Mezaa adware removal

[DrBriB]

I downloaded and installed ImgBurn 2.5.8.0 on Aug 18th at about 6pm.  At about the same time I became infected with the adware Mezaa which is very very annoying.  It slows down browsing, highlights lots of text, creates pop-ups if you mouse over anything, and starts video advertisements.  (At least all the ads were tasteful.)

 

I tried a few programs to remove it.  I finally got rid of it with Malwarebytes anti-malware.  It appears (see image) that the Mezaa installer was brought over by OpenCandy which is adware that is known to be (default) installed by ImgBurn.  The only downside to the removal was I lost the open URLs in my (Firefox) browser's tabs.  Oh, Malwarebytes might have removed OpenCandy too.  At least I'm hoping that I've suffered enough.  [i'm guilty of the using the express & recommended install for ImgBurn]

 

What a time waste!

 

 

[LIGHTNING UK!]

There's no 'express' install for ImgBurn. The installer page you were looking at when you saw that was an opencandy one offering you a 3rd party piece of software.

[DrBriB]

Today (9/5) Symantec pushed an update to my Norton 360 anti-virus (malware, etc) program.  It immediately removed MZA64.dll (Adware.mezaa).  Also, on 8/30 it removed MZA.dll (Adware.BL).  My computer seems to be running much, much better.  This half-way fix I had achieved from Malwarebytes and manual removal had left Explorer hanging often.  Also the computer was caught accessing 168.95.1.1 (dns.hinet.net) several times a day.  This is a reported high volume spamming organization.  Malwarebytes did catch this outgoing access and block it.  Those accesses appear to have stopped now too.

 

In short, if you think you are infected by Mezaa I would have to recommend both Malwarebytes and Norton.

 

Dr.Bri B    (My system is Win7, 64 bit)