Important message to Everyone.

[Twinspin]

I know there will be quite a few people on here that are technically minded and may know how.

Tonight my computer has been Hijacked with a message from the Metropolitan Police that my computer contains unlawful images of children and files relating to violence. with your IP Address at the top.

and they are trying to take money from you.... by saying if you pay a fine of £100 within 48 they will unlock your computer and there is payment methods there.

As you all will know.... Its completely fake. It takes over your computer this message.

Heres how you get rid of it.... Reboot your computer and keeping tapping the f8 key and then go into safe mode.

On another computer download a program called COMBOFIX put it on a memory stick and copy it onto the infected computer. All you need to do is run the program and let it do its thing.

This also works if you have had the Win7antispyware virus on your computer.

I just thought id warn everybody

[Booche]

How did it happen John ?

Email, Download, Facebook, etc etc ?

The virus states that you were noticed while watching illegal pornographic web-pages or having illegaly downloaded files on hard disk and claims that if you don’t pay £60-£75 within 24 hours then your Computer will be wiped clean with all your files and settings being erased or your computer will be locked permanently.

What have you done John ?

[Twinspin]

It just come up on my computer. So i just run combofix to clear the spyware off my computer

[DJ Paulie]

I always have Combofix on a memory card ready to use if I need it. Also having Hijackthis!, Malwarebytes Anti malware and Spybot running are good ideas. I've posted this on Facebook, hope you don't mind ?

[Twinspin]

Its fine..... The more people that get the message about this the better. Because there might be many people that don't know how to get rid of it and it will be helping those out.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Generally you only get these viruses if you've been looking at something dodgy...:sj:

[DiscoMagic]

Generally you only get these viruses if you've been looking at something dodgy...:sj:

REALLY???????????????

What about emails that you receive from spammers etc that contain viruses????

Or unknowingly download a "trial" peice of software that contains said viruses???

[Totally Plucked]

mmmmmmmmm !!!!! :D :D :D :D :D

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

REALLY???????????????

What about emails that you receive from spammers etc that contain viruses????

Or unknowingly download a "trial" peice of software that contains said viruses???

Do you not use anti-virus then?

Do you also open emails with attachments that you know are spam? Come on...

[DeckstarDeluxe]

Generally you only get these viruses if you've been looking at something dodgy...:sj:

An image I could do without on a Monday morning.....

[Glenski]

Not all anti virus / malware software is 100% - especially if the database's are 'out of date'...

Facebook, Skype etc are some of the worst for infected pages or links as well as some mainstream websites !!

These things happen all of the time, even to the best of us, no matter how vigilant we are :)

Thank you

[DazzyD]

First of all, these pop-ups are not what is generally known as spyware - spyware are small programs that effectively "spy" on you - they can track your computer activity, record your keyboard use, steal your passwords, etc. These pop-ups are what are commonly known as "scareware" - the idea being that they "scare" you in to parting with your hard-earned. This is quite a recent twist to scareware scams - usually, they consist of pop-ups telling you a virus has been found on your system and offering a link to click to download the "solution" to cleanse the virus. Of course, the link is usually for fake security softwares which, when you run it, will tell you that you have lots of viruses and that you need to upgrade your fake security software to remove them. As you may well guess, the upgrade isn't free. And won't work - well, not permanently, anyway!!


Generally you only get these viruses if you've been looking at something dodgy...:sj:

From the smiley, I'm assuming you know that this is not the case, Darren. However, in the interests of advising people correctly, who may not know otherwise, this is simply not true. It is a fact that you are "more likely" to pick up an infection from a "dodgy content" site but you can get infected from other, genuine sites, too. For example, I'm probably one of the most web-savvy and scam-aware people you could meet but I was infected by a bad scareware attack after visiting the site of a reputable (and world-renowned) manufacturer. I didn't click on anything but merely visiting the site's home page resulted in my computer downloading a scareware infection. The site had, unknowingly to me or anyone else at the time, been attacked by hackers who had embedded code in to the home page that would infect a visitor's computer without them doing anything further - known as a "drive-by" infection. This caused a scareware pop-up stating my computer had been infected and I needed to click the "fix now" button to download a program called "Anti Virus 2011" to remove the virus. I knew this was scareware so I didn't click the "fix now" button. However, I made the fatal error of trying to close the pop-up window with the "X" in the top right corner. Even the "X"-close button was fake and clicking anywhere in the pop-up window caused a virus to be downloaded to my computer. The virus then took out my network/web access and started messing with the registry. I managed to download a fix/patch file using another file and ran it on my laptop from a memory key which fixed the problem. So, it really can happen to anyone.

GOOD TIP:
If you experience a scareware pop-up, you should immediately close the program you are using (often a web-browser) by right-clicking the program's icon on the Windows Task Bar at the bottom of the screen and clicking "Close" or "Close Window" in W7. Never try to click anywhere on the pop-up window!


Not all anti virus / malware software is 100% - especially if the database's are 'out of date'...

Facebook, Skype etc are some of the worst for infected pages or links as well as some mainstream websites !!

These things happen all of the time, even to the best of us, no matter how vigilant we are :)

Thank you

What he said!! :p

GOOD TIP 2
The best advice I can give is make sure your anti virus software is fully up to date and that you have active firewall protection. And use a bit of common sense. Some scams are quite technical but the ones that catch most people are pretty obvious if you just refrain from clicking anything, step away from the keyboard and think about it for a moment.

[Ecstatic Events]

This has just happened on a personal Laptop, thank god I remembered reading this thread *Goes off to download Combofix*

[Marc J]

It's definitely not a good idea to blindly run ComboFix for any and all problems you come across. It's not a one-for-all fix and it sometimes needs adidtional stuff passed to it in a script.

See How to use ComboFix (http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/combofix/how-to-use-combofix)

I'd recommend the Security Forums at Bleepingcomputer (http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/forum79.html) and also the Safer Networking Forums (http://forums.spybot.info/index.php) as great resources if you think you've become infected by a virus / malware. The helpers there will guide you step by step.

[Ecstatic Events]

It's definitely not a good idea to blindly run ComboFix for any and all problems you come across.

Tell me about it. The scan hasn't even finished yet!

Tempted to wipe the drive personally

[Matty12]

Its fine..... The more people that get the message about this the better. Because there might be many people that don't know how to get rid of it and it will be helping those out.

This is a daff question but can this happen to mac and if so what do you do what software do you use?:o