Rogue AntiVirus

[LastLegionare]

Have you ever been hexed with one?

One day, you're just on your faithful pc, and, wait, a window pops up, saying you have 14 trojans! You utterly panic, and you run around the room in confusing patterns. But wait, then the window offers you a [Drumroll] ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE! So you have two options at this point.

A)Happily download and pay for your new software. It is very expensive, but not as much as a new computer! But, wait... in a while, you have had an identity theft and/or multiple computer problems. Poor you.

B)You actually try and researching the product, and learn it's fake, and itself is a virus! You then figure out a way to get it off your computer and you go on to play Civ
4. Good you.

This happened to me, and I'm gladI picked B, but some people still pick A.

So if something is suspicious, even if it looks fairly legitimate, take it of! Your McAffe won't do it most of the time (too well disguised) but there are free downloads of other helpful antiviruses that can end these.

So, has anyone else had this happen before?

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

This is the only malware Ive had. Malwarebytes Anti malware is pretty good at removing it. It used to have a program called Rogueremover but now its in the regular progrem.
My mom gets them a lot....

 

[cardgame]

I got AntiVirus Suite installed on my comp by using IE7 to search for questionable things on the internet. As in, seedy, as in, the cesspool of the internet kind of areas, the ones that will have viruses more often than not. I should have used Firefox. Oh well. I got the full version of MalwareBytes and removed it with a little help from google in safe mode.

 

[Maniacal]

If you click it you deserve to get a virus, and might be a possible contender for a Darwin Award at some point in your life.

 

[deanej]

I remember seen one of those once. It was really amusing because it spoofed a Windows XP dialog and I was on Ubuntu 9.04 at the time.

 

[civ_king]

I saw that once and I started laughing because I'm running Snow Leopard!

 

[Oishi]

I use sandboxie while browsing so I don't worry too much. Just google sandboxie, it's worth the pay.

 

[deanej]

I'm glad I'm not the only one here who does that. I also use sandboxie while running games; don't want the DRM to infect my computer!

 

[classical_hero]

If you click on such warnings, you deserve to get virus. Everyone should already have a virus scanner on board and thus should have protection.

 

[cardgame]

Unfortunately Norton didn't stop mine...

I didn't even click anything it just auto-secretly-installed.

Some uber-helpful site rated it 7/10 on serious scale.

 

[LastLegionare]

cardgame has an important point.

The usual antivirus like Norton and Mcaffe can't pick up most of them. And I didn't click a sketchy link anytime before Windows ProtectionFail came up.

Malware Bytes is my personal option. The lower free version works

And about what you said deanej, the DRMs I have havn't screwed my computer at all. Maybe Vista just is screwy to begin with.

 

[cardgame]

oh it is, it is. But for all the sh** people say about it, it has less "not responding" messages (for me) than XP had "error reports".

 

[LastLegionare]

Yes, but it always wants administrator privelledge. Are you sure you want to do this? Yes, I selected it. I want to do this!

It was almost comical when I started up Empire: Total War the other day. The usual message came up, and I accepted with a grunt. Clicking okay just kept bringing another administrator window! ARGH!

 

[cardgame]

Yeah that gets old fast. Especially deleting things manually and MOVING FILES...! It says "file operation - continue?"

yes

"PROCESS ABORTED (need admin permissions)" or something similar

Damnit I am the admin you idiotic machine! Yet you fail to ask permission when a virus instralls sht

 

[civ_king]

if you use sudo CMD then the computer will be your whore and do whatever you say (if it can)

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Yes, but it always wants administrator privelledge. Are you sure you want to do this? Yes, I selected it. I want to do this!

It was almost comical when I started up Empire: Total War the other day. The usual message came up, and I accepted with a grunt. Clicking okay just kept bringing another administrator window! ARGH!

Thats why you turn UAC off and use some goddamned common sense. Ive been running Vista/W7 since shortly after Vista came out, and have not had UAC on since then. Not a single virus/piece of malware yet.

 

[cardgame]

good idea, is that in the control panel?

 

[deanej]

NOT A GOOD IDEA!!! UAC is there for security reasons. Your best bet is to not install games in Program Files. If you're seeing UAC all the time, YOU are the problem. You shouldn't be changing settings and installing programs every single day. Mac and Linux have had this feature for YEARS now and I don't see any on their users complaining.

Vista is far more secure and reliable than XP ever was. It's also the first OS designed by Microsoft where security was on the agenda. For XP and earlier, MS never cared about security, and it shows.

I'm positive that SecuROM destroyed the reliability of my XP desktop. Had to reformat the drive before it would start to work properly again. There have also been many cases of problems with SecuROM. Getting an actual virus is probably better for your computer than letting SecuROM touch it. By the way, the first thing any good virus will do when it gets on your system is disable parts of Windows and your AV software so it can't be detected and removed. Once you get a virus, you can never trust your computer again without a reformat, and even that isn't always enough (if the virus infects your BIOS).

 

[GhostWriter16]

If you click on such warnings, you deserve to get virus. Everyone should already have a virus scanner on board and thus should have protection.

It's not about deserving, its not a good/evil issue.

Honestly, I support extreme punishments for intentional virus spreading, possibly capital punishment (It can cause a lot of harm, and as they are nearly uncatchable, it would be a potential deterrent if they are caught.)

It depends how computer savvy you are though, I'm not, so I clicked on it. Not everyone is computer savvy. This was a long time ago now, and I now know not to do it.

If you do it AGAIN after finding out, yes, you deserve it. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

NOT A GOOD IDEA!!! UAC is there for security reasons. Your best bet is to not install games in Program Files. If you're seeing UAC all the time, YOU are the problem. You shouldn't be changing settings and installing programs every single day. Mac and Linux have had this feature for YEARS now and I don't see any on their users complaining.

Vista is far more secure and reliable than XP ever was. It's also the first OS designed by Microsoft where security was on the agenda. For XP and earlier, MS never cared about security, and it shows.

I'm positive that SecuROM destroyed the reliability of my XP desktop. Had to reformat the drive before it would start to work properly again. There have also been many cases of problems with SecuROM. Getting an actual virus is probably better for your computer than letting SecuROM touch it. By the way, the first thing any good virus will do when it gets on your system is disable parts of Windows and your AV software so it can't be detected and removed. Once you get a virus, you can never trust your computer again without a reformat, and even that isn't always enough (if the virus infects your BIOS).

UAC is fairly useless and in fact, a nuisance if you know what you're doing. Linux users dont complain because sudo only comes up when you want to modify system files, or install something important. Windows UAC is a bit too aggressive, and pops up for even the more inane things.

It's not about deserving, its not a good/evil issue.

Honestly, I support extreme punishments for intentional virus spreading, possibly capital punishment (It can cause a lot of harm, and as they are nearly uncatchable, it would be a potential deterrent if they are caught.)

It depends how computer savvy you are though, I'm not, so I clicked on it. Not everyone is computer savvy. This was a long time ago now, and I now know not to do it.

If you do it AGAIN after finding out, yes, you deserve it. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.

Quit threadcrapping.