a scam

First topic message reminder :

some one has sent my son a message to his lap top saying he has carried out an illegal download on his laptop,the message said he has been fined £100 and should pay up within 72 hours or criminal charges will be made,untill it is paid his laptop has been locked.he took it to the police who said it is a scam [as i thought}but how does he un lock his laptop?by the way a friend had his laptop for a week to ""up date it"

wyatt1 wrote:

Flap Meister wrote:there are many good free virus scanners, it is only a few extras that you have to pay for from mcafee and others.
I have had mcafee and norton products in the past but never thought they were worth paying for and I only ever used them during their free period.
AS I say up until a recent update I would have recommended AVG to anyone.
I really must check their user forum to see if the problem has been rectified.

I used to have AVG but tried Avast and really liked it, you should give it a try.

I think it was on the wifes laptop

stardesk wrote:Hi folks. I've said this before and will repeat it: Subscribe to a creidble security firm. I joined McAfee last year, I think it's about £45 a year. Since joining I get regular updates, no viruses, no intrusions or hackers etc. Believe me, it is well worth paying for. If I do a search for anything and get thousands of websites, any one I click on is vetted by McAfee and warns me if its suspicious, likewise emails.

You don't need to pay for anti-virus.
You just need to use common sense and now how to keep your computer safe and how to "clean" it.

An easy way to sort this is download this onto another comp:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/rkill/

then put it on a flashdrive, start your comp in safe mode with networking.

run this from the flash drive

it will kill anything running that isn't windows related. you can then update your existing antivirus (or get some) and do a scan to find it. Malware bytes is a good one for this type of thing but AVG is a better regular one.


it would also be worth doing this online scan when in safe mode:

http://www.eset.co.uk/Antivirus-Utilities/Online-Scanner

Click on START, then RUN, enter MSCONFIG.EXE, and hit enter or click OK, click on the STARTUP tab.....



Here is listed all the programs that launch on startup of windows.

It sounds like this dodgy bullshit will be listed there somewhere, removing of ticks and then apply and reboot may solve many startup issues.

Some may reinstall on startup so need a more comprehensive removal.


Also CTRL+ALT+DEL will give you an option for TASK MANAGER, in here you can kill programs that are running so have a look and see if it stands out here somewhere, you can learn the filename from here and could help removing further too.


Best solution when any problem occurs is keep tapping the F8 key on computer startup until you get the list of options, then select BOOT TO LAST KNOWN GOOD CONFIGURATION, these are the easy fixes for much, if none of this sorts it out then best to get someone who knows a bit to have a look. Fiddling with stuff can make problem worse.

mattiducatti wrote:Click on START, then RUN, enter MSCONFIG.EXE, and hit enter or click OK, click on the STARTUP tab.....



Here is listed all the programs that launch on startup of windows.

It sounds like this dodgy bullshit will be listed there somewhere, removing of ticks and then apply and reboot may solve many startup issues.

Some may reinstall on startup so need a more comprehensive removal.


Also CTRL+ALT+DEL will give you an option for TASK MANAGER, in here you can kill programs that are running so have a look and see if it stands out here somewhere, you can learn the filename from here and could help removing further too.


Best solution when any problem occurs is keep tapping the F8 key on computer startup until you get the list of options, then select BOOT TO LAST KNOWN GOOD CONFIGURATION, these are the easy fixes for much, if none of this sorts it out then best to get someone who knows a bit to have a look. Fiddling with stuff can make problem worse.

Matti that won't work as the virus starts up before you can do anything then stops you from doing that, you need rkill and to load up in safe mode to get rid of it

may i just say as the originator of this thread thank you all for trying to help me,i took didge's advice and it worked .[and he didn't swear at me once!!]

What I posted would be the best way to try to remove a number of problems, and would be what I would try first.

Although 'last known good' will sort most if done early on.


If none of this worked then next I would try safe mode, then system restore if still can't sort out.

mattiducatti wrote:What I posted would be the best way to try to remove a number of problems, and would be what I would try first.

Although 'last known good' will sort most if done early on.


If none of this worked then next I would try safe mode, then system restore if still can't sort out.

safe mode would be the first option in my view as that should stop many virus's operating and a virus scan could find and remove them.
what you suggest with msconfig would work for those problems that leave a program in view, many virus's won't do that as they work in the background.

But if launched on startup, this would be good starting point. And CTRL ALT DEL could show in task manager as running.

Some virus are more sophisticated than others.

Start with the easy things first.

mattiducatti wrote:But if launched on startup, this would be good starting point. And CTRL ALT DEL could show in task manager as running.

Some virus are more sophisticated than others.

Start with the easy things first.

indeed you can sometimes see things running in task manager that are suspicious, but the only way to perhaps stop a virus is to start in safe mode, even then it cannot be guaranteed. It can be worthwhile having a clean boot disk to start from and run a virus checker from that.

the best thing though is to not let a virus onboard in the first place, and basic security should stop most.

Tess wrote:I know sod all about technology basically, but I am very cynical, so I think the most basic lesson to anyone using their laptop is NEVER open messages from senders you don't recognize, just delete them without reading them. I've had quite a few, I suspect because I use the GLP forum which is huge. They're usuallly titled "your bank needs to contact you urgently" or something like that. Don't open them. Ever.

Excellent advice Tess. That's always been my practice too.

what about those nice Nigerian men who want to give me millions..in return for a few thou?

Are they just not being generous with the great and good fortune?

Flap Meister wrote:indeed you can sometimes see things running in task manager that are suspicious, but the only way to perhaps stop a virus is to start in safe mode, even then it cannot be guaranteed. It can be worthwhile having a clean boot disk to start from and run a virus checker from that.

the best thing though is to not let a virus onboard in the first place, and basic security should stop most.

It all depends what the virus is and where and how its activation is triggered during the OS start up process, the more sophisticated the virus, the less likely it will not tell you it is there by displaying the 'problem' as was described in the OP.

I agree safe mode is an often used and important facility of the Windows platform, but the earlier procedures would be the first to try, although a problem may persist after these quick and easy early commands are explored, further information and knowledge may be learned that could help you to identify the name/nature/behaviour/location of the virus/problem during further investigation and attempts at removal.