Bloody Computer

[Phil Speight]

The moderators advised me late last week that my computer had multiple viruses ( despite all the built in protection ) - thank you chaps. It is now fixed. If it has caused problems for anyone else I apologize.

Phil

[wrigglefingers]

The moderators advised me late last week that my computer had multiple viruses ( despite all the built in protection ) - thank you chaps. It is now fixed. If it has caused problems for anyone else I apologize.

Phil

 

Is that why I have multiple viruses today? Cold, hacking cough, headache, sore throat ......

[MoominPapa]

The moderators advised me late last week that my computer had multiple viruses ( despite all the built in protection ) - thank you chaps. It is now fixed. If it has caused problems for anyone else I apologize.

Phil

Oh dear. If you got the same PM I did, then it was a phishing attack that _didn't_ come from the moderators. Following the link supplied would have attempted to insert viruses. I hope your "built in protection" is good.

 

 

MP.

[Phil Speight]

Oh dear. If you got the same PM I did, then it was a phishing attack that _didn't_ come from the moderators. Following the link supplied would have attempted to insert viruses. I hope your "built in protection" is good.

 

 

MP.

It wasn`t good enough ! I`m now waiting for the bill.

[RLWP]

Oh dear. If you got the same PM I did, then it was a phishing attack that _didn't_ come from the moderators. Following the link supplied would have attempted to insert viruses. I hope your "built in protection" is good.

 

 

MP.

 

I don't think any internet security is proof against a user allowing malware to be installed by choice - even if unwitting.

 

Richard

[greywolf]

one good reason to use a mac computer

[MartinClark]

It wasn`t good enough ! I`m now waiting for the bill.

 

I'm not sure that you understand the significance of the comments made, Phil.

 

The message you received was a bogus message sent out to you, me and lots of us by a spammer. It was not from the forum moderators.

 

You did not have a virus on your computer! If you clicked the link in the message you would have gone to a web page that told you to download something to cure that non-existent virus.

 

If you downloaded whatever it was, then the best outcome is that you have been conned out of money for installing some sort of unnecessary software. However, it is possible that the download contained some sort of malware which might include a virus, a trojan or a key logger that would send back information that could include passwords, etc.

 

If you downloaded something from that site then your computer is now compromised and it is not safe for you to do any shopping or banking online.

 

Perhaps someone here can advise on ways to get rid of whatever has been installed?

 

If you used a credit card or Paypal to pay for something on that website, there is a risk that your card or Paypal account could now be used fraudulently. You may need to talk to your credit card company.

 

There has been a fair bit of joking about these spam messages but if someone is taken in by them it could be no joking matter for them.

Edited February 8, 2010 by MartinClark

[ymu]

I'm not sure that you understand the significance of the comments made, Phil.

 

The message you received was a bogus message sent out to you, me and lots of us by a spammer. It was not from the forum moderators.

 

You did not have a virus on your computer! If you clicked the link in the message you would have gone to a web page that told you to download something to cure that non-existent virus.

 

If you downloaded whatever it was, then the best outcome is that you have been conned out of money for installing some sort of unnecessary software. However, it is possible that the download contained some sort of malware which might include a virus, a trojan or a key logger that would send back information that could include passwords, etc.

 

If you downloaded something from that site then your computer is now compromised and it is not safe for you to do any shopping or banking online.

 

Perhaps someone here can advise on ways to get rid of whatever has been installed?

 

If you used a credit card or Paypal to pay for something on that website, there is a risk that your card or Paypal account could now be used fraudulently. You may need to talk to your credit card company.

 

There has been a fair bit of joking about these spam messages but if someone is taken in by them it could be no joking matter for them.

 

To make sure your computer is clean:

 

Download the free version of Malware Bytes.

 

Update it to make sure it knows about all the latest nasties.

 

Run a full scan, including any external drives (USB sticks etc) that you frequently use. Just plug them all in and ask it to check all drives. This might take an hour or two, depending on how much data you have stored.

 

If your computer will not allow you to download and/or run the program, the viruses are stopping you accessing known anti-malware programmes. If this happens, download it from a clean machine and rename the file (change mbam to mboo or something) before transferring it to your machine. I have a renamed version on my online back-up service if you need to download it directly to the infected machine - PM me if you need a link to the file, but bear in mind I could be spreading malware of my own so you're better off verifying the source yourself.

 

HTH

[RLWP]

To make sure your computer is clean:

 

Download the free version of Malware Bytes.

 

Update it to make sure it knows about all the latest nasties.

 

Run a full scan, including any external drives (USB sticks etc) that you frequently use. Just plug them all in and ask it to check all drives. This might take an hour or two, depending on how much data you have stored.

 

If your computer will not allow you to download and/or run the program, the viruses are stopping you accessing known anti-malware programmes. If this happens, download it from a clean machine and rename the file (change mbam to mboo or something) before transferring it to your machine. I have a renamed version on my online back-up service if you need to download it directly to the infected machine - PM me if you need a link to the file, but bear in mind I could be spreading malware of my own so you're better off verifying the source yourself.

 

HTH

 

BEFORE YOU RUN ANYTHING!!

 

Copy your data off onto something. One of the computers we had through here had a bit of scareware (Internet Security 2010) that corrupted the log-in process. malwarebytes removed the malware, but after that there was no way left to log in. It immediately logged out again. Very frustrating

 

Richard

[ymu]

Ouch!

 

If you do back up your data before running it, make sure you run that data through the scan too, or you may still have the viruses in the back-up. Easiest way is to back-up to a USB external hard drive (pretty cheap these days) or a big enough USB stick (or sticks) and leave them plugged in whilst you run the scan on both copies of the data.

 

It's a good time to check you have your original install disks/know how to access the back-up drive on your machine, just in case you need to wipe it and start again. It's not a terrible idea anyway if you've had a serious attack, but a bit OTT if you can scan and remove everything it finds successfully.