- What they are.
- How you can recognize them.
- How you can get rid of them.
A dialer is a program that sets up a connection for a computer.
When you are on dial-up you need one, but you only want the one, that connects you to your provider and not one that calls an expensive number or connects you to a site that could be harmful.
These malicious dialers often get installed by promising access to special content, like porn, ringtones, MP3 files or even malware.
Some dialers warn the user for what it is, that they are going to do, but in some cases this doesn't happen at all and often it is well hidden.
The most obvious sign of being infected with a dialer is a new connection showing up in your list.
Also, a malicious dialer will usually set itself as the default connection.
To spread malicious dialers in most cases ActiveX installers are used, but trojans are being used as well.
With broadband connections becoming more popular and accessible, additional functionality has been added to dialers, like changing the startpage of the browser(s).
To find out how you can protect yourself please read the main page of my site
Especially SpywareBlaster will protect you against many ActiveX installed dialers.
The most common dialers that only use ActiveX, can and will be easily removed by the popular anti-spyware applications.
I have written some BFU scripts to get rid of the more difficult ones, that also use methods to get started when the computer boots.
While I am working on others to be added, you can use these freely.
Check this page on how to use BFU.
