The company (W3i, LLC) operates under these website domains:
Freeze.com
Core Demographic:
70% Female, 30-45 yrs
Screensaver.com
Core Demographic:
55% Female, 25-40 yrs
Wallpapers.com
Core Demographic:
60% Female, 20-35 yrs
My.Freeze.com
Core Demographic:
70% Female, 25-40 yrs
Ringtone.com
Core Demographic:
75% Female, 15-30 yrs
YourScreen.com
Core Demographic:
70% Female, 30-45 yrs
Please warn as many people as you can to avoid this company at all cost.
A visitor to my CAAM - Consumers active Against Malware site reported them to me to investigate.
She instructed me that upon downloading a free screensaver, her machine became infected with a Trojan and now has a host of problems that she needs help with. After a basic test, my test machine had a trojan within 4 hours of signing up! I have filed formal complaints with several government officials, including the FBI.
Anyways, I went to freeze.com and downloaded a free screensaver that: installed a desktop search toolbar, altered my desktop settings, altered my internet settings, turned off Mcafee Virus Scan, and added a hidden (just a blank spot) startup item to my system tray, changed various other settings and installed a new.net Trojan that locked my machine up until unplugging my network cable (broadband). After unplugging from the internet, it took 24 minutes to give me any response to the mouse. After I could get a response, I plugged back into the internet, and IE opened with a pop-up and a new website (PrivacyProtector) that said my machine had traces of spam and I should use their scanner to remove unwanted traces. Upon 'red Xing' the page, it opened another page that locked up IE again. And provided a two pop up's that I could not get rid of. After closing IE and the pop up's with Task Manager, I opened IE again, only to be taken to several spam sites, that locked up my machine again for 11 minutes. During all of this lock up time, I do not know what was done to my machine, but 35 minutes (total) on a broadband connection could have provided all the time they needed to complete their rogue tasks! This whole process took 3.5 hours and a lot of manual work.
The Eula stated that I could choose from what would be installed, yet I was never given a chance to choose. After the install, it said I could view the Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions, yet there is nothing on the pages (blank pages).
I will be spending another two or three hours examining my machine to see what else has happened to it. Before Freeze.com, it was clean and fast, and now it is slow, even after removal.
Here is what was listed when installed:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Freeze\yourscreen
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\your
screen
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\RegisteredApplications
After removal, I had a unknown entry that was traced to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Freeze
I do believe I will find more upon further digging.
If I did not have CounterSpy v2.5, McAfee Internet Security Suite 2006, and some security knowledge hunting Malware, my machine would be toast right now. My processes went from the normal 41 - on up to 68. I can only guess at what a novice computer user would go through upon finding this site. My machine right now, even after removing it and having NO OTHER CHANGES, is running at 44 processes. They are unmarked and the extra processes are svchost.exe items.
In order to provide you with as much information as possible, this machine is a Windows XP SP2 Home Edition fully updated, and well maintained.
After much digging through the registry and days later after uninstalling their product, this is the most recent addition to my registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Triodesign\slideshow screensaver 1.0
But the entries do change. I am somewhat letting it do as it pleases, but at this point, since I uninstalled the main product through Add/Remove, there SHOULD be NO MORE interactions with my machine.
I will continue to use every resource I have to track this company's online behavior and hopefully save others from the deceit.
Freeze.com
Core Demographic:
70% Female, 30-45 yrs
Screensaver.com
Core Demographic:
55% Female, 25-40 yrs
Wallpapers.com
Core Demographic:
60% Female, 20-35 yrs
My.Freeze.com
Core Demographic:
70% Female, 25-40 yrs
Ringtone.com
Core Demographic:
75% Female, 15-30 yrs
YourScreen.com
Core Demographic:
70% Female, 30-45 yrs
Please warn as many people as you can to avoid this company at all cost.
A visitor to my CAAM - Consumers active Against Malware site reported them to me to investigate.
She instructed me that upon downloading a free screensaver, her machine became infected with a Trojan and now has a host of problems that she needs help with. After a basic test, my test machine had a trojan within 4 hours of signing up! I have filed formal complaints with several government officials, including the FBI.
Anyways, I went to freeze.com and downloaded a free screensaver that: installed a desktop search toolbar, altered my desktop settings, altered my internet settings, turned off Mcafee Virus Scan, and added a hidden (just a blank spot) startup item to my system tray, changed various other settings and installed a new.net Trojan that locked my machine up until unplugging my network cable (broadband). After unplugging from the internet, it took 24 minutes to give me any response to the mouse. After I could get a response, I plugged back into the internet, and IE opened with a pop-up and a new website (PrivacyProtector) that said my machine had traces of spam and I should use their scanner to remove unwanted traces. Upon 'red Xing' the page, it opened another page that locked up IE again. And provided a two pop up's that I could not get rid of. After closing IE and the pop up's with Task Manager, I opened IE again, only to be taken to several spam sites, that locked up my machine again for 11 minutes. During all of this lock up time, I do not know what was done to my machine, but 35 minutes (total) on a broadband connection could have provided all the time they needed to complete their rogue tasks! This whole process took 3.5 hours and a lot of manual work.
The Eula stated that I could choose from what would be installed, yet I was never given a chance to choose. After the install, it said I could view the Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions, yet there is nothing on the pages (blank pages).
I will be spending another two or three hours examining my machine to see what else has happened to it. Before Freeze.com, it was clean and fast, and now it is slow, even after removal.
Here is what was listed when installed:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Freeze\yourscreen
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\your
screen
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\RegisteredApplications
After removal, I had a unknown entry that was traced to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Freeze
I do believe I will find more upon further digging.
If I did not have CounterSpy v2.5, McAfee Internet Security Suite 2006, and some security knowledge hunting Malware, my machine would be toast right now. My processes went from the normal 41 - on up to 68. I can only guess at what a novice computer user would go through upon finding this site. My machine right now, even after removing it and having NO OTHER CHANGES, is running at 44 processes. They are unmarked and the extra processes are svchost.exe items.
In order to provide you with as much information as possible, this machine is a Windows XP SP2 Home Edition fully updated, and well maintained.
After much digging through the registry and days later after uninstalling their product, this is the most recent addition to my registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Triodesign\slideshow screensaver 1.0
But the entries do change. I am somewhat letting it do as it pleases, but at this point, since I uninstalled the main product through Add/Remove, there SHOULD be NO MORE interactions with my machine.
I will continue to use every resource I have to track this company's online behavior and hopefully save others from the deceit.