Blocking Ads, Parasites, and Hijackers with a Hosts File
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Oh, and be especially wary of people who advise you to do nothing
more than disable the messenger service. Disabling the messenger
service is a "head in the sand" approach to computer security.

The real problem is _not_ the messenger service pop-ups; they're
actually providing a useful service by acting as a security alert. The
true problem is the unsecured computer, and you've been
advised to merely turn off the warnings. How is this helpful?

Equivalent Scenario 1: Somewhere in a house, a small fire starts,
and sets off the smoke alarm. You, not immediately seeing any
fire/smoke, complain about the noise of the smoke detector, and are
advised to remove the smoke detector's battery and go back to sleep.

Equivalent Scenario 2: You over-exert your shoulder at work or
play, causing bursitis. After weeks of annoying and sometimes
excruciating pain whenever you try to reach over your head, you go to
a doctor and say, while demonstrating the motion, "Doc, it hurts when
I do this." The doctor, being as helpful as some of your respondents,
replies, "Well, don't do that."

I'm beginning to think that the people deliberately posting such
bad advice are hacker-wannabes who have no true interest in helping
you secure your system, but would rather give you a false sense of
security while ensuring that your computer is still open to
exploitation.

2) For regular Internet pop-ups, you might try the free 12Ghosts
Popup-killer from http://12ghosts.com/ghosts/popup.htm or Pop-Up
Stopper from http://www.panicware.com/. Myself, I use Norton Internet
Security, which, in addition to containing Norton Anti-Virus and
Personal Firewall, also blocks most of the pop-up adds on the
Internet.

3) For pop-ups caused by some sort of "adware" and/or "spyware"
that you've inadvertently installed, two products that are quite
effective at finding and removing scumware are Ad-Aware from
www.lavasoft.de and SpyBot Search and Destroy from
http://security.kolla.de/. Both have free evaluation versions.


Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH
 
Greetings --

Please stop posting potentially harmful advice. What are you, a
hacker-wannabe? Why else would you be deliberately posting bad
advice? Are you trying to give people a false sense of security by
having them turn off what are, in effect, valid security warnings,
while still leaving their PCs open to potential exploitation?

Disabling the messenger service is a "head in the sand" approach
to computer security.

The real problem is _not_ the messenger service pop-ups; they're
actually providing a useful service by acting as a security alert. The
true problem is the unsecured computer, and you're only
advice, however well-intended, was to turn off the warnings. How is
this helpful?

Equivalent Scenario: You over-exert your shoulder at work or
play, causing bursitis. After weeks of annoying and sometimes
excruciating pain whenever you try to reach over your head, you go to
a doctor and say, while demonstrating the motion, "Doc, it hurts when
I do this." The doctor, being as helpful as you are, replies, "Well,
don't do that."

The only true way to secure the PC, short of disconnecting it from
the Internet, is to install and *properly* configure a firewall; just
installing one and letting it's default settings handle things is no
good. Unfortunately, this does require one to learn a little bit more
about using a computer than used to be necessary.


Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH
 
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