If you are afraid of viruses, Trojans and worms you very well should be, but that fear is allowing the virus makers to get into your computer even faster and you will unwittingly allow them to enter. This is how the scam works; you visit a website click on a link or even sometimes will be automatically redirected to another website where it will run a fake virus scanning program. This fake program will give you a visual that it is scanning your hard drive but it will not actually be doing that (no scans can happen that fast, that is your first clue!). It will then alert you that you have viruses/trojans/worms and that you need their software to rid yourself of these menaces. It will ask you if you want to download their software to relieve your machine of this menace… Be careful here for any choice you make will download their virus onto your computer and you will have headaches forever after that. It will offer you two buttons one possibly "OK" and the other "CANCEL". This is where you get into trouble., they both mean the same thing! Do not choose either one of these for you will be allowing the virus to install itself!!! If you can, close the window with the "X" in the upper right corner of the screen. If you cannot close the window with the "X" then this is a sign that it is a malicious program, you can still use ALT-F4 or task manager (Ctrl-Alt-Delete) to close the window from there. These viruses exploit Internet Explorer by programming the buttons on the message so it can be made to appear that they are legitimate IE messages and you may let your guard down and click on one.
Now if you were not so aware and selected either one of the buttons you will now start to see all kinds of alerts that you have viruses/trojans/worms all the time and some of the programs tie up your computer by redirecting you back to their website so you can buy their software. They hope to annoy you into purchasing their software to get some relief, for your computer will by this time be almost unusable due to their virus software opening up multiple IE sessions and such. Such programs are "Privacy Protector", "Ultimate Cleaner", "Ultimate Defender" as well as a host of others. If you see a free virus scan on the internet, do yourself a favor and run for your computers life!!! If you are already the victim of these types of programs you can easily rid yourself of them but downloading a free program called "SmitfraudFix" from http://siri.geekstogo.com/SmitfraudFix.php The web page shows a list of the virus/Trojan/worms it removes. It's the first software I run on clients computers and it has worked every time. You must run it in SAFE MODE. While in safe mode go to Add/Remove programs and uninstall any Virus / Registry Cleaner program that you did not install for these are also the culprits. Also go to Program Files folder and physically delete the folders for these programs. It should be very clear what they are for they usually have the same name as the titled offending program.
Verified and Tested
By Ralph James
Randem Systems, Inc
February 15, 2008
Updated December 29, 2009
