Question:
Was this a virus and is his computer safe?
2009-08-11 20:15:46 UTC
My brother was on facebook and all of a sudden the internet explorer shut down and something came up that looked like my computer but it was still online. It was this thing saying that he was infected with over 500 infections and he needed to click on a window to download virus protection. The grammar was terrible and certain things (like his IP address and city) were wrong so I downloaded anti-spyware/virus programs and ran a scan (which came up with a few things that were easy to fix). When we tried to exit out of this internet thing it started bringing up these two windows and we got stuck in a loop between them. With really bad grammar it was saying that if we didn't download this program the computer would be in big trouble. And once we tried exiting out, it didn't even wait for us to go download it. It attempted (five or six times) to install something onto his computer. I denied it every time and eventually got out.
I just wanted to know if this was fake (website below) and if his computer is okay because we didn't let it install.
The website this stuff was coming from was
http://antimalwaresecurescanv2.com
Anyone had this happen to them? Any help would be appreciated.
Seven answers:
2009-08-11 20:41:00 UTC
Yes, it was a fake, these sort of phony anti-virus programs are a scam trying to get the naive to by a useless software to "fix" the problem. They are known as "rogue anti-virus" and they are very common.



You did the correct thing by not letting that crap install...so many people do get fooled and they end up infecting their machine even worse by letting it install. In reality, they infect their own computers.



The only other way that the malware could harm your machine is if it was able to auto-install. This can only usually happen by the malware exploiting security holes in Windows. Now this is the important part>>>>>> If you always keep your computer compleatly patched and updated with all updates from Windows Updates, it would be very very hard for that malware to auto-install...now you know what all those Windows updates are for!



And don't let those Firefox fanboys frighten you away from using Internet Explorer....they are living in the past. Yes 8 or 9 years ago, Internet Explorer 6 was a really insecure browser. Todays IE 7 and especially IE 8 are very secure browsers, maybe even more secure than Firefox. But again you gotta keep it fully updated!
wrapperjrracing
2009-08-11 20:24:53 UTC
EDIT: The only way to find out if your computer is clean is to try using it again, just stay away from that web page and hopefully you should be fine. If you get another attack, try running the scans again. If they keep coming back, then most likely the virus has infiltrated your registry or scheduled tasks. In this case, I recommend looking at this website http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/resources/



They helped me bring my computer back from the dead just when I thought I had to do a complete reformat. Just look for the virus you have, or create and account post in their help section. Someone with a lot of experience will help you solve your problem.



This was definitely an attack on your computer.



Here's what you do:



1 Stop all your work, close all your files and opened windows.

2 Run your antivirus software to make sure it is operable; do this even before updating it with the latest virus definitions.

3 Update your antivirus with the newest virus definitions and run it again.

4 If your system is still complaining, check it for spyware.



You can use spybot: search and destroy to check for spyware. It is a free program you can download from CNET. I recommend getting another antivirus program since the one you are currently using (If you have one) is not working correctly. I recommend the retail ones such as mcafee or norton, THEY WORK BETTER AND YOU ARE SAFER WITH THEM. Don't go with AVG or avast unless you want to risk going through this again. You can however use avg or avast to run a scan if you don't have antivirus right now, they will work for the first scan. You really need good antivirus software as soon as possible though.



To prevent this from happening, DO NOT USE internet explorer at all. Use Firefox instead, it is almost exactly the same except it is much safer to use. Also, remember to run scans at least once every thirty days to prevent accumulations of viruses. Sometimes when there are many it can be very hard to get rid of.
2009-08-11 20:21:30 UTC
It's very common for that sort of stuff to happen. DO NOT USE INTERNET EXPLORER EVER.



The banners that pop up are a form of virus, generally spyware. They're harmful in the sense that they will slow your computer down. It tells you you're "infected" to make you click the link where they can really get their stuff onto you.



Make sure that you are using a decent antivirus. DO NOT USE Norton. If you need ideas for this, Avast, AVG, and Trend Micro are just about the best virus programs available right now--and they're all free.



For a web browser, NEVER use internet explorer if the website doesn't require it to function. Use Mozilla Firefox, Opera, or Google Chrome. I personally prefer Chrome, then Opera, then Firefox--but whatever is fine. Internet explorer is the slowest and least secure web browser.
S.T. -=Hire-A-Tech=-
2009-08-11 20:26:29 UTC
Make sure your Anti-Virus software has root detection and removal features.

If you installed it or believe your infected,This will rid you of that infection.



Reboot in safe mode with networking.

Turn off System Restore to prevent re-infection from infected restore points.



To get into Safe Mode with Networking: <--Extremely Important!

1. Turn off system restore

2. Log out and reboot your machine.

3. When the machine starts the reboot sequence, press the F8 key repeatedly.

4. Select Safe Mode with Networking from the resulting menu.



Download Malwarebytes AntiMalware http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

Rename mbam.exe to xxx.exe <--Extremely Important!

Install and run full scan.



Follow all recommendations for everything detected.

Reboot and Restart System Restore.



IE or Firefox: Which Browser is More Secure

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/020209-ie-or-firefox-which-browser.html
?
2009-08-11 20:20:42 UTC
Download Super Antispyware, install it.Enter safe mode and run it. Also try the same thing with Malwarebytes.Then Smit-Fraudfix.Same thing from safe mode. Some malware disables Malwarebytes and it's necessary to change the executable app to something different like" abc.exe".Try that ,but scan in safe mode.
Tech Guy
2009-08-11 20:26:00 UTC
http://antimalwaresecurescanv2.com is a malware website which can infected you pc with a harmful spyware or viruses..



Here the proof:

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/7080/52521014.png



but dont worry you can fix your computer if you download this following software and do scan on it



ADVANCED SYSTEM CARE:

http://www.iobit.com/advancedwindowscareper.html



IOBIT SECURITY 360:

http://www.iobit.com/beta.html



MALWAREBYTES

http://www.malwarebytes.org/
2009-08-11 20:24:34 UTC
first all NEVER use internet explorer.





try getting malbytes anti-malware... it should help.



i went on explorer for 5 minutes trying to download a game that firefox wouldn't let me download, and i got the spyware from the site's script...



and yeah 99% chance it's fake, real ones don't use brute force and


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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