malicious, evil, horrible something got into my laptop!

[shempmcgurk]

I have Norton protection (virus, firewall, etc.) on my desktop. Alas,
it was in the shop for repair and, silly me, I hooked my laptop up to
the internet which does NOT have any kind of virus or other protection.
And, yup, within virtually 3 minutes a virus got a hold of it!

At the bottom right of my taskbar a dialog box appears with a very
irritating sound effect announcing that a malicious virus or something
has attacked my computer and if I click on the icon which the dialog
box is attached to, it will get rid of it.

Well, of course, to get rid of it will cost $49.95...and I'll bet that
this is a "protection racket" just like the neighborhood wise guys used
to "offer". I suspect that the alleged "virus" and the "solution" are
one and the same.

Aside from spending the $49.95 in "protection money" or buying a second
Norton for the laptop, any ideas how I can get rid of the annoying
dialog box and any other intrusions this bug has caused me? My
programs all seem to work all right but the dialog box does block part
of the screen....

I would appreciate any suggestions!

 

[Galen]

In (e-mail address removed) had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

I have Norton protection (virus, firewall, etc.) on my desktop. Alas,
it was in the shop for repair and, silly me, I hooked my laptop up to
the internet which does NOT have any kind of virus or other
protection. And, yup, within virtually 3 minutes a virus got a hold
of it!

At the bottom right of my taskbar a dialog box appears with a very
irritating sound effect announcing that a malicious virus or something
has attacked my computer and if I click on the icon which the dialog
box is attached to, it will get rid of it.

Well, of course, to get rid of it will cost $49.95...and I'll bet that
this is a "protection racket" just like the neighborhood wise guys
used to "offer". I suspect that the alleged "virus" and the
"solution" are one and the same.

Aside from spending the $49.95 in "protection money" or buying a
second Norton for the laptop, any ideas how I can get rid of the
annoying dialog box and any other intrusions this bug has caused me?
My programs all seem to work all right but the dialog box does block
part of the screen....

I would appreciate any suggestions!

Malware Cleaners and Repair:
http://kgiii.info/windows/all/general/malwarefix.html

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"I am glad of all details, whether they seem to you to be relevant or
not." - Sherlock Holmes

 

[Malke]

I have Norton protection (virus, firewall, etc.) on my desktop. Alas,
it was in the shop for repair and, silly me, I hooked my laptop up to
the internet which does NOT have any kind of virus or other
protection.
And, yup, within virtually 3 minutes a virus got a hold of it!

At the bottom right of my taskbar a dialog box appears with a very
irritating sound effect announcing that a malicious virus or something
has attacked my computer and if I click on the icon which the dialog
box is attached to, it will get rid of it.

Well, of course, to get rid of it will cost $49.95...and I'll bet that
this is a "protection racket" just like the neighborhood wise guys
used
to "offer". I suspect that the alleged "virus" and the "solution" are
one and the same.

You are correct that the malware is trying to extort money from you. Go
through these removal steps systematically:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

Obviously you should not connect the laptop to the Internet until it is
clean and protected by a firewall and antivirus.

Malke

 

[shempmcgurk]

Thanks...yes, I won't connect the laptop to the internet until it is
clean and protected...BUT in order to go to your above cited link, I
gotta get it on the internet, no? So I assume with that exception, I
shouldn't go on, right?

Thanks again for your attention...

 

[Guest]

hi, try microsofts new product......

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/update/windows_live_safety_center.mspx

hope this helps, pete

 

[RA]

Thanks...yes, I won't connect the laptop to the internet until it is
clean and protected...BUT in order to go to your above cited link, I
gotta get it on the internet, no? So I assume with that exception, I
shouldn't go on, right?

Thanks again for your attention...

You are connected to the internet to send your note, so go to Malke's link.
Turn on the Windows Firewall to at least give yourself basic protection.

 

[Malke]

Thanks...yes, I won't connect the laptop to the internet until it is
clean and protected...BUT in order to go to your above cited link, I
gotta get it on the internet, no? So I assume with that exception, I
shouldn't go on, right?

Thanks again for your attention...

Obviously, you should get all tools and updates from a different,
known-clean computer. If you don't have one, consider taking the laptop
to a professional computer repair shop (not your local version of
BigStoreUSA) or go to a friend's house. Make a cd-r of everything
you'll need or use a usb thumbdrive with enough capacity to transfer
the files.

Malke

 

[Guest]

i would say that as long as you have windows firewall switched on, then you
could go to the ms site no problem, just dont go anywhere after that until
its all scanned and hopefully sorted.... pete

 

[shempmcgurk]

Obviously, you should get all tools and updates from a different,
known-clean computer. If you don't have one, consider taking the laptop
to a professional computer repair shop (not your local version of
BigStoreUSA) or go to a friend's house. Make a cd-r of everything
you'll need or use a usb thumbdrive with enough capacity to transfer
the files.

It's my laptop that's infected and unprotected; I'm writing you on my
desktop which IS protected.

If I understand you correctly, I can go to the link provided, download
the stuff needed to protect the laptop, put it on disk, take the disk
and load it on the laptop (without it being connected to the internet)
and run the info from the disk on the laptop.

Have I got it right (please have patience with me, guys, as I am doing
the best I can!)?

 

[Malke]

It's my laptop that's infected and unprotected; I'm writing you on my
desktop which IS protected.

If I understand you correctly, I can go to the link provided, download
the stuff needed to protect the laptop, put it on disk, take the disk
and load it on the laptop (without it being connected to the internet)
and run the info from the disk on the laptop.

Yes, that's correct. For instance, I keep all my av and antispyware
tools (like Sysclean, Ad-aware, and lots of other things) on a 1GB usb
thumbdrive that can toggle to read-only. For computers running older
operating systems, I use a cd-r with the tools burned onto it.

You should not go to the Internet with the infected machine. The advice
from Pete isn't good; malware will be active in Regular Mode and on
line and the Windows Firewall will not protect you from what you've
already got - a lot of which may download even more malware and/or spew
spam/virus-laden emails every time you're on the Internet.

Malke

 

[Guest]

i disagree with those comments and here is why, the other weekend in had a pc
with a some sort of problem, i ran adaware, spybot, norton antiivirus 2006
and zonealarm and none of these picked it up, yet when i went on-line and did
an online scan with trend it found the problem and fixed it, and yes all the
above programs where fully upto date, pete

 

[Malke]

i disagree with those comments and here is why, the other weekend in
had a pc with a some sort of problem, i ran adaware, spybot, norton
antiivirus 2006 and zonealarm and none of these picked it up, yet when
i went on-line and did an online scan with trend it found the problem
and fixed it, and yes all the
above programs where fully upto date, pete

That's fine if your experience is different. My experience over many
years cleaning up infected PC's is that if at all possible it is best
practice to not connect the infected PC to the Internet - or any LAN -
until you are sure it is clean. In some cases, end users won't be able
to do this and then an online scan can be used. Also, the tools you
mention are good but there are other more focused antimalware and
antivirus tools used during cleanup.

So if the online scan worked for you, that's great. It isn't a cleanup
path that I recommend.

Malke