Posted on 03/25/2010 3:13:03 PM PDT by ConservativeStatement
A loathsome computer scam crippled my laptop, and I wanted revenge.
It began nearly three weeks ago. While I was browsing the Internet, a scary red alert popped up on my screen. Viruses and worms had been detected on my computer! I must "click here" for a full security scan!
It looked legitimate. The logo and page design reminded me of my own antivirus program. I clicked.
Big mistake.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
malwarebytes
fixed mine
LOL. That sucker is one invasive virus. It start causing all sorts of stuff pop up. Took me a couple hours to get rid of it. The trick is to boot in safe mode then use system restore.
The author was a sucker.. everyone should know these are as bogus as emails from a prince in Nigeria.
That is why they invented your “restore” disk.
They cannot fix stupid. You will lose all data, programs, etc but, it will restore the computer back to factory fresh so memory problems, disk problems are all gone.
Then you have a fresh start. Re-load your programs and don’t click on internet ads in the future.
Mr. McCartney: If you don’t have the research skills to find out anything useful about the malware perps, why bother to write an article?
Uhhhhhh....enable your pop-up blocker?
I work as a network admin for a law firm. You dont know how many times i’ve cleaned that virus off computers in the past 2 years...not at work, because we have most internet traffic blocked. But between co-workers, friends, and extended family I have probably cleaned over 100 PCs.
and you wouldn’t if it said “click here to avoid seeing naked pictures of Helen Thomas”
When something like that pops up on my screen I immediately open my task manager and shut it down that way. Then a real scan.
That was an entertaining article, people should make sure to read it.
Malwarebytes helped the writer trace the antivirus7 culprits to China.
“I turned to the private sector. A site called Malwarebytes.org seemed promising. Its business is fighting rogue software, and it had put out a detailed consumer warning about Antivirus 7.
At my request, the company did some technical digging into the scareware’s origins. It found that the same servers used to distribute Antivirus 7 are also used for lots of other crooked software.
“These guys are definitely professionals. They have a huge block of sites that they’re using to spam people, to push out malware, to basically just be bad guys,” said Robert Hafner, network administrator for Malwarebytes.
Even better, Hafner said that contact information for the domains registered most recently to distribute Antivirus 7 came from . . . China.
“While he claims to be in the U.S., it’s clear from his registrar, phone number and e-mail that he is actually somewhere in China,” Hafner said.”
Fixed mine - it took a full weekend. Norton offered to fix it via remote access for $100. Jerks!
At least I was able to strip out alot of unused junk during the process.
It’s a good idea to have an external backup drive. You can get 1TB for about $89. Lets you wipe and restore system if all else fails. Good to have cause the system hard drive will die some day anyway. Also, try a restore to earlier (clean) point. System tools -> restore. Sometimes works.
It's not.
I don't.
Would you agree to something if I barged into your living room and screamed about all the burglars in the neighborhood, and how you needed my services as a burglar-proofer?
No? Why then would you click on this crap then?
A woman answered the phone and responded at length, but only in Chinese, before hanging up.
It sounded as though I'd woken her up. It was after midnight in Guangxi.
... and so he makes international phone calls chasing the perp? Yeah, OF COURSE they're going to give you a phony phone number....
In the last two days, Spysweeper, which I have, has asked me about a half dozen times if I want to block or allow something called SearchFilterHost. I always block such requests, whether this recent one or the rare times something has shown in the past. Something to do with add-ons. When I do a complete sweep with Spysweeper, all cookies and such items removed are rated 1 (lowest) out of 5.
I store just about everything I can on an external hard drive. I have a notebook file with all my passwords etc, all my picture files go over there. All my program info goes there in case I need it.
There’s a version of it that I cleaned off an employees personal computer that showed up in a safe boot. Damn that was annoying.
It’s not usually a popup window, it is a plain Javascript dialog box. It asks you if you want to install, and even if you click “No” it still will download the program.
So basically once you are presented with such a dialog, pretty much your only option is to go into Task Manager and kill your browser process.
Who says I don’t wanna see Helen Thomas in all her nekkid glory?
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