posted on July 10, 2009 08:31:32 PM new
I think I've picked up some nasty bug. I keep getting this popup that says my computer is infected - but it's not from my security (Embarq).
On my desk top there's this big red warning message about how my computer is infected and it could "break my life"
posted on July 10, 2009 08:42:08 PM new
I think I got rid of it. I deleted the shortcut it installed on my desktop and then I emptied the recycle bin. I also shutdown completely and rebooted and I'm not getting those messages anymore. At least I hope it's gone.
The pop-up you received is a common ply to steal your personal information and credit card info. I usually share the following email with friends when they call with similar problems:
Forewarned is forearmed- Do Not enter personal information in POP-UP windows!
Just received a warning (attached below) from our USAA account. I have also received emails from friends who have been tricked by this Trojan. Trojans are software/spyware that have been downloaded to your system while browsing an infected site. Most people are not aware they have downloaded a Trojan until their computer starts acting strangely. Here is some info you need to know:
How do you get a Trojan?
Computer viruses are much like human viruses. They are passed from friend to friend or by visiting social areas. Sometimes no matter how well you think you have protected yourself from a attack, you can become infected.
Your computer can become infected by trogons when you click a link in an email or when you visit a website.
Most people trust that the emails they receive from friends are safe. This may not be the case. If your friend's computer has been infected by a virus, the virus can attach itself to an email. Also, links forwarded from friends can be infected. When the friend sends you the link, neither you or they will know the link was infected until one of you begins to have computer problems. Having a good anti-virus software loaded on your system will usually give you a warning that incoming information is not safe.
Your computer can also become infected when you use popular search engines such as Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc to search for information on the web. The search engines themselves rarely have a virus but one of the links returned during a search may. Many of the websites returned in a search have been set up specifically to steal your personal information. When you visit the site a program is downloaded that begins uploading your information while you are viewing their website. Once they have established the link, leaving the site will not stop the flow of information from your computer.
The only way to protect yourself from these types of websites is to only view sites that you believe to be safe. Even "safe" sites have been hacked recently. News articles have related that government WebPages, Facebook and YouTube urls have been redirected by scammers to collect personal information. Scammers have now expanded their reach to included popular banking and credit card sites.
How can a Trojan hurt you?
The main purpose of many trogon programs is to steal personal identity information that can be used to create false IDs and/or credit cards. A Trojan will often activate a pop-up window ( a new screen view). In an attempt to gather personal information, the window may say that your computer has been infected or that your credit card information has been stolen and then direct you to enter personal information to verify your identity. DO NOT enter any personal information in a pop-up window.
If you are visiting a site that you trust and see unusual activity such as a pop-up or verification screen , close the window immediately and phone the company. Do not rely on information posted to the website to find contact Information (it could be fake). Find a bank account statement or check the back of your credit card to find the number to call.
Contact them and report the suspicious activity. They should be able to verify if your account has been compromised.
to learn more about safe surfing and protecting your system, www.MajorGeelks.com has a wonderful website.
My favorite anti-virus software is AVAST. It is free to home users, provides active scanning (always looking) and is one of the best programs I have ever used. You can find it here: http://www.avast.com/ look for the FREE Software link on the home page.
I have created a special folder on my system and have saved my favorite scanners there so I can run them offline. I run Ad-Aware from http://www.lavasoft.com/ (look for the "download Ad-Aware free" button on the rightside menu) and Spy-Bot Search and Destroy from http://www.safer-networking.org/index2.html.
The MajorGeeks pages I referenced above will answer most questions about these programs.
extra note: Learn how to use :bcc on your emails and quit giving your friend's email addresses to spammers! http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~watrous/bcc-for-privacy.html
USAA is investigating a new pop-up scam that attempts to collect users' sensitive information.
Some members are reporting a pop-up window that appears only after entering the initial logon information on usaa.com. The pop-up message requests that the member enter their social security number, card number, expiration date, signature code, pin number and account password.
USAA will not ask for any personal or account information, including PINs or passwords, in an e-mail. USAA also will not ask you to download software or threaten any action if you do not respond by a certain deadline. If you have submitted your information into the pop up window, please notify us immediately at 1-877-632-3002 or e-mail us at [email protected].
Here are some tips to protect yourself from this and other scams.
Pop-ups are a form of online advertising intended to attract web traffic or capture information. Pop-ups appear in a separate, usually small, browser window. These windows may include advertisements or ask you to enter personal information such as your credit card account number, expiration date and security code. By clicking on a link in a pop-up, spyware or malware may be downloaded onto your computer without your knowledge.
Pop-up windows that occur even while you are not browsing the Internet may be an indicator that your computer is infected by spyware or malware. There are many software programs that block pop-up windows. Check your security software to see if this is an option that you can enable.
Phishing
These fake e-mails appear to come from legitimate sources. They ask customers to verify personal information or link to fake websites that appear real.
Beware of e-mails that:
Urge you to act quickly because your account may be suspended or closed.
Don't address you by name, but use more generic language like "Dear valued customer."
Ask for account numbers, passwords or other personal information.
Do not click on any link in these suspicious e-mails. You'll find more information about how to protect yourself in our Online Security Center.
Pharming redirects
Pharming involves redirecting Internet users to a fake website, even when they entered the correct address.
These bogus sites often look real, but secretly collect any personal information and passwords entered. Users end up at fraudulent sites by having spyware or a virus loaded on their computer, or by sophisticated hacking tricks.
Beware of any changes to the logon screen. If you are asked for anything out of the ordinary, do not enter any information.
posted on July 11, 2009 05:24:59 AM new
I'm back. The only restore point I have available will undo the vista service pack I installed last night. Should I still do that?
If I do can I reinstall the vista service pack? Do I need to reinstall it?
posted on July 13, 2009 08:48:24 AM new
Looks like I've picked up a virus as well.
IE7 only runs for 5 minutes before freezing. AOL won't connect at all. Firefox runs ok for an hour or so before freezing.
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Interesting. When I sign in to Ebay using Firefox, no problem. But after looging in via IE, I get a pop-up screen on Ebay that asks for more info. SS#, CC#, the works. The wording is"We have noticed an increasing fraudulent activity recently. In order to provide your security and protect you from fraudsters we have introduced a new system of identification that will help us to avoid any kind of fraud or unauthorised access.
Please enter as more information as possible to provide your complete identification and to activate all the features of the new system.
The address bar for this page is....https://signin.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?co_partnerid=2&siteid=0&UsingSSL=1
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What do you all think? Has anyone else gotten this page after signing in?
posted on July 13, 2009 10:55:48 AM new
Watchguy, if ebay wanted you to verify your identity, they would not use a pop-up. You would have received an email in your eBay messages folder.
Clear your cache and cookies ( Control Panel- Internet options) then shutdown your computer and run a Restore from Safe mode, then reboot and run the virus scans.
I am seeing more and more systems getting infected just by visiting websites the user found during a Google, Bing, Yahoo websearch. Yahoo web searches seem to be the worst. At least Goggle sometimes flags the site as suspicious.
Microsoft has also announced an unpatched hole with Active X control so I have mine turned off and only activate it for certain sites. I know Vendio, ebay and others do not want to hear that because they use active x controls for tracking purposes. With active x turned off you will not be able to view scrolling galleries or use some other functions on ebay. If this is a problem, you can toggle active x to on while doing your ebay work and then turn it back off when surfing the web.
posted on July 13, 2009 07:17:09 PM new
Watchguy, if ebay wanted you to verify your identity, they would not use a pop-up. You would have received an email in your eBay messages folder.
Clear your cache and cookies ( Control Panel- Internet options) then shutdown your computer and run a Restore from Safe mode, then reboot and run the virus scans.
I am seeing more and more systems getting infected just by visiting websites the user found during a Google, Bing, Yahoo websearch. Yahoo web searches seem to be the worst. At least Goggle sometimes flags the site as suspicious.
Microsoft has also announced an unpatched hole with Active X control so I have mine turned off and only activate it for certain sites. I know Vendio, ebay and others do not want to hear that because they use active x controls for tracking purposes. With active x turned off you will not be able to view scrolling galleries or use some other functions on ebay. If this is a problem, you can toggle active x to on while doing your ebay work and then turn it back off when surfing the web.
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Thank you.
I should have made this clearer for all of us. It wasn't a pop-up or a message. It was the first page that you got to after signing in. If you tell me how to get a screenshot I'll try to get it for you.
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In the meantime, my computer slowly dies. AOL I haven't even tried. IE doesn't connect now. And I jut got my first error message from firefox3.5
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I've tried the anti-virus software posted earler. Also the system restore with XP. Neither seem to be working. Hopefully this message will get through before I freeze up again. What a beach.....I haven't had this happen...ever. I guess I was due.
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I have not tried a total clear of cookies(done the cache). I'll give that a shot. If you don't hear from me I'm on the phone with Dell or in a Best Buy. lol
posted on July 13, 2009 09:22:32 PM new
Watchguy, sounds like you have some serious problems there.
If you have access to another system, you might want to use it to change your ebay and PayPal passwords just to be safe until you get your computer problems staightened out.
Run some diagnostics on your hard disk and memory to be sure they are not corrupting data strings.
posted on July 14, 2009 07:15:40 AM new
LtRay - what great information. Thanks for posting all the helpful links. I don't need them right now but you never know when I could.
posted on July 14, 2009 08:44:19 AM new
Something I saw recommended a while back is to create a user account with minimal privileges. Use that account to access the web. Much of the illicit activity can't take place without privileges to update the registry, change web mappings, etc.
posted on July 14, 2009 09:17:12 AM new
A low privilege account is a good suggestion Cash and a must if you have teenagers using your computer. However, it will not totally protect your personal information.
If you or someone in your household downloads music files and games, or has other unsafe surfing habits, it is best to have a separate computer for such activities. I cannot find the news story right now but one of the news shows, 60 minutes, msnbc, etc.. did a story that found many download sites were actually uploading the contents of hard drives during the transfers.
This information is then sold to criminals who steal your identity and empty your bank accounts. One of the examples they used was a one computer family who's daughters downloaded music. The parents used the same system for taxes and banking. The investigator found this family's personal information posted to sites in China, the Ukraine and a dozen other foreign countries.
If you use your computer for business, banking, taxes, etc, either store this information on a removable drive or buy a separate computer for online surfing. The cost in the long run is minimal compared to the time and cost of recovering a stolen identity!
I've had the conversation with the kids about downloading bootleg songs, videos, etc. I think most of the nefarious activity probably takes place on those quasi-legal or illegal sites (i.e., I haven't heard anything bad about iTunes or Napster).
In any case, they each have their own PC, which is almost a necessity for their homework. Their PCs always seem to slow down over time, much more than mine does.
