Hey all my CT friends, Earlier today for no reason my computer lit up like a christmas tree. I watched as my computer went over to the “My Computer” screen. Over the c drive and shared documents icons flashing in big red letters and numbers was 659 trojans, 8 trojans etc. Another pop up said I had 3 e-mail worms and yet ANOTHER pop up told me that my computer is infected and now being downloaded of personal information and passwords and that I must click here immediately to download this program to permanently rid my computer of these threats. When I tried to exit out of it, it told me that exiting out would allow the threats into my computer. The program and the source of the program it was urging me to download I did not recognize. I ran a complete scan with my Norton 360 and it came up with NO VIRUSES…Just a tracking cookie which it deleted. After re-booting, all is normal and has been running fine all day. This is probably a trick to get unsuspecting folks to download this program which will probably wipe out your computer… Just beware…
transman
You are absolutely right, it’s a common scam to scare you into downloading a REAL BAD virus/trojan/whatever. BEWARE!
Stay away from those Porno sites and these moments of terror will be few and far between. Download Ad-Aware Free to weed out spyware
I was browsing star trek’s wikia site and had something similar pop up everytime I visited the home page of it. I checked back the next day and it was gone from the site.
Watch out for those gaming sites too. This happened today when my son was on some gaming site playing a video game. He called me over and said hey dad, what does this mean?? Glad he didnt press anything else…
transman
My son DID press the button, took lots of work to clean up that cyber-mess! And someone at work did the same thing, a spam bot got installed on his machine, and our ISP shut down our email until we cleaned it up. OUCH.
As long as we’re on the topic, looks like all of us working in small/mid size companies are now top on the list of organized crime - they’re going after our company passwords (by sending official looking emails that, once clicked, install key loggers) and using them to slowly drain ($9999 at a time, under the warning level for most banks) the company bank accounts. Beware X 2!
Thanks for the notice Transman618. Cyber space can be a risky venture at times. Especially for those unaware of the tricks used by the scammers. My son got my computer infected by going to some bad sites and I couldn’t get rid of the malware using some of the free software out there. I purchased a program on line called Prevx v3.0 and that worked.
Probably got it from a link to Autozone.
I only browse on a dedicated web browser,just a OS and the required Acrobat software. If I get a virus I just relaod the OS,wipes everything out (both good and bad). People try to do to much with the same machine. I have 6 PC’s and they all have their purpose.
Nothing on the browser I cant lose and just reload.
Any time I see that stuff I click on the little X in the upper right corner and close the window. If it’s not a program I recognize, it’s a spoof.
I’ve had that stuff pop up on a few websites and I simply click on the delete and if that doesn’t work, I just shut the power off to the computer and after a minute, restart.
Then I run SpySweeper and it never shows up any virus.
"Download Ad-Aware Free to weed out spyware "
If you’re going to use Ad Aware make ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN you get it ONLY from Lavasoft. There is a pretty bad supposed anti spyware program out there that goes by a name that seems just like AdAware, but instead of being anti-spyware it actually fills your computer with bugs, then offers to remove them for a fee.
I used to use AdAware from Lavasoft all the time. “Spybot; Search and Destroy” is a much better bet these days.
Daughter’s computer picked up something similar last weekend. Norton 360 and AdAware did not see any problem, but screen covered with fake warning popups every time the computer booted op.
Computer running Vista. I turned on "Show Hidden Files and Folders"
Went to Help and then to MSCONFIG. Found three programs in the Startup sequence that had numbers rather than names, and “unknown” owners. Turned them off, then deleted the programs and the directory they were in. Problem resolved.
Manolito,
You can download a file named HijackThis.exe that will check your boot records to see what starts and when. It’s from Trend Micro, and there are some couterfeit versions out there. A god place to download it is CNet:
I run it every once in a while on all my computers. If there is a file I don’t recognize, I do a web search to find out if there is any information. Most of the time it is a legitimate start-up program used by something I want to keep.
The problem is complicated by the fact that new viruses are made faster than the virus protection programs can be updated. Then there are the Trojan agents that no virus protection programs can protect you from because you let them in,once they are in basic scans won’t pick them up.
I recieved a Trojan Agent while researching poetry from the first World War. Thats why I don’t browse on any machine I cant just do a OS re-install and move on.
I never save anything important to my C drive always to flash but nothing is perfect.Use a router even if you are a single user system (acts like a hardware firewall).
hi transman, the same thing happen to me. i was stunned. i got all the same as you. i tried to get off and it would not let me out no matter what i did. i am not to much of the comp. person? i called my comp. person over. she tried everything she knew. nothing worked. she said to leave it. Now on my desktop sits this icon that says " privacy components". she said do not ever open it. so far so good. she knows her computers— she does the computers for the high school in my home town. i get nervous every time i see it
It will eventually “morph” into a problem. These agents are designed to “activate” after a period of time even if you don’t open it. You neeed a better IT person. Or you can try Malware bytes or TNT Malware removal but since you don’t know much you can reload your operating sysyem or call for a 1 time IT service (should cost 90.00 to 130.00).
I have a service for tough problems 6 computers 2yrs unlimited tech support (24hrs)$472.00,Cyberdefender out of India,they do remote sessions.
I had one that was similar. Everyday a smiley face with one eye punched out would appear,it said 'critical update" if I did nothing it would go away for a day. One day my entire screen turned into a red grid pattern with Russian writing all over it,it took those Cyberdefender guys about 7 hrs to set things right.That was the worst.Now I just do a OS re-install,out with the good but out with the bad.
Once it’s on your desktop, it is a problem. It could be a key logger, sending your passwords and account information over to Russia, etc. I got rid of it by using Avast free home edition. It’s well-reviewed by Cnet and PCMag, and got rid of things my paid-for protection missed. I highly recommend it. You do need to do somoething.
I also run Avast on one of my PC’s.
Woman at work fell for the “your paypal account has been XXXX, log in to confirm/change”. One of those phishing sites that logs your passwords/screen names that disguise a website to look like the real deal. She was going to the bank to make sure nothing happened, and I haven’t heard he say anything since then either.
I usually hover my mouse pointer over the clickable part and see where it’s actually going