laptop fubur; fake!boyfriends; I'm supposed to be doing other things

[kellifer_fic]

- My laptop received a horrible virus that basically stops you opening ANYTHING. Including the programs you would need to get rid of it. It also pretends to be a security program, asks for money to rid you of the viruses it has detected and claims to have found VERY DODGY THINGS on your computer so you panic and purchase it. So sneaky!! My flatmate

Comments

[brate7]

You are very lucky to have a hacker flatmate. I had the same virus, and lost my computer to it.

Sorry you lost what you did, but relieved you saved more.

And anxiously waiting for all of your new stories...

[kellifer_fic]

Wow... yeah, I would have NOT known how to fix it at all by myself and I am amazed at his brain that he thought of something so simple to get around it!

I might have to track down double-stuff oreos as a thank you to him. :D

[blueocean80]

That virus sounds horrible. Do you know how you got in the first place? I should be safe, but...you never know with these things.

Ooooh all the fics you're writing sound good.

[kellifer_fic]

Honestly, my antivirus wasn't up to date. I kept thinking using Firefox wasn't as dangerous and was slack about updating, then I started getting a few pop-up ads when I was using the internet and that was the damn thing installing itself.

Antivirus and running Malware and spybot a bunch of times got rid of it eventually, but the virus stops you opening any programs so you can't fix it normally. Thank god for my flatmate's unique brain!

It's really horrible because it installs a logo on your task bar and on your desktop and uses the windows virus symbol so it looks legit and it's all to get your credit card details.

I can see why people would fall for it because the virus names it was coming up with were awful and I can see people panicking.

[blueocean80]

Ah, okay. I have my avast set to automatically download updates whenever I'm connected to the net (yes, I'm lazy). Plus, I have a bunch of anti-malware/spyware/trojans installed on my laptop. But I'll be cautious of weird pop-ups. Thanks for the heads up.

I hope your computer is all clean now.

[kellifer_fic]

Yep, all clean now thank goodness and in a fraction of the time and no cost because I have a live-in IT guy. Hurrah!!

[tabaqui]

Ack! Those virus things are *awful*. People should be flogged for making those.

Kitty sneezes are hilarious, for the most part. Our Jack-cat got sick last year, though, and would sneeze like fifteen times in a row and be all snotty. That wasn't quite as hilarious.

Hope she's better soon!

[kellifer_fic]

The sneezes are getting less so that's good.

Her and our 3 year old have stopped hissing so much at each other and are now playing chasing at 5:30 in the morning so yay for them getting along but ugh! Early kittens!

[majorsamfan]

It also pretends to be a security program, asks for money to rid you of the viruses it has detected and claims to have found VERY DODGY THINGS on your computer so you panic and purchase it. So sneaky!!

I had one of those and it cost me $300 for Best Buy Geek Squad to clean it out. During NaNoWriMo!!!

And then I got it again a week later.

The Geek told me that viruses are just annoying but they don't earn any money. These spyware things are made to worm their way into the computer, pretend to be an official update thingy but really mess up your computer and then offer to fix it for a price. THEN they get your credit card info when you buy it. THAT's where they can really make money! Watch your credit card statements carefully!

[kellifer_fic]

Yeah, it's definitely to snag your credit card details. I definitely didn't give them anything.

I will be extra careful and keep an eye on my credit card balanaces because I have been using net banking while I was starting to get the pop-ups that were the first warning sign of this virus and I have no idea if it's able to skim info... eep!

[majorsamfan]

I definitely knew where I picked mine up - it was an online RPG that Nathan Fillion had reccied on Twitter. The pop-up came after I'd had been playing the game for more than a month and right after I clicking on something in the game. I didn't associate it, however, until I clicked on something in the game on my WORK 'puter, and it started to do the same thing. (It didn't happen immediately on my laptop when I first went into the game, so I didn't yet associate it, but when it happened at work, and that was the only thing in common....) Fortunately, I recognized what was happening immediately, shut down and rebooted in safe mode, scrubbed the computer with antispyware and anti-virus. I've never gone back to that game.