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reinstalling mysteriously lost XP programs

Also, just because a virus program can't see anything doesn't mean nothing's there. The battles are a running battle with a moving front, and the virus writers can keep ahead of things as they are more motivated.

With Google Chrome on Win7, just yesterday I went to a site that immediately locked up the computer. I quickly forced a shutdown just in case something was hacking around behind the scenes. In other words, even using an off-brand browser and the latest stuff from Microsoft to stop intrusions, somebody somewhere found and was using some kind of exploit to attack computers and MS and Google hadn't gotten around to compensating for it, yet.
 
Roma said:
Problem solved, yesireeee :)

I got a phone call from Microsoft this morning saying that they have noticed I have been sending a lot of error reports lately. It was the opinion of that tech guy that I have a lot of dangerous viruses on my boot and that if I didn't get them off my computer would be useless soon.

Well I was going to reinstall my Windows program this afternoon but you guys have convinced me that reinstalling the programs if there are still viruses is useless, and I am not up to the job right now anyway after ending up in the hospital with assorted injuries.

Anyway, the Support4urpc.com tech guy that phoned me took control with that remote assistance from Microsoft's end and with the help of other tech guys there helping him for six hours today my computer is back to normal, all cleaned up and protected for six months for just $69.

Thank god for Microsoft remote assistance and Visa cards ;)

And thank you guys too because I would have just reinstalled the programs and found myself right back at square one again if not worse.
Click to expand...


You may want to back up your data and reformat. :)

I am sorry , you got phished. :(

I hate people like that.
 
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Well that's not good,
but I am an easy target for things like this I guess.
Normally I wouldn't have listened to a stranger with a strong Bombay accent called Roger Williams, but lately I have been overwhelmed by my unstable teenager and I probably would have paid for a lifetime service package instead of the six month trial if I had enough money on my Visa.
Which reminds me....I better contact Visa since those bad guys have my account info.
I can't back up anything or reformat anything, I don't know how.
Do you mean save my documents and stuff to something else like a CD and then reinstall my computer programs ?
 
Unfortunately this sort of thing has become all too common over the last year. Some of the calls may be truly random, others might be the result of a phishing attack, particularly if they call you up with personal information.

It's possible these companies might actually perform some cleanup activity and the amount you say they charged you would not seem totally unreasonable, if they have actually removed infections from your machine; have you actually regained access to the programs that were missing for example?

But on the whole even if these people perform a service, it's a very shady way of doing business. So I would get on to Visa, tell them what's happened - hopefully they'll refund the transaction.

As for your computer, even if things appear to be back to normal I would do the following as I would be suspicious that they may have left something unwanted on your machine.

Download, (install in the case of Malwarebytes and Superantispyware) and run, in this order, fresh copies of the following

TDSS Killer". Direct link here.

Malwarebytes' Antimalware

Superantispyware

A reinstall of your machine might still be needed, but it's worth trying these programs first again, to see if they pick anything. Once they're done, run a scan with your antivirus package, and let us know if any nasties have been found.
 
:)

PS: you may want to keep your teenager off the computer while you do this, please don't let them use bit torrents, P2P, warez or crackz.

I seriously also recomend that you start an acount here
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/

follow the diections here
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic34773.html

start a thread here
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/forum22.html
Post the logs as they ask in the prepartion guide.

It may take three days to get your first response, and 48 hours in between but they will help you.
 
Thanks, I'll save this page and try.

I kinda feel like I have given the bad guys "protection money" that they will certainly ask for again since they now have control over my computer.
But it's a ten year-old computer with one slightly fussy disk tray and almost no memory to speak of compared to the new ones. I just need it to last another year at least because my teen needs it for school. So I'll get one of those little external memory thingies to download all of the stuff I don't want to lose, then I will try to reformat and reinstall everthing.
 
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