SpyAway sounds like the title of a John Denver song.  You know which one we’re talking about; you’re humming it right now.  Yes, another wonderfully annoying rogue anti-spyware program, SpyAway is not new, but its newest infection files are, the updated version of this pain in the hind end hitting the Internet January 2008.  This is definitely one you don’t want flying around your computer system at all.

Why not?

The reasons are numerous.  Let’s start with the basics.

1.      When the trial version of SpyAway gets onto your computer system you will quickly get tired of all of the annoying pop-ups that appear telling you your computer is infected with viruses, malware, spyware, adware, and other annoying-ware computer gurus have yet to give a name.

2.      In the process of closing all of these pop-ups you’ll quickly discover that more open up until you are left with the choice of pulling your hair out, tossing your PC over the porch railing, or accepting SpyAway’s offer to scan your computer just to get it go away.

3.      Now that you caved and had SpyAway scan your computer you are now presented with a list of 100, 200…oh, let’s say 300 files that are supposedly infected and need to be cleaned with SpyAway – of course – being the only program on the market capable of doing it.

For only $39.95 you too can have the great SpyAway software – and all the headaches that go with it.  While we may not really know exactly how much SpyAway truly costs, it doesn’t matter you do not want to buy the fully licensed program.

What if I did?

Basically, you’ve just been screwed out of your money and you better start looking for a legitimate anti-spyware program to remove it from your system before you can’t.  This is not something you want to put off.  You ask why?  Well, how about these reasons:

1.      You now have a Trojan virus – probably Zlob or Vundo – on your computer and you can spread it to all your friends and relatives.

2.      Your security has been completely compromised and if you had personal information on it there is probably someone overseas already racking up credit card charges in your name.

3.      Your Internet browser settings have been changed and you can’t change it back.

4.      Your anti-virus doesn’t work.

5.      If you had a legitimate anti-spyware program on your system, ten to one says it doesn’t work either.

6.      All of your surfing habits are being reported to a third party who will use your information for nefarious purposes.

We could name more but we think you got the idea.

What do I do?

Kiss your money goodbye for one thing because you will not get a refund. 

With that being said, you will want to put your computer into safe mode and download an anti-spyware program like ZookaWare PC Cleaner that is up to date and legitimate.  Install the program, run it, and let it remove SpyAway from your computer system for you.  Then run your anti-virus program so that you can remove the Trojan that it may have found its way onto your system through.

If you are an advanced computer user, you can also remove each of the files by hand, but we do not recommend it as you could remove a file critical to the operation of your system by mistake and then you will be in a really big bind.