Anti-Virus Warning

[slamjet]

If your computer gets this pop-up thing called Windows Antivirus Center that looks simular to this:

It is a virus. It want's your credit card number for it's nefarious purpose. Please, do not put in your card number. It will also block you from downloading any tools to get rid of it. This is what I suggest:

Go to a clean computer and download the following:

• SUPERAntiSpyware either the Free Edition or Portable. The free edition you will need to install on the computer, the portable can run from a flash drive.
• Malwarebyte Anti-Malware the free edition. This will also need to be installed.
• CCleaner to clean up the rest of the stuff and speed up the computer a bit.
• Optional is Avast Anti-Virus they have a free home version that is quite good. So if you don't want to pay for Nortons (I dislike, got a virus with that one) or McAfee (the worst) then install the free version. There is a paid version that is very good.
• Put the downloaded software on a flash drive, or CD and install the software onto the infected computer.
• Run the SUPERAntiSpyware and that should remove the nasty virus. Run the Anti-Malware to make sure the computer is all clean.
• Run CCleaner, especially the registry cleaner. This will help get the junk out.

Make sure you have an anti-virus on your computer. Also, be careful which network you connect to. If a computer on the network has a virus, it will spread to your computer. Also, be careful what websites you visit. Going to a website opens up a pipeline to your system where they can put spyware and other stuff onto your computer.

Also, be aware that there are websites that make it look like your system is running a check and that your computer is infected. CLOSE YOUR BROWSER! You may have misspelled google and you ended up there. It will dump a virus onto your system. I recently cleaned a computer with a virus that scanned the browsers for saved passwords and transmitted them to an offshore server. This way they can get onto your accounts and use them for spam, phishing, or getting into, for example, your Amazon account to get your credit card info, or order a whole bunch of stuff.

A little bit of care and maintenance will go a long way to keeping your system running well.

[PrinceofLight2000]

Extortion spyware! Yippee!

Social engineering seems to be the new fad amongst viruses and spyware these days considering how much more powerful antivirus software has become.

[Dravin]

Extortion spyware! Yippee!

Social engineering seems to be the new fad amongst viruses and spyware these days considering how much more powerful antivirus software has become.

It always amuses me when I'm browsing to see an 'Internet Explorer' pop-up/window informing me I have a virus. I know enough to know there are two (immediately noticable) problems with that:

1. Internet Explorer wouldn't be informing me I have a virus (jokes about it being a virus aside).

2. I'm using Chrome.

Edit: Your system hijacking extortionware bugs me, it tends to be what I get drafted into fixing by family the most.

Edited May 12, 2011 by Dravin

[slamjet]

Since I started installing Avast free version, my virus counts on familiar computers have gone down significantly. Go figure. But the misspelled Google website saying there's a virus I get called on at least once a week by my kids. At least they know enough to not click "Ok."

[mnn727]

If you see that come up you X out of it - don't do anything else, just X out of it and you'll be fine, the second you click on anything else - you're hosed.

It goes by a number of names, latest I've seen is "Anti-Virus 2011" with a somewhat official looking (almost) Microsoft logo.

Malwarebytes alone will remove it -- assuming it allows you to download malwarebytes and update it.

I do tech support for a living and have seen this more times than I care to remember, luckily when you're on a network like I am at work I can run malwarebytes from one computer to clean another - just takes longer.

Edited May 12, 2011 by mnn727

[classylady]

This is why I let my hubby take care of everything technological. I thought because we use a MAC I didn't need to worry about this. But, hubby tells me otherwise. There are now viruses out there that affect MACs too.

[RipplecutBuddha]

I had the free avast system for a while, and I liked it enough to buy the full coverage program from them. I have had maybe three attacks since the start and all of them were stopped in the sandbox. I also have Advanced Systemcare4 running, and it does a bang-up job as well.

[slamjet]

I got a virus with Norton's 2011 running. I dumped it and switched back and bought the Avast Internet Security. Not a single issue since, and I play dangerous with the internet. Kaspersky is pretty good to, but it's overly cautious with plenty of false-positives and a bit on the complex side. McAfee is junk. Eset Nod32 is not as good as Avast, in my opinion, but it must be a geek favorite since I see it on a lot of servers.

In my experience, free or purchased, Avast is the better of them all.

[RipplecutBuddha]

Agreed. The reason I like avast is because of the excellent services without all the invasive notices, warnings, requests for permission...etc..

It just does it's job and lets you know what's happening when something does try to get through. I recommend it to everyone.

[Blackmarch]

I also love DeepFreeze

If your computer gets this pop-up thing called Windows Antivirus Center that looks simular to this:

It is a virus. It want's your credit card number for it's nefarious purpose. Please, do not put in your card number. It will also block you from downloading any tools to get rid of it. This is what I suggest:

Go to a clean computer and download the following:

• SUPERAntiSpyware either the Free Edition or Portable. The free edition you will need to install on the computer, the portable can run from a flash drive.
• Malwarebyte Anti-Malware the free edition. This will also need to be installed.
• CCleaner to clean up the rest of the stuff and speed up the computer a bit.
• Optional is Avast Anti-Virus they have a free home version that is quite good. So if you don't want to pay for Nortons (I dislike, got a virus with that one) or McAfee (the worst) then install the free version. There is a paid version that is very good.
• Put the downloaded software on a flash drive, or CD and install the software onto the infected computer.
• Run the SUPERAntiSpyware and that should remove the nasty virus. Run the Anti-Malware to make sure the computer is all clean.
• Run CCleaner, especially the registry cleaner. This will help get the junk out.

Make sure you have an anti-virus on your computer. Also, be careful which network you connect to. If a computer on the network has a virus, it will spread to your computer. Also, be careful what websites you visit. Going to a website opens up a pipeline to your system where they can put spyware and other stuff onto your computer.

Also, be aware that there are websites that make it look like your system is running a check and that your computer is infected. CLOSE YOUR BROWSER! You may have misspelled google and you ended up there. It will dump a virus onto your system. I recently cleaned a computer with a virus that scanned the browsers for saved passwords and transmitted them to an offshore server. This way they can get onto your accounts and use them for spam, phishing, or getting into, for example, your Amazon account to get your credit card info, or order a whole bunch of stuff.

A little bit of care and maintenance will go a long way to keeping your system running well.

and never ever use the virus alerts thatt pop up from the net browser.

Edited May 13, 2011 by Blackmarch

[Blackmarch]

This is why I let my hubby take care of everything technological. I thought because we use a MAC I didn't need to worry about this. But, hubby tells me otherwise. There are now viruses out there that affect MACs too.

heheh always have been.. just tends to be not as much, as they havent been as popular as windows machines. Edited May 13, 2011 by Blackmarch

[JudoMinja]

I like Avast... but not for any knowledgable programming reasons. I just like it because of this.

[Mahone]

We had a massive surge of these at work about three months back, mostly on staff members personal computers (which we get asked to fix quite often). I just use hijack this to remove the infection. Not surprisingly, all the infected computers either had no (legitimate) anti virus software at all, or it was two years out of date.

[slamjet]

i like avast... But not for any knowledgable programming reasons. I just like it because of this.

Love It! That's getting bookmarked.

Edited May 13, 2011 by slamjet

[slamjet]

We had a massive surge of these at work about three months back, mostly on staff members personal computers (which we get asked to fix quite often). I just use hijack this to remove the infection. Not surprisingly, all the infected computers either had no (legitimate) anti virus software at all, or it was two years out of date.

One nitwit in one office opened a lovely email attachment. Faster than you can snap your finger, all the office computers (20 of them) and the server were all infected as well as the bandwidth was drained. I spent over 12 hours straight, overnight, disconnecting all the computers from the network, cleaning every single system before I was able to bring the network back up again. Then I put Avast on each one and not had a problem since. Dang cheapskates! Won't spend money until all heck breaks loose. :mad:

[Dr T]

I got this on my work comp. It really messes things up.

[skippy740]

I've been using Microsoft's Security Essentials for almost 2 years. Never had a problem that this program couldn't cure.

It's free and doesn't slow down your system like Norton, AVG free or Avast.

BTW, if you haven't ever seen Ninite - Install or Update Multiple Apps at Once - it's a free resource to help you download free software all at one time. Great software & time-saving resource there.

[Mahone]

One nitwit in one office opened a lovely email attachment. Faster than you can snap your finger, all the office computers (20 of them) and the server were all infected as well as the bandwidth was drained. I spent over 12 hours straight, overnight, disconnecting all the computers from the network, cleaning every single system before I was able to bring the network back up again. Then I put Avast on each one and not had a problem since. Dang cheapskates! Won't spend money until all heck breaks loose. :mad:

Ouch! Remember conficker? One of my friends who is the network manager in a school up north has this infect his entire network of over 600 computers. This was in the early days of conficker. Yeah, windows patches were not fully up to date (WSUS not working). The managed anti virus solution hadn't had definitions created for conficker yet. The solution at the time? He has to power down all of his network switches to prevent communication between any of his machines. He then cleaned it off all of his servers, manually, one by one. Then he set network policies to disable autorun on USB sticks on all machines. Then he had a incredibly tedious task of visiting all 600 client machines and image each machine with a clean image, one by one, before he could finally turn all the switches back on.

[slamjet]

Yes, I do remember. That was the genesis of my 12 hour stint. Then it was the "I Love You" virus.

[Dravin]

We had a massive surge of these at work about three months back, mostly on staff members personal computers (which we get asked to fix quite often). I just use hijack this to remove the infection. Not surprisingly, all the infected computers either had no (legitimate) anti virus software at all, or it was two years out of date.

My favorite is when they have a legitimate anti-virus software, and it's even up to date, but they regularly disable it because they have it set to nag mode (and find the nags annoying) or because some installing program warned them about anti-virus causing problems with installation and they've read it as the program saying it won't run with anti-virus active.

[miztrniceguy]

I use SUPERantispyware , Malwarebytes, and Ccleaner on all 3 computers in my home. I use the $20 paid versions for the real time protection and scheduling. At least one of the 2 are run every day on each one. MAM blocked a trojan attempt this morning.

I cannot tell you how many time A DAY i get a call from someone to please block a charge (can't) cuz the a/v software the bought (always billed from foreign countries) doesn't work and they still have a virus, or the figured out that it's fake and want to change their credit card number.

I had a guy upset last week because he was trying to buy MAC Defender to protect his computer and why didn't his charge go thru. He was lucky, we blocked the charge and I closed his account.

For some people if you send an email that says "click here---> X so I can steal your identity, they will click anyways.

[jayanna]

I have webroot at home and deepfreeze at work along with Vipre. Have you guys ever heard of those? The webroot seems to be working well.

Also, slamjet I have to confess something...I used firefox on Amazon...it was so amazingly faster...wow

[Still_Small_Voice]

I love my Linux Ubuntu version 10.04 operating system! I think 99.9 percent of malicious software out there cannot do anything to my system.

My Linux computer recently went out of commission though because my power supply was having issues. The power supply was still under warranty and the fan was making noises so off to the manufacturer it is now. I have to live without it for about three weeks now.

We use Kaspersky on our other Windows 7 computer.

I have also been reading about malicious software out there that sends false pop up warnings of imminent hard drive failure.

[Elphaba]

I have also been reading about malicious software out there that sends false pop up warnings of imminent hard drive failure.

I got hit with this today. It's called "Windows 7 Recovery" and I thought it was legitimate until it asked me to purchase something. Luckily, I already had Malwarebytes on my computer and it was able to delete this.

Unfortunately, I think I've lost some stuff. Or, maybe it's still there but I'm going to have to search for it. My desktop is completely blank now. All of my pinned programs were replaced with a blank icon, and while some of them were recoverable, some of them were lost.

I've never had anything like this happen before, and it scared the crap out of me. But the "Windows Recovery 7" is gone, and I am so glad I had Malwarebytes already on my computer. I'm now going to install slam's other suggestions.

Slam, thank you for this thread! It was the first thing I thought of when this hit me today, even though it was a different virus, or malware, or whatever it's called. Your information is invaluable to me because I am clueless about this stuff and have no one to ask. I only wish I had installed all of your recommendations yesterday. I was going to but got caught up in something else. But I'm going to do so now, and I really appreciate you pulling it all together.

ETA: It looks like I've lost all of my photos, of which I had a few hundred. My libraries are also gone. I'm heartsick right now.

Elph

Edited May 16, 2011 by Elphaba

[slamjet]

There may be a way to recover your photos. Try running:

Recuva - It's on the techy side, but I've used ot to recover files from formated drives.

Undelete 360 - A bit more user friendly.

MiniTool Power Data Racovery - Even more user friendly.

Give all three a shot and see if it will recover any of your photos. I bet you my be able to get some, if not most of them back.