Definition of Irony.......

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Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 5:29 am

Hey all. Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but here goes: (if not, can a mod please move)

Definition of irony:

I spend hours and hours and hours warning my friends, family... and even strangers about scams, how to protect themselves, and even how to avoid computer viruses ect ect ect......

and today my wife infects HER computer with the "vista security 2011" virus. She was just installing silly games on facebook... despite my constant warnings about randomly clicking links.... and POW... up pops the "vista security 2011" scareware warning.

This sucker is NASTY!!!!! It prevents you from doing practically anything... including booting in safe mode. As experienced as I am with computers, I'm having a really tough time even accessing her comp.

So be warned people, avoid this one like the plague!!! Pass this onto as many peeps as you know, and try to avoid my pain.

*edit*
I know this isn't a "scam" persay... but it can access a ton of personal info on your system.

Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 10:42 am

Our daughter got the same infection on her laptop,again from Facebook.

I eventually got rid of it by following the instructions at:-

http://deletemalware.blogspot.com/2010/11/remove-vista-antispyware-2011-and-vista.html

And then running the free version of Malwarebytes which I downloaded to my computer,copied to a flash drive,renamed the exe. so the virus didn't recognise it and then installing it.

Lastly just to make sure it was completely gone I checked the registry for any of the keys mentioned on the site above.

Baiting Guru Joined: 27 Mar 2011 Posts: 21158

There is another one I read about this morning. It has taken over many websites and deposits a link, which redirects you to a Windows "something" Tool. (I cannot recall the "something" part, I believe it was SECURITY though). BE VERY CAREFUL!

Baiting Guru Joined: 10 Oct 2003 Posts: 4747

All of us can make mistakes. All of us here are pretty savvy.

But I have run into a few things that are clever. I seem to remember hearing the director of the FBI fell a phishing scam. He realized what he did right after he did it and called his bank. Luckily he didn’t lose any money

The first step on being conned is believing you can’t be conned.

Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 1:16 pm

Vista Scecurity 2011, Spyware Security 2011 and a few hundred others are strictly not a virus but a type of malware called scamware. You usually get them by clicking away at things that say "Your computer may be infected, find out more here" and then installing some "virus checker". Usually these are harmless but give you pop-ups that tell you that you have 1,234 infected files (but we can clean them for you). They also disable certain Win services and resist being uninstalled. Some carry viruses to help along their self-fulfilling prophecy. Like all scams this modality relies on the gullibility and inexperience of the target.

Pay your money to get cleaned and one of 3 things may happen. They "clean" you of what they put there in the first place, they infect you further to extort more cash, or you never hear from them again.

This modality of scam originated in Ukraine with criminal gangs who fronted legitimate start-up software companies (with govt development money). As soon as they got investigated their offices would close overnight and the money would vanish. Some even registered perfectly legitimate legal entities in the US that were just shells. More recently this kind of scamming has gone underground.

Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 2:07 pm

^^ fruit flies have never seemed so good. Thanks for the advice, it's more complex than it seemed. Sad

Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 3:11 pm

@muscadecipio Several years ago I had that problem with one of my computers. I never paid the inital $50 USD they wanted, but immediately took my computer in town to the Computer Doctor and he fixed. He further indicated that many of his clients did fall for the scam and many paid as much as a total of $500 to the scammers. They started with a $50 "fix", then they fixed a problem, and the next fix would cost you $75, and so on.

Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 3:16 pm

They tried that trick a couple years ago with one of my mom's friends.
Fortunately for them, Mother Mask, being constantly on tinfoil hat mode, asked me first Very Happy

Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 4:10 pm

I had this recently, it drove me nuts by refusing to let me delete files, or run anti malware software, or even connect to the internet - very clever! At least I realized the warning messages (with their not quite perfect English) were 100% fake.

Luckily my laptop was fine, and found some good instructions to follow, using Malwarebytes, as above.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 29 Mar 2011 Posts: 33

I helped my friend to deal with this type of malware about a year ago. The baastids are getting craftier.

In general, if you have virus troubles, navigate here:

http://www.techspot.com/vb/menu28.html

These guys are good and know their stuff.

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