A cautionary tale

[Yellowhead]

About a week ago I was getting pics ready to post. I was in Photo Bucket When I started to get some strange pop ups telling me I had a dangerous virus, but I could get of it if just ran their free program. I declined and called the Geek Squad. The short version, $350 later I have a clean computer and a thinner wallet. The guy that fix my computer was pretty sure the virus came from Photo Bucket. Just a word of caution.

Can anyone recommend something other then Photo Bucket.

[Paul]

Just a thought about the term "Virus", now for most virus's to infect your computer they have to be excecuted. Nothing in Photobucket needs to be excuted except their upload software wich is java based but if you downloaded directly from their site your virus did not come from there.

THere was a rampant virus out that generally comes from using programs such as bearshare, azurus, etc. It is type of trojan that infects your computer and makes tons of pop up screens show up while you are browsing the internet. THe one screen asks you to buy antivuris 2009. The virus is actually called Antivirus2009. Opens up hundreds of random windows and slows yoru computer down to a crawl.

I won't flat out disagree with the guys from Geek Squad, after all they did manage to empty your wallet of $350.00 but I personally and proffesionally don't beleive that Photobucket has a virus problem.

[Yellowhead]

You may be right, I will probably never know for sure.

[Dbl]

I would agree with Paul on this one, in fact I just got off the phone and talked a friend through the antivirus 2009 pop up. I am super careful and had a nasty trojan last week that took a few hours of work to clean up but it re-directed my web browsing to shopping sites. The other very helpful thing you can do is use Firefox instead of IE.

[finnbay]

I use Firefox as well, and it does seem to make a difference in the amount of garbage I get.

[Jim Almquist]

I only use Firefox along with free AVG anti-virus and free Zonelabs firewall and between 2 computers we have had no problems yet.

[mnorth]

I also have this same thing nagging my system (Antivirus 2009)

and it was found to come thru Firefox. I'v had my computor looked at by my I.T. guy at work, but it came back about a couple weeks ago.(I don't want to bring it back into work again) Any idea how I can get rid of this without calling the geek squad. I am using Symatec Antivirus now but it is no help. I have been told that if you do a Windows Update they have a fix for this, but my computor has been taking over by this (pop up) it won't even let me do that. Any Recommendations ?

[Dbl]

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware removal tool worked on the computer I cleaned up. Its free. Took a couple of re-boots but it did the job. Good luck.

[mnorth]

Thank You Dan

I will give it a shot.

[Paul]

The reason you can not do windows updates is because the virus shuts off the computers ability to do automatic updates. What you can also try to do, is go to microsofts HSOforum, download the updates manually. Look for the portion of the HSOforum for downloading updates by IT proffesionals. There you can download the physical file and run it independatly of windows updates HSOforum. Maybe download service pack 3. What you need to look for the most is the windows malicous software removal tool. That will get the program out. Norton's antivirus programs are famous for not doing what they are supposed to be doing. They do not scan boot sectors for virus's and many virus makers know this. But if you can get malicous software removal tool to download it will probably work. Let me know if you can not get it to work, I will try and dowload it for you and try emailing it to you or something.

[AvonAngler]

Be careful! Being in the IT field for 10 years now I've seen these things ruin peoples computers, photos, financial data, music and everything else.

I too just got a call from my mom tonight with the Microsoft 2009 antivirus pop up. Bad news stuff for sure.

Honestly, the BEST thing you can do to protect yourself from these threats........... Use Linux.

If you have a second or old PC around simply load Ubuntu Linux on it and use that system for web browsing/email opening. Most viruses out there target systems running windows environments but won't be able to carry out their dirty work against a Linux system.

Oh yeah Linux is FREE and easier to install than Windows!

[Paul]

try here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/detai...;displaylang=en

[mnorth]

Thanks for the info guys..

I appreciate the help. Along with all the photo's from you all.

[Dbl]

Do let us know how it all turns out. Again good luck!

[mnorth]

Well, It's been almost two weeks since I downloaded the link that Paul had sent, "Thank You Sir" and at this point it seems to be running better.

I also made a short cut to the Link that Dbl had sent and will use that as a backup if I need. Again ..Thanks Guys for 'chiming in" for this problem.

[Dbl]

Glad your system is working well again. Hope that continues for the new year as well!

[swampbuck]

I had the anitvirus bug as well downloaded the link from Paul, The Bug is now gone and my computer is a lot faster!

They were going to charge 350 from Geek sqaud, Thanks Paul!