Hi Guys,
Just wondered on your thoughts on this. I had a problem with 'spyware' on my computer and installed a trial version of a well known product. It identified all sorts of stuff and told me that if I wanted to get rid of it I could sign up for the full version. Great I thought so I did. Several months later and after several billings I wake up to the fact that I dont remember seeing anything that says how often they would be billing me. It turns out it is $44/ month or nearly $500 a year. This seems quite a lot for 'anti spyware protection' or am I wrong?

I am using a good anti virus/internet product can you suggest a cheaper alternative or strategy to identify/prevent/remove spyware.

Your thoughts and comments appreciated. Hope this will wise up others.

Regards, Greyhound2004

$44 a month is ridiculous. Last time I checked it was usually around $30-$70 a year. Some of the better anti-virus I've used in the past are avast, trend micro, and kapersky. If you just use anti-virus from these companies (and not other features like the firewall) they pretty much are all comparable for detection rates from what I've noticed. Keep in mind that usually anti-virus programs can't detect pieces of malware until they are discovered or if they are a variance of a current piece of malware. I haven't kept up on who does the most virus database updates so I would say which ever has the highest, install the demo, and see if you like the application and how it handles the removal process (i.e. does the program tell you which file it is removing? Can you tweak the settings to have it ignore false-positives?). Please do yourself a favor and stay away from mcaffe and norton. They are bloated and are pieces of crap IMO. From what I've seen they just give the users more problems and usually provide little protection. Remember also just to use 1 anti virus at a time because this can cause issues. I've experienced where one anti-virus was marking the virus-database of another as bad and started to delete the files haha.

Oh and mind if I ask who was charging you the monthly rates?

Hi Monk,
I use Kaspersky Internet 2010 as my Antivirus but it did not seem to prevent spyware that SpyHunter found. Does make me wonder whether this spyware was ever really there? Anyway I cancelled it now so will be watching my credit card carefully from now on.

Wow i haven't heard of kapersky doing that before. I know some vendors charge for additional services in "total protection" packages and thats might of what of happened. Anyways next time a file is marked as infected try uploading the file to a online virus scanning service such as virustotal.com and see if other programs mark it as bad. Sorry to hear about those hidden fees though.

NO NO NO NO NO.........

There are plenty of free soft's looking to be king.

Dont pay for anything.

Woodmann

These product comparisons are a few years old, but they might be useful to you:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/126890/antispyware_software.html
http://www.pcworld.com/article/136205/die_spyware_die.html

Hi Greyhound2004,

Did you mean SpyHunter was the antivirus you were billed for?
After some searching on SpyHunter I found this page, check out the comments at the bottom. Many people were ripped off by this company, and it would seem to be itself a malware, rather like the XP AntiVirus etc scareware.

http://antivirus.about.com/b/2004/05/05/spyhunter-ad-campaign-an-enigma.htm

And also:
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/spyhunter-software-c79333.html

Sorry,
BoB

Woodmann NO NO NO NO NO.........
LOL,it depends whether you are paying bills using internet banking or not.Its safer if you have a antivirus software on your system,my 2 cents worth
I don't know which is good ,use it at your own risk!

I have an AV.

What I was saying was there is no need to pay for one.

Woodmann

Yes, indeed. Learn to search warez...uh... how to crack. :P

Have Phun

Shit...........doesnt everyone use a free av?
Free like, AVG, Avira, Comodo, Clamwin etc;

Woodmann

I've been using the free http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials for quite awhile now and have been very happy with it.

REzzZUMEE::::>>> FAIR PRICE = 0 <<<<

Well, its been a while but, eval, I have no idea WTF that means.

Woodmann

u means, u not guess my taping?! (how u can?!.. ur u reversor!!?)

FAIR PRICE = 0 (ZERO)

The fair price part I get, it's this part:


Woodmann

If I understand the meaning of that, should I be worried?

No, not at all!
I fear I understand that, too (at least I think I do)
Résumé, no?

AV ?
Ah you mean that.. Resource killer, CPU choker, Memory drainer program that always complains ?

nope.. never uses it

holy shit, 44/month this crap stolen your money