How do I stop a company from taking over my computer?

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farmerjohn1324

Member
Just a few minutes ago, I was using my computer and someone took it over. I thought it was like a hacker or something. So I turned off the computer by pushing the power button.

A few seconds later, I get a call and it's a company that I once paid to help me with a computer issue. Apparently, they now think it's okay just to take over control of my computer without even asking?

They called from a Restricted number but were nice enough to give me the name and location of the company, which I found on Google. It's called Fast Maximum Services. They had a program open on my computer of the same name, but I couldn't find it to remove it by looking at Add or Remove Programs.
 
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farmerjohn1324

Member
johnb35 said:
Do yourself a favor and do a fresh install of windows and never call a company you find online to fix your computer. Go to a local store if you have to or come here for help.
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How do I do a fresh install of Windows? I don't have a disc. It came installed on this computer that I got from Wal-Mart.
 
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farmerjohn1324

Member
Intel_man said:
Are you on Windows 10?
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Yes. But I think this company is something that I got from calling Windown or Microsoft tech support.

I Googled them and there's nobody saying that they are a scam or to watch out for them. It seems like a legitimate business.

But in case they aren't legitimate, should I save evidence for the police? Because that's pretty messed to just take over someone's computer without even asking them.
 
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farmerjohn1324

Member
beers said:
Considering your encounter earlier, not legitimate.
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Okay. What do you think was their motive? Stealing files? Bank account info? To spy on me through my webcam and blackmail me by sending private things to my family, friends, and coworkers that they found on FaceBook? Lol.

I downloaded CCleaner, MalWareBytes, JRT, OTL, and AdWCleaner. Do you think that would take care of the problem?

Is there any way to get a free version of CCleaner these days that isn't a trial?
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Just download the free version of ccleaner and install it. Don't download the pro version as trial. Not knowing what they did, you would be better off reinstalling Windows.
 
Agent Smith

Agent Smith

Well-Known Member
Ccleaner isn't going to do shit. SMH.

Do yourself a favor. Run Autoruns and post the ARN file here. I'll have a look at what's starting on your computer. In addition to that you can give Freefixer a try, but you need to click on the "Info" link next to each and every module you are not familiar with and read about it at the Freefixer website. It's a very powerful application and removing the wrong entry and you can F up your computer. I wish Freefixer had a log output because then I could go over that. The next program that's similar is Hijackthis. It's useful, but stuff can still hide from it.

As to malware scanners, I would run rKill first prior to running anything.

http://www.freefixer.com/

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns

http://www.softpedia.com/get/PORTABLE-SOFTWARE/Antivirus---Antispyware/Portable-herdProtect.shtml
 
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farmerjohn1324

Member
Agent Smith said:
Ccleaner isn't going to do shit. SMH.

Do yourself a favor. Run Autoruns and post the ARN file here. I'll have a look at what's starting on your computer. In addition to that you can give Freefixer a try, but you need to click on the "Info" link next to each and every module you are not familiar with and read about it at the Freefixer website. It's a very powerful application and removing the wrong entry and you can F up your computer. I wish Freefixer had a log output because then I could go over that. The next program that's similar is Hijackthis. It's useful, but stuff can still hide from it.

As to malware scanners, I would run rKill first prior to running anything.

http://www.freefixer.com/

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns

http://www.softpedia.com/get/PORTABLE-SOFTWARE/Antivirus---Antispyware/Portable-herdProtect.shtml
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https://www.dropbox.com/s/l1zt6njg6x2uksh/arn.arn?dl=0

Here are 2 pictures of what happened when their program runs.
 

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farmerjohn1324

Member
beers said:
That looks a lot like LogMeIn Rescue
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Is that good or bad?

It says it was used twice. Once in January and once a few days ago. I remember being on the phone with them in January when we did this.

I looked up the company and it has favorable ratings on Better Business Bureau and nothing negative about it on Google.
 
_Kyle_

_Kyle_

Well-Known Member
You need to wipe the drive if this happened. Remote control on a PC requires the software to be downloaded manually, so they obviously did something.
 
beers

beers

Moderator
Staff member
farmerjohn1324 said:
Is that good or bad?
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Just saying you could probably purge that if you see references to LogMeIn Rescue via various uninstallations.

I'd go ahead and wipe it, I wouldn't trust them to just randomly start accessing your shit without calling you first, even if they were super legitimate.
 
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