Hello ba/ael

Good to hear you are awake to these bogus installations.

I got one from Russia some 15 years ago, and I nearly fell for it at that time, because it did appear both plausible and professional.

There are now many websites promoting their own "Anti-malware", and/or offering a free on-line scan.

Don't be fooled, folks, most of these will take over your Computer, if possible.

Then you'll be a lot poorer after the experience.

Kind Regards....

Hello Sparkstation,

Thanks, Sparky. Good advice. I'm a little more aware now than I was two days ago. I shall endeavor to be more careful in the future.

My grandson also had the offer and 43 (predefined?) v were found.

As this was an alternative boot disk for him we reformatted the dam thing.

While looking for a car a few years back. I had a warning pop up on my desk top that said I had a virus. Said that if you wanted to remove it check here. The message lead me to a company that was trying to sell me anti-virus software. Seem strange at the time as it was running Norton's anti-virus at the time. Took me couple hours to get rid of it.

Couple weeks latter it was back from some other source. Spend a day or two then reformatted the hard drive. Was told by a friend to change virus software that Norton has a big target on their back.

What better way to sell virus software then to have it attack the largest provider of virus software and place an ad for their own. Don't seem like a fair way to do business.

I use zone alarm which I allow to quarantine them, then send to FCC (:

Does the FCC encourage this? Have they ever responded back to you after you have sent them a quarantined virus?

Several years ago this type procedure was included in some (Norton) virus protection packeges. I have gotten standard responses but actually haven't sent any for some time. There are specific task forces within federal enforcement categories which deal with these predetor type programs and hackers too.

Haven't received any notices to discontinue but maybe should sent to FBI instead.

I had this exact same situation occur on a borrowed laptop (from my grandson) about 2 months ago. The "Antivirus" virus came in as part of an attachment on an email from a trusted friend, who isnt computer saavy and doesnt use much "protection". Unfortunately the laptop was infected by this virus, which I believe was a Trojan. I didnt know may grandson hadnt installed appropriate AVG free software and firewalls.

Ended up that we had to clean off the computer and reinstall everything.

I have been useing Norton for many years.

Is there something out there now that is better or cheaper?

My number 2 son uses "Vista" and tells me that it is much more virus resistant.

Is this the Case?

BAB.

Yes very and intuitive at that

The same thing happened to me the other day when I inadverdently opened one of these bogus programs and was literaly bombarded with 5 or 6 other antivirus programs and warnings. Could not remove them with the McAfee program on my machine.A friend told me about a free program called SPYBOT ( SPYBOT .COM) took care of the problems in short order.

If you need a free way to scan your pc if you suspect something is wrong, go to www.trendmicro.com and run housecall.

Hello wilycoyote

Unfortunately Spybot only gets 42% of Malware which is loose on the Internet.

If you have a Computer, a variety of Antivirus/Antitrojan/Antimalware Security Utilities are needed, running on a 24/7 basis.

Kind Regards....

Hello Sparkstation,

It gets a bit tricky. We can have a variety of these utilities, but the wrong combination still leaves the computer unprotected from certain types of malware. My computer is turned off at night. This saves power and reduces the probability of infection. If the computer is on 12 hours per day, I assume (correct me if I'm wrong) that the probability of infection is only 50 percent of one which is on 24 hours per day.

Last year, I had a problem with one program, namely AutocadLT 2006. The length of time to start the program gradually increased until it eventually took 10 minutes for the Autocad symbol to appear on the screen. After it started, it seemed to work normally but when I closed the last file, it took about five minutes to close.

A technician took my computer to his shop over a long weekend, backed up my files and re-formatted the hard drive. He was of the opinion that the problem had been caused by the presence of Symantec 360, so he did not re-install that program. Instead, he installed the free version of AVG. His comment was that if you keep current with Microsoft updates and use this program, the risk is acceptable. Autocad starts and stops just fine now, but I must admit I am concerned about the risk of infection.

Careful with that the proper name is "spybot search and destroy"

I just got hit with one of these. It opens ie to a page for AntiSpybug or some crap like that. Took away all of my admin privleges, disables cntrl alt del and disables internet access. I have been beating my head against the monitor for two days now. It is some kind of downloader Trojan horse, a real insidious bastard at that. I have to go to work to access the net there.

Boot with a anti-virus disk in the drive and let it install scan etc...

Thanks, I'll try that when my power comes back.

Sorry, I have not been watching this thread for a bit.

Been tied up with some serious fires here.

Luckily, so far my house has been spared, unforuneately about 162 other households have not fared as well.

Hello IanR

Sorry to hear the bad news about your neighbourhood.

Kind Regards from far away....

Its not a program popup. Its a webpage popup. Activate popup blocker in your browser and install a firewall that block certain known bad websites will help.