Many Cam Virus warning!

[Miss_Lollipop]

Hey ladies who use Manycam..

Ok so here's what happened... a few days ago I got a pop up from my manycam saying i needed to update! I clicked it, didn't really pay attention, and clicked through for the update. Many cam began running VERY strangely and then I started getting errors on many sites - including MFC. 50% of the time when i tried to visit a site, ACF, twitter, MFC - it would show me a 504 or 404 error. Sometimes JUSt in my mail on model admin, sometimes the whole page. It got worse and worse, till we finally figured out "oh my virus protection is expired" and sure enough when we updated it and ran stuff..we had problems that were traced back to that update.

I don't know exactly what happened, we refreshed my computer, and it is running again. Had to reload all my programs though. I thought it was something that had just happened to me till i was in my friend AliceLane's room and she was complaining about the same error screens.. i asked her if shed JUST done a many cam update, and sure enough, she had. She had the same thing I did.

SO: if Manycam asks you to update with a pop up.. be safe rather than sorry and download it from the website. I am not sure what happened.. but its working fine now when I did it from the site.

This was ManyCam for the PC version too btw.

 

[FoxyFarrah]

Thank you for posting this! I had the pop up this morning, but ignored it because I was in the middle of a video download. Glad I didn't click it!

 

[Miss_Lollipop]

Apparently the refresh didn't work... It's doing it again! Guhhh!!!

 

[Koolguy321]

It is the toolbar that is offered with ManyCam that is causing the problems for you.

I just installed ManyCam there and after doing a quick scan with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, sure enough it found the toolbar to be a PUP, which means Potential Unwanted Program, meaning it is a program that you probably did not intend to install but it came included with the software you did, for example ManyCam.
You should try to avoid as much as possible installing these toolbars, most will slow your browsers down, change your homepage/search provider and spam you with adverts. Some can also do some more malicious stuff to your computer.

Here is screenshot from my computer of it detecting the toolbar that was installed with ManyCam-http://i.imgur.com/874hmj6.png

So you should be able to fix your problems, by installing Malwarebytes Anti-Malware from here http://www.malwarebytes.org/
just click the Free version download button
then install it, during the install it may ask do you want to try a free trial of the PRO version of it, just untick the box beside it.

Then open the program up, click the update tab and update it, then after go to the Scanner tab, set it to do a Quick Scan, then click the Scan button.

Then after it is done scanning, it will give you a list of stuff it has found, just tick the boxes beside each one you want to remove, and then click the Remove Button.
For me it told me i needed to restart my computer for it to fully remove the threats, so it will probably say the same for you, just close down any other opened programs and click the YES Button.

Hope this helps and thank you for posting about this :thumbleft:

 

[Koolguy321]

Sorry i forgot to mention that before you do a scan with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, you should first try to uninstall the toolbars.

( I am using windows 7 )

to go to Start > Control Panel and click Uninstall a program under Programs

Then look for MyStart toolbar and MyStart Anti-phising Domain Advisor and uninstall them.

Then use Malwarebytes Anti-malware like i said, to be sure that the toolbar and stuff is fully removed.

You may also need to go into chrome, and remove the extension from Chrome.

 

[Koolguy321]

I'm only a MFC member and know a fair bit about computers, im not affiliated with Malwarebytes or anything if any memeber on here is curious.

If any model is still having problems, or stuck with what i said in my posts, just let me know and i will try to help

 

[Shaun__]

Hey ladies who use Manycam..

Ok so here's what happened... a few days ago I got a pop up from my manycam saying i needed to update! I clicked it, didn't really pay attention, and clicked through for the update. Many cam began running VERY strangely and then I started getting errors on many sites - including MFC. 50% of the time when i tried to visit a site, ACF, twitter, MFC - it would show me a 504 or 404 error. Sometimes JUSt in my mail on model admin, sometimes the whole page. It got worse and worse, till we finally figured out "oh my virus protection is expired" and sure enough when we updated it and ran stuff..we had problems that were traced back to that update.

I don't know exactly what happened, we refreshed my computer, and it is running again. Had to reload all my programs though. I thought it was something that had just happened to me till i was in my friend AliceLane's room and she was complaining about the same error screens.. i asked her if shed JUST done a many cam update, and sure enough, she had. She had the same thing I did.

SO: if Manycam asks you to update with a pop up.. be safe rather than sorry and download it from the website. I am not sure what happened.. but its working fine now when I did it from the site.

This was ManyCam for the PC version too btw.

I hope you posted this in models only as well, for the models that never go the other pages.

 

[Zenlan]

Quick add-in, I updated in the same way a couple of days ago but skipped the toolbar installer. The window with the tick boxes to change your homepage / default search (can't remember the exact wording) isn't actually ManyCam's installer, it's the bundled browser toolbar's installer. If you click next the browser toolbar will get installed even if you untick both boxes.

You can click cancel on the window with the change homepage/default search tick boxes - that will skip the toolbar install completely and just update ManyCam.

 

[Koolguy321]

Quick add-in, I updated in the same way a couple of days ago but skipped the toolbar installer. The window with the tick boxes to change your homepage / default search (can't remember the exact wording) isn't actually ManyCam's installer, it's the bundled browser toolbar's installer. If you click next the browser toolbar will get installed even if you untick both boxes.

You can click cancel on the window with the change homepage/default search tick boxes - that will skip the toolbar install completely and just update ManyCam.

You are incorrect, the installer that is asking about the toolbar is the ManyCam installer, see this screenshot - http://i.imgur.com/E224SRC.png

Also even if you do untick the boxes, it STILL installs the toolbar and the other adware, http://imgur.com/evIfXDY

 

[JubalCobb]

If you click next the browser toolbar will get installed even if you untick both boxes.

You can click cancel on the window with the change homepage/default search tick boxes - that will skip the toolbar install completely and just update ManyCam.

You are incorrect, the installer that is asking about the toolbar is the ManyCam installer, see this screenshot - http://i.imgur.com/E224SRC.png

Also even if you do untick the boxes, it STILL installs the toolbar and the other adware, http://imgur.com/evIfXDY

Reading is fundamental. He is correct in the actions he is telling people to do. I've done this myself. On multiple computers.

ManyCam unfortunately has you download from cnet. Cnet sucks because they wrap all installers with their own installer which foists adware related toolbars on you.

As you say unchecking the boxes still installes this crap. (the person you're trying to refute also said this)
As HE said, just hit cancel on that screen (your screenshot) instead of merely unchecking those boxes.
The install will continue without the unwanted toolbars.
It does work!!

Also I would just uninstall the mystart toolbar from add remove programs if you do happen to have unwanted toolbars in your browser. It came offclean, when I fell into the trap the first time I installed manycam. I dont recall if there were any other pieces I uninstalled.

 

[Koolguy321]

If anyone installed ManyCam and is wondering why their Antivirus might not of intervened or given you an alert.

It is because the antivirus thinks that a you are wanting to install the toolbar, and it will not detect it as a virus or anything because it is not.

The toolbar is what is called adware, adware comes bundled sometimes with software that you want to install,
for example you might install a program and it asks "do you want to download and install google chrome" or "do you want to install this toolbar"
Then once the adware is installed, its job is just to show you ads on your new homepage and search results :/

In the case of ManyCams, dont be worried thinking you have a virus or anything seriously dangerous currently running on your computer because of it.
It seems to just install a toolbar in the browsers and change the homepages too. Which is still unacceptable because it still does this even if you tell the installer
you do not want it to. :evil:

** Malwarebytes free version WILL NOT block malware, the free version will only scan and remove malware (viruses, trojans, keyloggers, etc) it finds. But there is no limit on how many times you can use it
So make sure you are still running a antivirus on your computer. **

 

[Koolguy321]

Reading is fundamental. He is correct in the actions he is telling people to do. I've done this myself. On multiple computers.

ManyCam unfortunately has you download from cnet. Cnet sucks because they wrap all installers with their own installer which foists adware related toolbars on you.

As HE said, just hit cancel on that screen (your screenshot) instead of merely unchecking those boxes.
The install will continue without the unwanted toolbars.
It does work!!.

I did not actually say about hitting cancel on that screen but thank you for sharing that

I also downloaded a different manycam installer from softpedia and it still asked about installing the toolbar, so although you are right about cnet bundling toolbars and stuff
in their downloads, i think manycams might be to blame this time :/

*** Also even after removing the toolbars like you say, i did a Quick Scan with Malwarebytes and still found one piece of the toolbar on my computer.
So yeah, i think doing a scan after the removing them, will give peace of mind

 

[Sevrin]

Is this the Pro version of Manycam that wants to install adware?

 

[Koolguy321]

Is this the Pro version of Manycam that wants to install adware?

No the free version, im not sure about the pro version or if there is a different installer for it.

 

[Miss_Lollipop]

just wanted to say thanks to everyone who came and made this much more clear on what actually is going on and how to avoid it. I was a bit freaked out, to say the least.

 

[LadyLuna]

The manycams toolbar is annoying, I've gotten caught with that... 3 or 4 times out of the 10ish times I've installed it (please don't ask). And yes, uninstalling it through the add/remove programs thing leaves a piece behind. If you know what you're doing, you can go into your programs and delete it by hand, without downloading a piece of software to get rid of the piece of software.

On anything you install, read the extras screens carefully. Manycam isn't the only one I've installed where clicking the "I agree" after unchecking everything installs it anyway. Read all the things to uncheck. Not one of them is about the actual toolbar itself. It's about extras for the toolbar. That's your hint that the "I agree" is "I agree to this toolbar", not "I agree to Manycams". When in doubt, hit "cancel". If it cancels the whole install, then you can always initiate it again.

The ask.com toolbar attached to other programs does the same thing, so watch out for it!

 

[Koolguy321]

So if you are installing or updating ManyCam again, here is a screenshot of the screen where you need to untick the two boxes
and then click the cancel button, the installer will then download and install ManyCam without installing the toolbar and stuff.

 

[SexyCynnie]

Or instead of DLing from cnet.com (they always add sneaky programs on top of everything you DL) select download mirror
on this page and you wont get the affiliate offers.
http://download.manycam.com/

do not select the big graphic "Download My ManyCam 4.0 Free" you will redirected to Cnet which has the .exe binded to crappy affiliate offers.

 

[Aurora]

Or instead of DLing from cnet.com (they always add sneaky programs on top of everything you DL) select download mirror
on this page and you wont get the affiliate offers.
http://download.manycam.com/

do not select the big graphic "Download My ManyCam 4.0 Free" you will redirected to Cnet which has the .exe binded to crappy affiliate offers.

Also, if you choose to download the old version from their site, it doesn't come bundled with any weird crap.