WARNING WARNING about virus

[AngelinaCatHub]

Folks as a computer consultant with mega years of mainframe and teaching software, I have noted a forum attack.. I mainly address this to our Moderators and ANYONE with a curiosity to click. There is an automatic spammer hitting many forums and here is what they MAY look like. The name will be a combination of jiberish letters. The body texed may be a777,car,car,car,car,car, or any other ridiculous link including some sex links.

If you are not wise, and click on any link, you will go to some stupid site but here is the catch: A dialogue box that looks authentically like a Windows element will say something like this: THE close box in right corner. You will be installing on your own machine a program called ". This is a very mean bug and even many experts cannot remove it. It is not a real virus but when you click on it, you download a heap of trouble. The problem is it respawns after removal attempts. It will cost you to re-image your hard drive to get rid of it.

To avoid it hold down Control+Alt+Del and bring up Task Manager

[AngelinaCatHub]

XPAntivirus should be actually called XPVirus, as it is an unwanted corrupt anti-spyware application that infiltrates users' system via false and misleading advertising. Once inside, XPAntivirus 2008 will try to trick you into buying it by claiming you have been infected with spyware and then showing you falsified error reports. XP Antivirus 2008 does not remove any spyware, not does it do anything useful at all. It is designed to milk money from unsuspecting internet surfers. So act accordingly: remove XP Antivirus Protection from your computer immediately! This malware presents itself by several different names: XPAntivirus 2009, XP Antivirus 2008, XP Antivirus 2008 V2.5 and other similar variants, but all the titles hide the same computer parasite.

http://www.2-spyware.com/remove-xpantivirus.html

[hopeforus]

I've gotten those before and have just clicked out of them recently. Nothing has happened. I'm guessing because I'm on a mac? Will have to tell the kids about that on the desktop though.

[Nicollette]

Wow, thanks for that info. I haven't gotten anything like that as of yet, but now I'll know what to look for.

[AngelinaCatHub]

I've gotten those before and have just clicked out of them recently. Nothing has happened. I'm guessing because I'm on a mac? Will have to tell the kids about that on the desktop though.

You may be right or just lucky. Here is the klinker. The close button on the Title bar (the X) is programmed as the Start button and the close button all three buttons are 'run' the program. The only way to successfully get out of it is kill the program box in 'Task Manager". 'Hub

[Keebler]

I repair computers for friends and family and I can attest to the fact that the XP Antivirus program is particularly nasty and difficult to completly get rid of.

I've been able to clean computers and remove this virus by manual intervention but it usually takes hours of messing around.

If you bring your computer to a computer shop to remove this one you'll most likely end up with your hard drive reformatted and Windows re-installed. Think twice before going this route because they'll charge you a bunch and won't necessarily rescue any of your pictures, documents or music. They also won't re-install any applications you purchased. The whole mess will cost a bunch and isn't very valuable considering the fact that many people can re-install Windows themselves.

I haven't found anyone who can fix this kind of problem professionally in a way that will return your computer in the condition you left it. I suspect the few that can do it charge plenty.

[hopeforus]

ah ok so it just affects Windows anyway.

[AngelinaCatHub]

I repair computers for friends and family and I can attest to the fact that the XP Antivirus program is particularly nasty and difficult to completly get rid of.

I've been able to clean computers and remove this virus by manual intervention but it usually takes hours of messing around.

If you bring your computer to a computer shop to remove this one you'll most likely end up with your hard drive reformatted and Windows re-installed. Think twice before going this route because they'll charge you a bunch and won't necessarily rescue any of your pictures, documents or music. They also won't re-install any applications you purchased. The whole mess will cost a bunch and isn't very valuable considering the fact that many people can re-install Windows themselves.

I haven't found anyone who can fix this kind of problem professionally in a way that will return your computer in the condition you left it. I suspect the few that can do it charge plenty.

Yes Keebler, when I took a machine into my shop, it was so uncontrollable I couldn’t even shut it down without it relighting the browser and sending me to a web site. It plays a host of tricks. I read on it and attempted to remove about 30 executables and registry keys. The first reboot, it spawned all of the problems I just fixed. I tried twice and after three hours, I removed the customers data and low formatted the hard drive just to make sure there was no lost bugs. It usually takes about 6 to 8 hours to reimage a hard drive with all the drivers updates and service pack. I went to another forum that is discus software, and I saw 20 posts within one minute all similar but different links. I have a test fixture machine I use that I’m not afraid to trash, so I hit the links and every one of them blossomed the dialogue box and that is where I learned you have to kill it off in Task Manager. ‘Hub

[syn]

I use to get them on a certain website I always went to but I stopped going to that site and I don't get them anymore.