Virus infection [modified]
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FyreWyrm wrote:
I voted for Chuck Norris.
But Chuck Norris never runs. :confused:
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My brother-in-law just called me. He's got a "problem" with IE. Starting today every time he opens IE the following things happen: Windows Firewall turns off, IE looks different than it did (slightly different icons, etc), any web page he goes to (even www.google.com) throws a popup message saying the site is blocked and redirects him to an antivirus download page and asks him to pay $80 for the download. It sounds to me like he's either got a virus or his IE has been replaced by something else. We were finally able to get Firefox downloaded and installed and Firefox works fine. Now I've got him downloading AVG and he's gonna run it on the system. He's got some other antivirus stuff installed (from Verizon) and it doesn't find anything (no real surprise there). Ultimately he wants to use IE instead of Firefox. Has anybody ever heard of this kind of virus? Got any suggestions on how to remove it and repair IE? UPDATE: It appears to have stemmed from a chain letter downloaded from MySpace. He's been warned of the dangers of MySpace before (by me). Now it's bit him in the rear. UPDATE 2: He's got AVG doing a full system scan. No word on if anything has been found. It's late and I'm not staying up to find out. 'Night all.
Don't blame me. I voted for Chuck Norris.
modified on Tuesday, March 3, 2009 11:02 PM
this is caused by the a variation of the smitFraud hijack [^] use the program found here[^] to get rid of it. Read the directions - some antivirus programs might flag one of the programs as infected, but they are clean. over the past few years, I've had to get rid of this type of hijack on several of the company computers. The worst one was one that not only redirected you to the "buy our software" site, but also played rap clips and audio ads X| after you have run this, you should also run "ad-aware" [^] and "spybot search & destroy" [^] to remove anything else that may have been downloaded after the initial infection.
Steve _________________ I C(++) therefore I am
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this is caused by the a variation of the smitFraud hijack [^] use the program found here[^] to get rid of it. Read the directions - some antivirus programs might flag one of the programs as infected, but they are clean. over the past few years, I've had to get rid of this type of hijack on several of the company computers. The worst one was one that not only redirected you to the "buy our software" site, but also played rap clips and audio ads X| after you have run this, you should also run "ad-aware" [^] and "spybot search & destroy" [^] to remove anything else that may have been downloaded after the initial infection.
Steve _________________ I C(++) therefore I am
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My brother-in-law just called me. He's got a "problem" with IE. Starting today every time he opens IE the following things happen: Windows Firewall turns off, IE looks different than it did (slightly different icons, etc), any web page he goes to (even www.google.com) throws a popup message saying the site is blocked and redirects him to an antivirus download page and asks him to pay $80 for the download. It sounds to me like he's either got a virus or his IE has been replaced by something else. We were finally able to get Firefox downloaded and installed and Firefox works fine. Now I've got him downloading AVG and he's gonna run it on the system. He's got some other antivirus stuff installed (from Verizon) and it doesn't find anything (no real surprise there). Ultimately he wants to use IE instead of Firefox. Has anybody ever heard of this kind of virus? Got any suggestions on how to remove it and repair IE? UPDATE: It appears to have stemmed from a chain letter downloaded from MySpace. He's been warned of the dangers of MySpace before (by me). Now it's bit him in the rear. UPDATE 2: He's got AVG doing a full system scan. No word on if anything has been found. It's late and I'm not staying up to find out. 'Night all.
Don't blame me. I voted for Chuck Norris.
modified on Tuesday, March 3, 2009 11:02 PM
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this is caused by the a variation of the smitFraud hijack [^] use the program found here[^] to get rid of it. Read the directions - some antivirus programs might flag one of the programs as infected, but they are clean. over the past few years, I've had to get rid of this type of hijack on several of the company computers. The worst one was one that not only redirected you to the "buy our software" site, but also played rap clips and audio ads X| after you have run this, you should also run "ad-aware" [^] and "spybot search & destroy" [^] to remove anything else that may have been downloaded after the initial infection.
Steve _________________ I C(++) therefore I am
Yeah, I have smitFraudFix in my toolkit of anti-spyware stuff... It's very good.
Knowledge is knowing that the tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in fruit salad!! Booger Mobile - Camp Quality esCarpade 2010
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My brother-in-law just called me. He's got a "problem" with IE. Starting today every time he opens IE the following things happen: Windows Firewall turns off, IE looks different than it did (slightly different icons, etc), any web page he goes to (even www.google.com) throws a popup message saying the site is blocked and redirects him to an antivirus download page and asks him to pay $80 for the download. It sounds to me like he's either got a virus or his IE has been replaced by something else. We were finally able to get Firefox downloaded and installed and Firefox works fine. Now I've got him downloading AVG and he's gonna run it on the system. He's got some other antivirus stuff installed (from Verizon) and it doesn't find anything (no real surprise there). Ultimately he wants to use IE instead of Firefox. Has anybody ever heard of this kind of virus? Got any suggestions on how to remove it and repair IE? UPDATE: It appears to have stemmed from a chain letter downloaded from MySpace. He's been warned of the dangers of MySpace before (by me). Now it's bit him in the rear. UPDATE 2: He's got AVG doing a full system scan. No word on if anything has been found. It's late and I'm not staying up to find out. 'Night all.
Don't blame me. I voted for Chuck Norris.
modified on Tuesday, March 3, 2009 11:02 PM
AVG is good, I would also recommend SpywareBlaster and Spybot - they have caught most things on my machines and have been reliable at cleaning them up anything that did get through.
Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.(Winston Churchill)
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FyreWyrm wrote:
if anything changes on the computer
Not unusual though, the wife is the same, if I change office I get 6 months of irritated, exasperated sighs until she gets used to it again - we use 2003 for that reason.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
Mycroft Holmes wrote:
we use 2003 for that reason.
My dad still uses office 97 for that reason :laugh:
Simon
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I'd really consider using Restore, then, if there's a restore point available that won't cost him anything recent that's important. I've used it a couple of times and it works like a charm. Much nicer than reinstalling everything! :-D
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
Hmm, every time I've tried system restore it's either had no effect whatsoever or it's crashed part way through! I just take backups and deal with things in a more manual way.
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My brother-in-law just called me. He's got a "problem" with IE. Starting today every time he opens IE the following things happen: Windows Firewall turns off, IE looks different than it did (slightly different icons, etc), any web page he goes to (even www.google.com) throws a popup message saying the site is blocked and redirects him to an antivirus download page and asks him to pay $80 for the download. It sounds to me like he's either got a virus or his IE has been replaced by something else. We were finally able to get Firefox downloaded and installed and Firefox works fine. Now I've got him downloading AVG and he's gonna run it on the system. He's got some other antivirus stuff installed (from Verizon) and it doesn't find anything (no real surprise there). Ultimately he wants to use IE instead of Firefox. Has anybody ever heard of this kind of virus? Got any suggestions on how to remove it and repair IE? UPDATE: It appears to have stemmed from a chain letter downloaded from MySpace. He's been warned of the dangers of MySpace before (by me). Now it's bit him in the rear. UPDATE 2: He's got AVG doing a full system scan. No word on if anything has been found. It's late and I'm not staying up to find out. 'Night all.
Don't blame me. I voted for Chuck Norris.
modified on Tuesday, March 3, 2009 11:02 PM
FyreWyrm wrote:
ltimately he wants to use IE instead of Firefox
Thats something you wouldn't hear everyday.:confused:
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FyreWyrm wrote:
Has anybody ever heard of this kind of virus?
A virus that makes you want IE over FF ? I think that's called insanity.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista.