XoftSpy Spyware Tool: Legitimate or Scam?

Infopackets Reader Diane D. writes:

" Dear Dennis,

I recently found a program called 'XoftSpy' while browsing the 'net. The web site offered a free download to check my PC, so I tried it. After it ran a check, it came up with 97 registry faults, and 10 file faults. Can you tell me if you have heard of this program, or even given it a try, and what the results were? I am considering purchasing the full program, but would like to know if there is anything similar that does the same job, and comparisons please. "

My response:

To be honest, I have never used or heard of "XoftSpy". Researching XoftSpy in Google wasn't very fruitful, although quite a number of pages I found held unfavorable comments from what appears to be unethical affiliate marketing practices of the product. Long story short: I wasn't able to find any substantial information concerning the effectiveness of XoftSpy.

http://www.netrn.net/archives2/2004_04.html

http://www.adwarereport.com/mt/archives/000014.html

http://www.startupskills.com/archives/000121.html

RE: Is there any comparable software that does the same job?

It appears that XoftSpy is a Spyware Removal tool. There are a number of freeware solutions available on the 'net that do the same thing (to varying degrees); however, I recommend and have used both Spy Sweeper by Webroot and Spyware Doctor by PC Tools.

As I've stated in the newsletter many times before, both Spy Sweeper and Spyware Doctor are unique because they block Spyware before it has a chance to do damage to your system. It also scan and removes Spyware traces even if your system is infected (for example, after the first install) and includes an automatic update feature.

The review on Spy Sweeper can be found here. And to read more about Spyware Doctor (recently praised by PC Magazine and Cnet.com), visit the Spyware Doctor home page.

Update 11 / 04 / 2004: This article has additional comments from Readers. Click here to read!