Many fake antivirus programs will install themselves through something that looks completely legitimate but is far from it. Once a fake antivirus program installs itself, it begins to damage your system files and eventually destroys your copy of Windows. A few of the most common fake or “rogue” antivirus programs are:
Antivirus 2009 or Antivirus 2010 (or a variant of this)
Personal Security 2009
Personal Antivirus
System Security
System Doctor 2009
A more in-depth list is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_security_software
There are many ways to become infected. The most common is that someone will send you a link to what looks like a video, and in the middle of the black video window, you will see a message that you do not have the correct version of Flash Player. 99.9% of PC’s automatically have the correct version of Flash Player, so this is a sham. Don’t fall for it and don’t click on anything on the page. Instead, hit CTRL, ALT and DEL and then go to Processes. Find IEXPLORE.EXE and right-click on it, then do an END PROCESS.
This is the ONLY way to be sure that Internet Explorer is actually closing. If you try and “click off” the video page by clicking the red “X” in the upper-right corner, you will then see a small gray box that will state, “You may be infected…….etc.” You MUST hit CTRL, ALT and DEL at this time and do an END PROCESS on IEXPLORE.EXE (however many you find), or you will have the fake .EXE file installed on your PC.
There are literally hundreds of thousands of web sites on the Internet that have these fake programs set up on their Home pages, so that when you visit the site, you will inadvertently pull the file to your temporary internet files folder and it will begin installing itself.
Be safe and be watchful for these messages, and DON’T TRUST ANY “SCANNER” THAT YOU COME ACROSS ON THE INTERNET, especially if it seems to be for “free.” It’s more than likely that it will come attached with a big bill for cleaning your PC off in the very near future.
Friday, January 1, 2010
How to Prevent Rogue Antivirus Programs From Infiltrating Your PC
First of all, the biggest headache on the internet today, other than unwanted spam ads for Viagra and Cialis, are programs that attach themselves to your PC from certain sites and notify you that, “You may be infected with viruses and spyware.” Then they want you to either start a “scan” or install a “program.” These “programs” start out just annoying you, and go on to actually damage your system files unless they are removed; not an easy task even for a veteran computer technician.
The worst thing you can do in the case of receiving one of these messages is either start the “scan” or install the “program” that wants you to do so. These “programs” are nothing of the sort, and are merely fake alerters that are geared to steal not only a one-time payment from you, but to steal your credit card information as well, and then go on to turn your PC into a non-functioning yet expensive paperweight.
The people who have put out these programs are based in Russia, and haven’t a care for what havoc their destructive and misleading program does to your PC. They just want your money. It has been said that over 300 million dollars has been made by these unscrupulous people since 2000. It’s probably a lot higher than that.
So, what can you do?
First of all, avoid sites where you seem to be getting things for free, like torrent sites (The Pirate Bay, Isohunt, Mininova, Torrentbox, etc.) These sites frequently host the “droppers” for these rogue programs on their home pages, and when you go to the home page, your browser will close and you’ll get a “warning” that your PC may be infected.
Limewire is also a great place for these horrible programs and song lyrics sites, Facebook, and MySpace are a few major suspects as well, But then, no matter WHERE you went to receive this message, you need to IMMEDIATELY close your browsing session to avoid having the program get a firm footing in your operating system
This is not all too easy for the casual computer user, especially when it doesn’t even look like you have a browser open anymore after the virus hits. In fact, your browser is STILL RUNNING, and that is why you are seeing the little gray box, or the page that looks like it’s scanning your PC. At this point, hold the CTRL and ALT keys down, and then hit the DEL key. The Windows Task Manager will come up. Under the APPLICATIONS tab, you should see one or more instances of Internet Explorer. Click on these with your RIGHT-MOUSE button and do an “End Task.” Do this for all instances of Internet Explorer you see and for any other odd-looking programs you may not recognize.
Then, make absolutely sure you DO NOT go to that particular site again!
Believe it or not, that’s all there is to it, and keeping this in mind will prevent you from getting one of these destructive programs.
If you have a problem or a question. Contact Your Brainiacs at 845-493-0208 or http://www.yourbrainiacs.com. And Happy Computing!!
The worst thing you can do in the case of receiving one of these messages is either start the “scan” or install the “program” that wants you to do so. These “programs” are nothing of the sort, and are merely fake alerters that are geared to steal not only a one-time payment from you, but to steal your credit card information as well, and then go on to turn your PC into a non-functioning yet expensive paperweight.
The people who have put out these programs are based in Russia, and haven’t a care for what havoc their destructive and misleading program does to your PC. They just want your money. It has been said that over 300 million dollars has been made by these unscrupulous people since 2000. It’s probably a lot higher than that.
So, what can you do?
First of all, avoid sites where you seem to be getting things for free, like torrent sites (The Pirate Bay, Isohunt, Mininova, Torrentbox, etc.) These sites frequently host the “droppers” for these rogue programs on their home pages, and when you go to the home page, your browser will close and you’ll get a “warning” that your PC may be infected.
Limewire is also a great place for these horrible programs and song lyrics sites, Facebook, and MySpace are a few major suspects as well, But then, no matter WHERE you went to receive this message, you need to IMMEDIATELY close your browsing session to avoid having the program get a firm footing in your operating system
This is not all too easy for the casual computer user, especially when it doesn’t even look like you have a browser open anymore after the virus hits. In fact, your browser is STILL RUNNING, and that is why you are seeing the little gray box, or the page that looks like it’s scanning your PC. At this point, hold the CTRL and ALT keys down, and then hit the DEL key. The Windows Task Manager will come up. Under the APPLICATIONS tab, you should see one or more instances of Internet Explorer. Click on these with your RIGHT-MOUSE button and do an “End Task.” Do this for all instances of Internet Explorer you see and for any other odd-looking programs you may not recognize.
Then, make absolutely sure you DO NOT go to that particular site again!
Believe it or not, that’s all there is to it, and keeping this in mind will prevent you from getting one of these destructive programs.
If you have a problem or a question. Contact Your Brainiacs at 845-493-0208 or http://www.yourbrainiacs.com. And Happy Computing!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)