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Computer virus question

Last evening, I came home to find the computer with all  kinds of crap open on it telling me I have a potential identity theft virus about to take over - click here click here.  An XP Guardian window open dying for me to purchase the sw to kill it off.  There's even a cutesy little fake Windows shield in the task bar below.

I opened my McAfee to do a scan  to show me what's going on so I can start there to kill or quarantine files but it went so incredibly, and unusually slow.  I went to then open Firefox to go to McAfee's website but am being blocked from opening it.  IE, just isn't even opening.  So I shut it off and left a vm for a computer guy I know to come out and look at it.  Juuuust waiting on a call back....

Has anyone had this virus before and how did you get rid of it?

Re: Computer virus question

  • It's spyware.  McAfee will be crippled by it.   I see it all the time.  You need to download and run https://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

    Malwarebytes may not completely get rid of it. About 50% of the time, I end up reinstalling the OS. 

    Good luck!

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    David "BD" 2/8/07 Spencer 9/12/11
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  • We got that EXACT same virus on Friday the 13th of this past November.  I took our lap top to Best Buy (where we bought it) and they tried everything they could to get rid of it.  They said there were 1000's of traces of the virus on our computer because I was dumb and didn't just shut the whole thing down upon first sign of it, so it just kept going further and further into our hard drive.  They finally had to just blank out our entire hard drive and rebuild it from scratch.  When we got our laptop back, it was like taking it out of the box for the first time--none of our files could be saved (luckily, we had backed everything up on a portable hard drive not too long before that).  I asked if it was a brand new virus just released that day (for Friday the 13th) and they told me it has been around for 3-4 years but for some reason it slips past virus dectection programs pretty regularly.  We had Norton at the time and while I was at the counter, another person came in with MacAfee and the exact same virus.
  • We had this exact one on our computer. The only thing I know DH did was a system restore. He might have done more but I am not sure. We could not get on to the internet at all and it wanted us to purchase that one virus protection thing and thats it! My uncle was looking at it and said that it looked so fake! When Dh get home I can asking him what all he did if you would like. Good luck with it and hope it gets fixed soon!!!
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  • You can definitly try a System Restore first.   (Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore)  It may work.  If not, do the run the anti-malware program.  You are probably not at the point that your comptuer cannot be recovered, but it may be best to backup important files.  If you have a USB flash drive, that would be the quickest method of backup.

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    David "BD" 2/8/07 Spencer 9/12/11
  • imagenessamestreet:
    We had this exact one on our computer. The only thing I know DH did was a system restore. He might have done more but I am not sure. We could not get on to the internet at all and it wanted us to purchase that one virus protection thing and thats it! My uncle was looking at it and said that it looked so fake! When Dh get home I can asking him what all he did if you would like. Good luck with it and hope it gets fixed soon!!!

    The guy at Best Buy did tell me this was an option I could try myself--you just hit the function key and one of the F# keys (was it F8?) and it essentially wipes out everything and restores the computer to just the OS.  I would have done it myself, but it was coverered under the super all-inclusive warranty we bought so I just had them do it.

  • One of the guys at work got that & I couldn't even get into McAfee to run a scan.  We had to have the computer guy come out & fix it.  Didn't take him long to do it.  But as someone else said he downloaded the malwarebytes & now we do scans with it too. We didn't lose anything either.
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  • Thankfully I don't have anything important to lose.  Everything is backed up.  I can't even get on the internet so there isn't anything I can download.  I could try a system restore but I'm afraid to even turn on the computer.  I want to think I've had this very problem before but it presented itself differently.  If it's what you all are talking about then McAfee's remote take over last time didn't kill it off all the way....
  • got it at work, malwarebytes got rid of it but we had to run it twice.
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