Hello!

A friend of mine just messaged me saying she is constantly getting popups that appear to be from Windows. The popups have a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark and say: "Windows has detected spyware infection. It is recommended to use special antispyware tools to prevent data loss." The popups are advertising Zinaps Anti-Spyware.

To me, this seems like a spyware infection because Windows doesn't give you those messages, especially not advertising an "anti-spyware" product; however, I'm trying to find information on it, and I'm drawing blanks. The best I can get is questions and answers on Yahoo's question forum; Some people are giving advice on how to remove the spyware on the Yahoo thread, but I don't think the methods are sound and effective. I can't find specific information on this website, Bleepingcomputer, and others and all of the posts on the Yahoo thread asking about zinaps are all dated today, so I'm wondering if this is a relatively new malware.

The best thing to do is to follow this http://wiki.castlecops.com/MRP

If you think you're still infected with malware post a Hijackthis log in this forum.

/f67-Hijackthis_Spyware_Viruses_Worms_Trojans_Oh_My.html

I also suggest you install Windows Defender (if you use Windows XP), which is free and is available from http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx