Hello,

after many people reported a trojan was installing with Messenger Plus!, I started to worry. Any moderate/advanced user know very well that if a trojan was installed with my software, a lot of other signs would be present than an anti-virus warning (like firewall alerts). Nevertheless, this certainely doesn't give a good idea to users in general. I contacted the sponsor company, they did some research, and as I suspected, some anti-virus (none of the major companies though) wrongly detect a trojan called Trojan.Download.Swizz in one of the setup files that the sponsor unpacks in your temporary directory.

The antivirus companies have been contacted and will soon fix this bug. Meanwhile, the sponsor setup package will be modified to not include the wrongly accused file. It's really bad to think about the bad publicity this has given to Messenger Plus! over the past two monthes, thank you for your continuous support, it's in time like this that's it's mostly appreciated.

Patchou

We always know the sponsor doesn't contain any spyware or trojan because Patchou asked the company to lighten the package

My PC-Cillin doesn't point it out though...By the way, the "trojan"(it's not:\)'s Trendmicro's name is TROJ_SWIZZOR.A.

Mnjul: sorry I edited your post. there's no need to post on mess.be about it, people will quickly read it and think that there was trojan and that it has been removed.. trust me, there's no need

Hmm... thats funny because I don't use any anti-virus program and I installed AVG a couple days ago and when i ran my first scan it deteced download.swiss I was a little worried but now i know its just a false alarm. Much needed post patchou

I use Norton.

And I know Patchou would never do anything bad to our PC systems.

Well in my scan it didnt say it was coming from plus or anything i just thought i downloaded a bad program like those old things on mess.be that infected my comp. I would never ever beleive it if it said a trojan was in plus! not even if i got paid

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Originally posted by Patchou
Mnjul: sorry I edited your post. there's no need to post on mess.be about it, people will quickly read it and think that there was trojan and that it has been removed.. trust me, there's no need

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I shall reinstall it from the post that claimed he found a trojan and double check (as well installing the sponsor)
be back with more info

Scan complete, nothing found

I'm still conducting those tests Patchou, so far i have seen no outbound traffic from the Virtual Machine except for when it gets its DHCP lease.

Anyway, ill report back to you

ive found nothing as well

Don't spend your time in looking for virus/trojans/etc... in Plus! You won't find anything

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Originally posted by Choli
Don't spend your time in looking for virus/trojans/etc... in Plus! You won't find anything

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Originally posted by Chris Boulton
I'm still conducting those tests Patchou, so far i have seen no outbound traffic from the Virtual Machine except for when it gets its DHCP lease.
Anyway, ill report back to you

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My Norton picks up nothing at all

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Originally posted by Kao
My Norton picks up nothing at all

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At my WinXp-comp Norton doesn't tell me anything about a socald 'trojan'.

But at my WinME-comp Norton does. A sort of solution: disable a programm at startup: START > RUN > msconfig > Startup > And then uncheck a programm with a very strange name (several letters without any thought about the combination)
This helped me to get rid of the Norton 'virus/trojan' messages.

whew...that's a relief.  I received that message today, but nothing had changed on my machine, other than a Norton update!

Thanks,
-RMU

Hmmmm  Like I'd ever believe Patchou would put a trjoan into plus

The antivirus companies will NOT be fixing this bug because well, it isn't a bug.  Although the Messenger Plus program itself is clean, the bundled adware does not get uninstalled when you uninstall Messenger Plus.  In particular, a file name wcivbovm.exe is left behind in the Application Data folder and a setup.exe is left behind in a c2media folder.  Both of these are trojans because when ran they connect to another web site and download and install programs to the computer with absolutely no interaction from the user.  Among the things my users experience are pop up ads asking to play poker, menu toolbars, and data mining utilities.  The virus companies will not change their minds about this because this is by definition a trojan.  These sponsor programs have caused major headaches here.  I've notified Mcafee and Symantec of the issues and sent documentation so that this stuff stays classified as a virus.

Also, the installation of a Trojan from within a network will not necessarily trigger a firewall alert as stated.  The firewall is predominately used to control outside connections.  I realize that Patchou may not understand the depth of this ad software but since his program installed it, he should accept some of the responsiblity for not being thorough about what his sponsor programs install.

We have decided to completely remove Messenger Plus from all systems here as a result of these problems.  Its the most irresponsible thing I've ever seen done with a piece of free software.

Drew

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Originally posted by carolinadrew
the bundled adware does not get uninstalled when you uninstall Messenger Plus

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Originally posted by carolinadrew
Also, the installation of a Trojan from within a network will not necessarily trigger a firewall alert as stated.  The firewall is predominately used to control outside connections.

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Originally posted by carolinadrew
I realize that Patchou may not understand the depth of this ad software but since his program installed it,

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Originally posted by carolinadrew
he should accept some of the responsiblity for not being thorough about what his sponsor programs install.

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Originally posted by carolinadrew
We have decided to completely remove Messenger Plus from all systems here as a result of these problems.

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Originally posted by carolinadrew
Its the most irresponsible thing I've ever seen done with a piece of free software.

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i do agree but i would pefer plus without the added software ... i know you can chose not to instal the program but alot of people are very IT intolerent and thus i don't see the current solution as the best choice ... although i don't know what would be a better one ... i do understand that patchou needs the money that this software provides .... i just think it would be better if a link was added to plus every version of pluss .. in this site would be details on the program and the user could chose to instal it or not ... the program added to pluss should offer something like a animated web helper or something so plus is advertising for this program and not just giving it all plus customers that don't read when they instal programs,,,

i don't know the best solution i just hope their can be a better one than what is current ... and yes i think the current one is alot better than it could be to ...

thanx Austin

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Originally posted by wabz
Hmmmm  Like I'd ever believe Patchou would put a trjoan into plus

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just a thot - but how about changin the install process lightly for wen u install the sponsor?

i no Patch wants ppl 2 install it so he can get sum money - BUT alot of ppl r put off as they dont read those wee install screens thoroughly (if at all) and accidentally install teh sponsor software - therefore getting ads on their desktop - they assume it was Plus! and uninstall it

i no this isnt patch's fault at all but still it might be better if instead of making the box in the install program ticked and u have 2 untick it - how about makin it unticked and u have 2 tick it?

i think this wud help a lot

if u wanted 2 go further u cud even make it a special option at the end of installation and have its own installation (not in background) so that ppl nu exactly what it was maybe with screenshots of it or sumthin.

just a suggestion 2 keep ppl happy

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Originally posted by musicalmidget

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Originally posted by wabz
Hmmmm  Like I'd ever believe Patchou would put a trjoan into plus

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Yeah, exactly.

Why would he even want to?

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carolinadrew: I'm sorry you can't make the different between an adware, a virus and a trojan because they all are very different softwares. Detecting an adware as a trojan is similar to seeing a lizard in your house and calling the police to report an aligator. As documented in my software, companies who want Messenger Plus! can automate the installation with the /InstallInstallNoSponsor command line. You know a lot of software that offer the same option? I don't.

I accept responsability for what the sponsor installs on your computer, which is almost nothing except for a search bar in Internet Explorer (wow, what a Trojan). If some users report problems related to the sponsor, I forward them to C2Media, they make a fix and I release an update. So far, no real problem was reported with the sponsor. People saying that it doesn't unisntall properly are people who tried to play smart, and deleted some files themselves before trying to uninstall the software. And as it's the case for any other program, if you delete some important files, the whole program refuses to uninstall at it's no more capable of restoring the system properly. The only thing bad with all that are incompetent IT who don't know how to do their job.

I don't like to say those things but you forced me to defend my point.

Patchou.

Btw, I just checked Symantec web site and they do agree with me: http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/ven...ad.adware.lop.html ...it's not listed as a trojan anymore.

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Originally posted by bl1nkr0x
just a thot - but how about changin the install process lightly for wen u install the sponsor?

i no Patch wants ppl 2 install it so he can get sum money - BUT alot of ppl r put off as they dont read those wee install screens thoroughly (if at all) and accidentally install teh sponsor software - therefore getting ads on their desktop - they assume it was Plus! and uninstall it

i no this isnt patch's fault at all but still it might be better if instead of making the box in the install program ticked and u have 2 untick it - how about makin it unticked and u have 2 tick it?

i think this wud help a lot

if u wanted 2 go further u cud even make it a special option at the end of installation and have its own installation (not in background) so that ppl nu exactly what it was maybe with screenshots of it or sumthin.

just a suggestion 2 keep ppl happy

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quote:

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Originally posted by Patchou
Btw, I just checked Symantec web site and they do agree with me: http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/ven...ad.adware.lop.html ...it's not listed as a trojan anymore.

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Originally posted by Patchou
after many people reported a trojan was installing with Messenger Plus

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Originally posted by musicalmidget

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Originally posted by wabz
Hmmmm  Like I'd ever believe Patchou would put a trjoan into plus

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Yeah, exactly.

Why would he even want to?

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Hay Patchou!..
maby u should realse the md5 hash with the next realse..
There maby somone putting a trojan in your program and then uploadning it.. for public download..
If u realsese md5 hash and u tested and u included no torjan or virus..
i download and check md5 and it matches then people can stop the whining!:..

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Well, actually, to earn lots of money

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Originally posted by Patchou
There's no way you can make a penny by distributing a trojan.. who would pay you to open backdoors on your computer? trojans are useful to hackers only.

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Hey Thx SOOOO much Patchou I really needed that Post

Mmm... Nothing happen to mine Anti-Virus... Ut fight virus daily but nothing has found on msg plus... I belive Patchou!

I'm likin' the look of the 2.50 that I saw on mess.be Nice work Patchou

isnt that funny. I use AVG 2 but it didnt find that and i always keep it updated but thanx anyway patchou

If you would install the sponsor you would have got a notice of a virus with the previous AVG... (see other numerous threads)
But never mind this post, just a comment...

ok
thanks 4 dat

But let it be nown that i dont download sponser because i USED 2 use kazaa (and we all no wot crap comes with that) but i hav give msg + 2 all my friends

Well, it has been proven that there never was a trojan in Messenger Plus!, I can close this thread