Are these free scans safe to run?

Question

Everytime i go to shut down my computer I have ebayTBDaemon and MCCWSAwindow stopping me, I have looked on google and there are site's offering to give a free scan to remove them, are these site's safe to use?

Answer 1

Description: File eBayTBDaemon.exe is located in a subfolder of "C:\Program Files" (usually C:\Program Files\eBay\eBay Toolbar2\). Known file sizes on Windows XP are 452968 bytes (28% of all occurrence), 488952 bytes, 370288 bytes, 497144 bytes, 521720 bytes, 484856 bytes, 485736 bytes, 352256 bytes, 358000 bytes.
There is an icon for this program on the taskbar next to the clock. The program has a visible window. eBayTBDaemon.exe is not a Windows system file. The file is a Verisign signed file. The file is certified by a trustworthy company. Therefore the technical security rating is 7% dangerous.

Answer 2

Great Question and thank you for participating in Yahoo's Q & A. It is important that you understand some of the malicious issues that we're faced with daily. Most of our computers problems came from websites that offer free this and free that, when actually, they are loading their adware to your computer and it's registry files. Most will also load themselves into your startup devices to insure that it is also started each time you turn on your computer. Many are next to impossible to remove (except by experts) and will drive you crazy. We're now seeing many offers on the net that, while giving you a "free" scan, will actually tell you that it has found particular viruses on your computer and by purchasing their product, will remove those viruses for you. After spending the money, the program runs for a moment and then says "Removed Viruses." (Unfortunately, they were viruses that dont even exist.) General rule is: If it looks too good to be true, it probably isn't.. Once they're product has installed itself to your hard drive, you'll have a terrible time getting rid of it and all of it's popups that it sends you contantly. If you have purchased an authentic Antivirus program that works well, you have no use for any other "free" scans. If you feel that you need any outside scans, it's more than likely because your regular program is not doing it's job as it should. I deal with viruses, trojans, variants, worms, adware, spyware, keyloggers etc daily in my profession. I personally use Computer Associates Etrust Security Suite which will make sure that your computer is safe in all aspects and even offers a great firewall from K9 to keep you safe from hackers. If I can be of further assistance, feel free to hit me up on [e-mail]. Thanks again for the great question. Larry

Answer 3

Probably not a good idea to use these sites. Some of them are legitimate but others are only trying to get you to buy their products. If I were you I would stick to the two most popular ones that are available for Free on the Internet.

Lavasoft has a program called Ad-Aware and it is a free download for the "Personal" version. Just go to the Lavasoft website and download, install and run the program. Make sure that before you run it that you let it check for updates (which it should offer to do automatically) to make the program up to date with the latest adware signatures.

Next, do a Google search and locate a program named Spybot Search and Destroy. Install that one and run it as well.

My experience has been very good running both those programs in tandem. I would say on average, those 2 programs alone will remove about 75% of your adware.

Good luck,
Captain Computer

Answer 4

Many are not safe.

These are safe:

Run both of these on-line scans. Both are free and excellent at detecting and removing malware free of charge. There is no need to un-install your current protections before using these.

1. Scan for virus, worms, dialers, etc. and remove (free online scan, no downloaded program) with BitDefender's Online Scanner
http://www.bitdefender.com/

2. Scan for trojans, adware, and spyware and remove (free online scan, no downloaded program) with Ewido Online Scanner ( now known as AVG Anti-Spyware). This is NOT the same as AVG Anti-Virus.
http://www.ewido.net/en/

These scans will take quite a bit of time. The time is necessary to clean-up an infected computer.

Good luck.

Answer 5

The free sites will happlily scan your machine reasonably safely but they will charge you big time for removal tools that may or may not work.

Get a copy of ad-aware - it's free and well known and reliable.

Answer 6

If you go to a site that you have found independently, there are some that are good and legit. Ultimately, of course, they want to sell you their product.

But if you get an email, or an alert that is NOT from your own virus protector, warning you of a virus or a trojan or other problems - ignore and delete. There are a lot of those that want you to log on and download their free program - which itself is the virus.

Be very careful.

Answer 7

No way, do not trust free scans, they are usually viruses.

Scan with a good anti virus and run anti spyware programs. Also download and run CCleaner and EasyCleaner.

CCleaner: http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/
EasyCleaner: http://www.download.com/EasyCleaner/3000-2086_4-10523363.html?tag=lst-0-1

Answer 8

personally i would try spybot (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html)first,this should delete these problems
its prbally the site that offering to remove these spyware that put them there in the first place
be carful with all banner ads
good luck!

Answer 9

I wouldnt, often these sites say theryre scaqnning but in fact they are installing something. This then tells u that u have so many viruses installed (when u dont) and that to remoove them u have to pay to get it off. DONT fall for it.

Answer 10

ok run a scan using hirens boot disk and it is totaly free. and very accurate. I will give you the site.