Since I first heard about SpywareQuake, late yesterday afternoon, less than 24 hours ago, I've seen dozens of complaints about it already. SpywareQuake is being installed without notice or consent, hijacks the desktop and pops up a warning from the system tray that the machine is infected with spyware. It scans and reports that it found spyware in the machine and then demands payment to remove the so-called spyware. You can see a screenshot of SpywareQuake at
SunbeltBLOG here.
If you find this blog post and are wondering about SpywareQuake, whether you should buy it, the answer is NO. It's a rogue and a rip-off! It is installed by and with spyware and contains malware to prevent you from removing it. It's another variant of the SmitFraud infection.
Right now none of the antivirus or anti-spyware programs that I'm aware of will detect and remove SpywareQuake. The offending file that resists removal and causes reinfection appears to be
C:\Windows\System32\stickrep.dll.
Several people in the anti-spyware community have posted tutorials on removing SpywareQuake.
BleepingComputer.com tutorial
here. Nick's Computer Security blog's
SpyFalcon removal instructons have been updated to include
SpywareQuake. One use commented that after following the instructions and renaming the file stickrep.dll to something else, he was rid of SpywareQuake.
