'Merlin' the Wizard?

[Danielle]

I was online the other night, chatting, and everything seemed to be fine. All of a sudden this wizard comes onto my screen, out of nowhere. When I hovered over it, all it said was 'Merlin'. I was so shocked I wasn't sure what to do, although I did manage a screen shot of it.

(Try to ignore the conversation behind it...)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v87/untoashes/e7e31d93.jpg

My question is, what the hell is this and how did it get onto my computer? After seeing it, I ran a spyware scan, and two seperate virus/trojan scans, but all that showed up was four cookies in internet explorer, but I don't see how this program ..thing..could be from a cookie? It even showed up in the taskbar, but the only option for the program was show/hide, and it was even animated, running across the screen and walking around, even dissapearing in it's hat.

And yes, I am aware that it looks just like the wizard in the program Microsoft Word, but that isn't where this came from, because I don't even have this program on my computer, and never have.

If you have any idea as to what this is, please post and tell me. I'm lost.

 

[The_Other_One]

Have you looked around Add/Remove programs?

 

[Danielle]

Yes.

 

[Sebouh]

well when it is open, do a hijackthis test and put it here.

 

[Byteman]

go into program files and check if you have a microsoft office folder...

 

[Lorand]

It doesn't need to have the Office installed. Search for a folder with name "MSAgent/Chars" or "Microsoft Agent/Characters".

 

[Danielle]

Nothing came up in the search in either one of your suggestions. I don't have microsoft office, or anything like that installed on my computer and it's never been because i've had it since it was new..

 

[RayPoynter]

Have a look in your taskbar, do you have an alarm clock? I have one installed at work, with a few alarms set up, once the alarm is reached, that little guy pops up. If you look in Add/Remove program, it should be listed as 'Talking Alarm Clock'. Are you the only one that uses that PC? If not, someone might have downloaded and installed it...otherwise, I am sorry I have no idea why that would pop-up, unless someone was spoofing you through your chat session

 

[Danielle]

No, I don't have anything like that. And I was only talking to one person at the time, and they didn't do it..

 

[sidthereal]

see for malicious processes running in the taskbar, try closing that to end merlin

 

[Buzz1927]

Have you tried doing a search for "merlin"?

 

[sidthereal]

actually, to help around, i just did a google search, using keywords merlin and malaware and then merlin wizard computer, the search results were inconclusive.

 

[joshj]

Hey, sidthereal, I just have to comment on your sig. Another thing is that he who laughs last thinks slowest