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Topic: Beware E-mail: "Earthlink TotalAccess2004" (Read 2019 times) previous topic - next topic
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Beware E-mail: "Earthlink TotalAccess2004"

I received an e-mail which seemed like it was from earthlink.net, offering me a free upgrade to TotalAccess2004, plus "FastLink", something which would magically increase my actual browsing speed by 5x, using my same old 56k dial-up.

So, stupid me (I'm usually more careful than this) clicked the link, and it took me to a www.earthlink.net/... site (or so it seemed) to download this "new version" of TotalAccess which included this new connection feature.  I downloaded it, installed it, and it fried my browser (IE 6.0) and my dial-up software.

What I have now:

- When in IE, I click on Help - About, I see "Version:  ".  No version shown.  I'm afraid it's been OWN3D.
- When I click on Tools - Internet Options - Advanced, I get a blank dialog box.  Nothing.  It's been OWN3D too.
- My homepage is www.msn.com, and is unchangable as everything is grayed out in Tools - Internet Options - General.  OWN3D.  (Maybe this is a virus created by Microsoft...revenge, perhaps?)
- My dialer now brings up a console window of some kind that says "OK" in it, with buttons for Continue and Cancel.  Clicking either button results in a failed dialup attempt.  Entering most anything in the console first results in the same thing.  I tried typing gibberish in the dialer console for the nth try, and it finally dialed successfully.

I just got off the phone (after over an hour) with Earthlink support, and after having talked to a Kristen and a Charles, they don't know of any "TotalAccess2004" or "FastLink" product releases.  According to Earthlink, these are bogus "products", only available from this dubious link in an e-mail.  TotalAccess2003 is the latest version of that product, and there is indeed a product called "FastLane" but only for improving browser efficiency with Win95/98...nothing for WinXP/Win2000 as was advertised for this other bogus product.  I also asked them for a "removal tool" for this stuff, if they can create one.

So if you're an Earthlink user, please beware anything you see in an e-mail or on the web about TotalAccess2004 or something called "FastLink" for WinXP/Win2000.  They may even contain a virus of some type.  I'm contacting Symantec about it also, and I've suggested that Earthlink warn it's customers about these dangerous fake "products".  And in the meantime, I'm trying to fix my IE/dialer/Earthlink software back to the way it was before.

Edit:  Pardon me.  I made a mistake in this post.  The confirmed "bogus product" is not called FastLink, but rather Earthlink Accelerator.  FastLink is apparently something I had seen elsewhere, and I have no knowledge of it's integrity.  I simply confused the "product names" I had discussed with the Earthlink support team.  My apologies...
 

Beware E-mail: "Earthlink TotalAccess2004"

Reply #1 –
Go to the Earthlink Accelerator page. It also mentions TotalAccess2004.

Edit: Also go to Earthlink's software page. There is a link for TotalAccess2004 and Earthlink Accelerator.

Either something is seriously wrong with earthlink.net, or Kristen and Charles do not know what they are talking about.