Fake antivirus hijacks and blocks computers

Surely if you boot in safemode you can remove this pest?

Actually quite brilliant, someone without an anti-virus to block this application wouldnt be downloading it in the first place - matter of fact, because they dont have protection is the reason to download it.
 
Wizard's first rule applies.

People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People’s heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool.
—Chapter 36, p.397, U.S. hardcover edition
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Sigh. So sad, really.
Yet another aspect of modern life infected by liars, cheats and sundry nasties.

Pity the children of today. They are growing up in a world where in order to survive one has to be suspicious of everything and everyone. This is deeply wounding to the soul, and profoundly damaging to society.
 
eltherza said:
Internet has always been like this - it's to be expected :p
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That's my point. But it wasn't always so. I've been on the internet since before it was The Internet, and dial-up 300 baud BBS systems before that. There once was a time when life was cleaner, safer, less course, and people less cynical. There is no iron law that says change is always better. Sometimes we regress. The only solution is to strive to be a better person oneself ... avoid all that is narrow, dirty, dishonest, untrue, impure, unworthy of our humanity.

But I digress.

Back to fake AVs. One question not yet asked is: is there any real difference between fake rogueware AV and plain lousy AV that doesn't really catch the nasties? it's worth getting decent AV, methinks, and that means paying for it.
 
This is a bit off the subject.

Had a PC yesterday which would restart after boot, including safe mode. After checking the hdd in external drive, no viruses were found, but the process was very slow. I saw then that the hdd was shown to have no space left. I then tried to move data to other hdd, but again it was time consuming to access hdd without actually moving data.

I spoke to owner to regarding the full hdd and he said that no additional software were loaded and there should be more than enough space available. He also said that a Bios password was suddenly active and he never entered one. He is the only user and as a bachelor no other access was possible.

He was in a hurry and asked me to format and reinstall as there were no real data of any value. I did that and also cleared the CMOS password and the pc was up and running.

Unfortunately I never got to identify the virus (if it was a virus), via this route. I checked the Net and found references to such occurrences, normally laptops.

Have any of the forum members experienced such an incident and what was the solution?

Please delete if this is inappropriate in this thread.

Thx
 
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