Flixter is a nuisance

My friend has a Mac (recently purchased so brand new) and recently had a little play on Flixter which gave her a movie quiz to complete. She had to register to take part and unbeknownst to her, it downloaded a piece of software that she now can't get rid of. She can't find it on her 'add/remove' bit so please, peeps, how can she get rid?

 

There is just so much of this nastyware going about - led by Microsoft, which does sneaky things without telling you.

One method I have used on a PC is to search for files created on the day in question. You could narrow that down to a .EXE or a .DLL (or Mac equivalent). These are usually the naughty files. Generally no .EXE files should be created unless you have installed new software. However your virus checker may do so when it updates.

If you get the name of a suspicious file, I would locate it with the FIND command and then rename it. If this causes serious problems you could rename it back. But if it seems to have solved the problem it is probably safe to erase it. If you get a name, I would google that name first. This can often tell you what a file does, and if it is malware.

 

A thought for the future. You have security settings which should be able to prevent this happening again. In Explorer V6, you can go to Tools/Internet Options/Security/Custom Level/Download/File Download Disable. The Mac should have an equivalent.

The downside is that this could prevent you downloading a file that you wanted, but you could switch it on for a specific task, then switch it off again.

 

A further thought. If it was my computer, I would log onto the internet and allow my antivirus to update (if it so wished). I would then advance the internal clock by say one week (or whatever). Then go to the Flixter site and re-register and re-play the quiz, if necessary put in a differant name and e-mail address so it does not realise that you are already registered. This way you get re-infected. It cannot do any more harm. I would then change the date back to today, and log off the internet.

In the Mac equivalent of explorer, if you now search for all the files created with a date that is one week ahead, it will show you a list of just the files you downloaded from this site. If there is a .EXE file in there that is likely to be the culprit.

Look carefully at the directories where these files are. All, such as harmless .jpgs, should be in the tempory internet files directory. That is the proper place, and your machine will eventually clear them out. But anything which is in any other directory, such as a system directory, becomes permanent and this indicates evil intent. You should always set explorer to display file extensions. An evil file could appear as picture.jpg when file extensions are not displayed. This looks innocent, but when file extensions are shown it could become picture.jpg.exe which immediately implies deception and evil intent.