I was recovering my wife's machine last night. McAfee didn't find anything, but *buddy.* and *bargain.* kept coming up. I tried to delete them from the registry, but obviously did not find all instances. I finally opened up AdAware, updated to the current definition, and it found 200+ instances of bad stuff, mostly related to those two. AdAware had not been run on her machine since 140 days ago when the "bad things" definitions were much different.

My wife had been using IE, and some times had "engaged" various pop-up warnings about computer vulnerability. She has also visited some bargain sites. I have advised her to 1) use Netscape (or maybe Firefox); b) NEVER answer ANY pup-ups except to click on the "X" to close them; c) to be VERY careful about which sites she visits, and d) to run AdAware every week, or perhaps even after visiting any questionable site. (She likes travel bargains.)

Her computer is fine, now, and I think she will be more wary. I hope that other 'Catters are, as well, perhaps by learning from my example and the others presented here.

BTW, some of these spyware/trojans/malwares hi-jack people's machines and use them to send out spam. Didjoo know?