InternetAntispy.com - Zendmedia.com - changed Home Page to their own page - unauthorized installation of sypware into Internet Explorer browser

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RE: InternetAntispy.com - Zendmedia.com - changed Home Page to their own page - unauthorized installation of sypware into Internet Explorer browser

Two nights ago I opened my Internet Explorer and found, instead of my usual start page (which is the home page of my ISP), a page with a white background and big red letters. It stated: "YOU ARE IN SERIOUS TROUBLE." It then went on to tell me that I was being tracked through the Internet, it listed my IP address and the name of the town where I live. It took me over two hours to get rid of that thing. I talked to the support people at my ISP, who had never heard of this thing. I updated my anti-virus program and found nothing...it isn't a virus. I ran my Ad Aware, then at the suggestion of my ISP, downloaded a newer version of Ad Aware since the one I had was a couple years old. I updated my firewall, yet the only option it gave me when I opened IE was whether or not to give Internet Explorer access to the Internet.

I opened my registry cleaner, but I'm not familiar enough with registry keys and entries to feel confident about deleting something in the registry unless I'm certain of what I'm doing. I opened a second browser I have on my computer to see if the same page would show up....it didn't, but as soon as I opened it, multiple copies of Internet Explorer began opening so fast that I couldn't close them down and ended up having to shut down my computer to keep it from crashing. And through all fo this, every time I opened Internet Explorer, I got sleazy pop up advertising, including porn. I finally downloaded Spybot (again at the suggestion of my ISP) and ran it. It found 35 objects, 7 registry values and 27 files, all identified in red print which indicates these are THREATS. I then ran a program I have to try and track the IP address of the company that was doing this. I came up with 64.186.152.152. I doubt that means much of anything since I know that my own IP address changes just about every time I go on the Net. However, it also gave me the following information: "Explorer/Search.SearchAssistant.sureseeker.com. Browser Hijack attempt on your computer." At that point I finally realized that the problem was in Internet Explorer, so I opened it, opened "Tools" and found that my start page had been changed from the home page of my ISP to the URL of the company that was doing this. The name of the page that warned me that I was in "SERIOUS TROUBLE" was "Internet Antispy.com," and the company that put it there is "Zendmedia.com/ad_spy_hdc.php." (That's the URL that was in my IE start page information. This is absolutely inexcusable. Not only was I being bombarded with pop up advertising, their 'YOU ARE IN SERIOUS TROUBLE" amounts to a threat and attempt to frighten me. Additionally, since my computer has never before gone completely out of control, opening multiple copies of Internet Explorer so fast that I couldn't even close them down, I have to assume that this was an attempt to keep me from using a browser that they had not placed their trash in.

I don't know if the entries they made into my registry changed anything...spybot got rid of them...but I do know that without a program that would identify those registry entries and destroy them, they would still be there since I don't mess with the registry unless I'm deleting something left behind by a program I have just uninstalled and know for certain that I do not need that registry entry.. I use a firewall (Zone

Alarm) but somehow this trash got past it. Is there anything I can do...anyplace where I can report this to put a stop to this practice by this Zendmedia.com web site? I get a lot of email spam, but all I have to do is delete it and although it's annoying, it doesn't create the kind of problem that this Zendmedia thing did. This should not be allowed.