Recently I was infected with the Smitfraud virus/spyware/trojan or whatever it is as detected by Spyboy search and destroy.

Unfortunately, Spybot would not remove the Smitfraud - C Core Service menace.

I read a very long potential solution to this problem on one of these boards that I was not eager to tackle.

I re-booted my computer in Safe mode ( windows XP) and then ran Spybot S&D again. In safe mode Spybot successfully removed the beast and I am back to normal.

I hope this helps somebody.

Smitfraud-C.Core Service is a rootkit found with certain SmitFraud infections and identified by Spybot S&D as Smitfraud-C.CoreService. There is a specialized fix tool for this infection that is used under the guidance of malware removal experts.