Virus/spyware issue?

#1
lawgator1

lawgator1

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#1
Freak, yesterday I logged on to VN and got a pop-up about winning one of those fake contests you sometimes see. Can;t remember what it was for but it was unrelated to the site. I immediately clicked it closed.

A short time later, my computer went crazy with popups for a fake virus or anti-spyware thing. You know, where the popups claim you are infected, you really aren't and its just a scam to get you to buy their product.

This one is especially nasty. It hijacks everything and re-directs all efforts -- even in safe mode -- to log on to malwarebytes or what have you, to get rid of it. I have had to download at work a root kill option and then will try that tonight to get around the redirect.

I cannot say for sure that it came from this site, but the timing suggests it is at least possible so am alerting you to what happened.
 
#5
#5
rmsmith said:
download and run this if you don't already have it.
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com

No, this isn't a cruel joke because you are a gator. It'll pickup anything you've been infected with.
Click to expand...


I already had that on the machine. This particular virus is actually scare-ware. It makes you think you are infected with a bunch of stuff and then when you try to delete those items, it asks you to buy their product. Its a total scam.

This particular version is very clever in that it has a re-direct component. When you try to open a search engine to look for solutions, it flags that as a virus and re-directs you back to their fake alerts. Same with any anti malware thing you have on there or with standard anti-virus protection, like McAfee.

So I had to come into work and download a special program called Rkill. It kills the root process of EVERYTHING on your computer, and then you can go online and update Malwarebytes and run it. It worked and I'm back up and running, with a few lingering issues to deal with.

Total time spent on getting rid of it was about 6 hours. What a pain in the arse.
 
#8
#8
This sounds like what my son got on his computer. After hours and hours of scanning and cleaning, I finally gave up and formatted/reinstalled XP. Nothing else I tried would get rid of it.
 
#9
#9
lawgator1 said:
I already had that on the machine. This particular virus is actually scare-ware. It makes you think you are infected with a bunch of stuff and then when you try to delete those items, it asks you to buy their product. Its a total scam.

This particular version is very clever in that it has a re-direct component. When you try to open a search engine to look for solutions, it flags that as a virus and re-directs you back to their fake alerts. Same with any anti malware thing you have on there or with standard anti-virus protection, like McAfee.

So I had to come into work and download a special program called Rkill. It kills the root process of EVERYTHING on your computer, and then you can go online and update Malwarebytes and run it. It worked and I'm back up and running, with a few lingering issues to deal with.

Total time spent on getting rid of it was about 6 hours. What a pain in the arse.
Click to expand...
Had the exact same thing happen with scareware a couple of weeks ago and after fighting it for about 30 minutes I found a sickeningly simple 2 minute fix with a Google search . . .

1) Locate the file and click properties
2) It won't let you delete it, but you can edit the name of it
3) Reboot the computer and the virus won't recognize the renamed file . . . which means you should then be able to delete the file under the new name.
 
Last edited:
#10
#10
lawgator1 said:
Freak, yesterday I logged on to VN and got a pop-up about winning one of those fake contests you sometimes see. Can;t remember what it was for but it was unrelated to the site. I immediately clicked it closed.

A short time later, my computer went crazy with popups for a fake virus or anti-spyware thing. You know, where the popups claim you are infected, you really aren't and its just a scam to get you to buy their product.

This one is especially nasty. It hijacks everything and re-directs all efforts -- even in safe mode -- to log on to malwarebytes or what have you, to get rid of it. I have had to download at work a root kill option and then will try that tonight to get around the redirect.

I cannot say for sure that it came from this site, but the timing suggests it is at least possible so am alerting you to what happened.
Click to expand...
Same thing here but can't say it came from VolNation. After scanning comp with 3 different virus scanners I just saved my files and ordered a 10.00 restore disk. In the mean time until you correct it just use hotbot.com and nothing intercepts it's searches.
 
#11
#11
GAVol said:
Had the exact same thing happen with scareware a couple of weeks ago and after fighting it for about 30 minutes I found a sickeningly simple 2 minute fix with a Google search . . .

1) Locate the file and click properties
2) It won't let you delete it, but you can edit the name of it
3) Reboot the computer and the virus won't recognize the renamed file . . . which means you should then be able to delete the file under the new name.
Click to expand...

Yep. You can also rename your malwarebytes (or whatever program you use) and some viruses won't recognize the software that way, allowing it to run.
 
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