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We Got Attacked By A Driveby! WARNING! Don't Open The Program!

Yep, attacked by a driveby, a driveby virus that is! If you have not seen me around commenting and returning comments as I normally do is because every moment of not being on the phone selling and listing has been on one of our computers defending ourselves from this nasty driveby.

virus attack identity theft It came in through the back door and slipped past our AVG Virus Scanner and Detector. Our defenses were all on and working and this nasty virus slipped through.

Be aware of this scam, the virus part of this scam is the tip of the iceberg. What it really wants is your identity!

Watch out for any strange programs that appear on your computer.

I am just working on my computer when suddenly I get a notice that I have 1400 viruses on my computer. There is a little icon at the bottom of my right tray that looks like a professional Microsoft logo and it says virus protection. Then it opens up on my screen and says again that I have all these viruses.

This program is called XP 2008 Anti Virus. Do not open this program! Do not buy this program! It is a great fake of Microsoft even to the little bricks for the firewall that Microsoft uses.

I click on the icon and the program opens up. It lists all the viruses my computer supposedly has and tells me that I need to clean the computer right away. There is no X at the top left to close the screen. I have to control alt delete to close the program. I then click on it again and click on the option to clean the program and it says you have to buy the anti virus. Well, I am not that stupid. I won't fall for that because I have AVG and I know AVG is the best anti virus software out there. Well, it is holding me hostage now. It will not close the screen until you buy the software.

So I control Alt delete, go to add and delete programs and try to delete this nasty little creep. He is undeletable! I then go to reset my restore point, he had already attacked my system restore and now I can not change my reset point.

Now I am getting mad! I am defending us from this drive by who not only is attacking our computer but is stealing my time! Not a good thing to do to me!

I call my IT friend who is very good at this stuff. He tells me I have to do the Safe mode thing and all the instructions to get rid of this nasty. He was telling me this is a new one that is getting in through the back door from a website. This virus attaches itself to a website that does not know it is there, then when you go to a particular website with this virus attached, he does his drive by. That is why it is called a drive by.

But the objective is not to attack you with a virus, it is not to get you to pay the $49, what it wants is far worse! IT WANTS YOUR IDENDTITY!

It holds you hostage until you get so frustrated that you will just pay the $49 to get rid of it and then guess what! It has your credit card number and your name and personal information. That is the game this plays. And you will never guess who is behind this. It is not some young punk who is out to wreak havoc on your computers but rather organized terrorists groups raising money for their operations. They are doing this worldwide. Don't think I am crazy. My IT guy has been in discussions with the attorney general's office about this and it is real.

This whole thing took my entire Saturday to get cleaned out! No comments, no return comments. It made me miss my Active Rain time!:(

I then went in to AVG and upgraded from the free version to the paid version so that I can access their live support in case I ever get another attempt at the drive by. There is no such thing as an Anti Virus that is 100%

Make sure when you are surfing the web that you are using Firefox as your browser. When you surf the internet and you get a list of sites to go to, Firefox puts a green checkmark next to the sites that are safe. One of my daughters did not know to use Firefox and was on my system using IE when this drive by happened. New rule in my house, no IE except for MLS and Point 2! That is is! Firefox only!

So DON'T open this XP 2008 Anti Virus! Don't get hit by a driveby!

Katerina Gasset Real estate coaching

Katerina Gasset, CIPS, Realtor ®, Business and Life Coach, Speaker and Author. Reach Katerina at: 561-753-0135

Disclaimer:The information provided herein is supplied by several sources and is subject to change without notice. Wellington Homes Blog does not guarantee or is any way responsible for its accuracy, and provides said information without warranties of any kind, either express or implied. Entries on Wellington Homes Blog represent the opinions and ideas of the author(s). Wellington Homes Blog does not express the views of International Properties and Investments, Inc or those of the broker.

Copyright © 2008 By Katerina Gasset, All Rights Reserved.*We Got Attacked By A DriveBy! Warning! Don't Open The Program! * Contact Katerina Gasset for Customized Business and Personal Coaching.

Posted by Nestor & Katerina Gasset Realtors® Wellington Florida Luxury Homes on 08/18/2008 09:53 AM

Comments (40)

hackers, spam, virus, driveby virus

Originally posted at: South Florida Real Estate and...: We Got Attacked By A Driveby! WARNING! Don't Open The Program!

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40 Comments on We Got Attacked By A Driveby! WARNING! Don't Open The Program!

AUG

2008

Katerina,

I also use the free ad-ware remover by lavasoft. The guy who came to my office to fix a problem with my PC said just because you have virus protection doesn't mean it will remove all that ad-aware garbage...if you don't have it you can get it free or pay for the extended service...it seems to remove more.

Katerina - Thanks for putting this post up so quickly and informing us about it. This is not something we want to spend time with a driveby attacker.

WOW...... I think I have something very similar on my home computer. THANKS!!!

Thanks for the tip! I always wonder if at one of these "anit-virus" ware firms if on one side of the hallway is the anti-virus programmers office and on the other side is the "hackers" office. Without the hackers, the anti-virus ware might not sell as well.

Wow I am so sorry this happened to you! I really appreciate you sharing this sad frustrating story with us. I would probably have fallen for this scam too! Ugh! It's scary out there! Thank you.

Katerina,

This same thing happened to me several weeks ago - I also use AVG (maybe they're targeting AVG users). It looked legitimate at first but then it didn't seem right that there should be that many issues so I closed it and moved on.

Steve

Katerina,

Thank you for the warning...I would have done exactly what you did! I will now be very careful. How frustrating...everyone needs to read this warning!

Hi Katerina! I had already heard about this from one of my daughters IT friends. So sorry this happened to you!! We only use Internet Explorer in this house for the MLS otherwise we use firefox also and we have AVG as well. Thank goodness my daughter takes care of all that for me!! I am glad you posted this there are probably a lot of people who DON"T know about it.

Wow, thanks for the warning. I probably would have opened it thinking it was a Microsoft program as well. That is unbelievable.

GEEZ. THERE OUGHT TO BE A LAW!

Wait!! There is. It's just one of those unenforced ones. Seems to me that if the government is closing their eyes to these MAJOR criminals, they are either incompetent or just don't care.

Makes you wonder how Homeland Security would or could protect us against major cyber terrorists.

I dumped Norton after 13 years because a virus got through about a month ago. My e-mail was totally corrupted. Cost me many hours to clean up the mess.

thanks for the info..I will watch out for it..

Been there, done that, now use FF except for RE, MLS, Point2, Zipforms. So frustrating.

http://activerain.com/blogsview/118554/I-Can-Save-You It could be the same thing,came in my tool bar.

FF stops most of them because when I try to click on a link it WARNS me.

So sorry, Katerina, I know how you feel.

Yikes! I've been very lucky as of late, both at work and at home. Had a heck of a time with my home computer about 6 months ago. Few things grind me as much as dealing with those buggers.

That is really tough, it is amazing how sneaky these bugs and viruses are.

All the best

Thanks for the post! I have had the exact same thing pop up about three times now.... but so far I have been able to get out of it but shutting down. I wonder if my luck will hold out! I didn't believe it for a second, but then again, I am a very skeptical person. It's very disconcerting when all of a sudden this "scan" starts running and a pop up tells you that you have thousands of viruses! It's always something.

That is one scary experience. My heart was pounding faster and faster as I was reading your post. We recently bought a USB drive from Target. After plugging it in, my computer informed me that I was in danger. Yep, the USB drive had a virus!!

Hi Katerina,

Thanks for the warning. One of my computers was also hit recently. I had something like 1100+ viruses. This is an ongoing battle across the internet. Maybe I need to dump IE and start using Firefox.

Katerina, Thanks for the heads up. I think I encountered this bugger a couple weeks ago. I shut down the computer when I couldn't close out (My answer to a lot of issues!)

Katerina, I had something similiar a few months ago. I really got frustrated that I couldn't delete the crap. Have we thought about shooting the ones doing this?

Katerina,

It is always good to know what is going on and I appreciate you getting this information to us.

Katerina, not a fun thing. Knock on wood, I have not had anything come by lately. Good Luck.

Katerina, My last attack was years ago but no one was ever able to figure out what caused my computer to crash....I had 3 different microsoft techs come and it was just gone. I have to see what anti virus protections I have now (but I did get LifeLock :)

Wow...that's terrible!

It's amazing to me that someone sits around and actually TRIES to be destructive and write code like this...and also the identity theft thing too...so very sad.

Katerina,

So sorry to hear this.

My home desk top computer is fried by some virus, and a bunch of offers to install cleaning software. Have no idea how to clean it up. I can't even hardly get it to open up. Right now it is collecting dust. There is no way I will pay an internet company to clean the computer, when that company seems associated with the virus attack.

My problem is lost information, not lost time.

Any recommendations for one of those online hard drive back up services?

Richard

Katerina: I can't imagine being down for a day! UGH! $@^& viruses AND the people who get enjoyment out of infecting others!

Ray is a big advocate of Mozilla as well and I just get hung up on IE b/c I start my day on MLS and just open new tabs instead of going to Mozilla--just an old habit that I'm trying to break--maybe you've given me some motivation to get off of that IE EARLY in the morning!

Thanks we will keep and eye out for it. Sounds nasty

Katerina: Thank you for posting this warning. I have been looking into on-line back-up of my files - back-up of my back-up. It is so worrisome because many of us have our entire lives on our computers, personal and business. I'm sorry this happened to you but hopefully now you are back up and running normally.

HI KAT!

Boy I know that sucks! I've gone through a virus thing before & it's totally frustrating. Thank you so much for letting us know!

Have a good one!

Glad you posted this for everyone thankfully you are good with computers and have friends that can help. Alot of people probably would have fallen for that trap.

These people have so much time to waste making people's lives miserable wouldn't it be nice if they did something positive for the world.

AUG

2008

Everyone- Thank you all for your support and sympathies! I sure appreciate all of your comments. I am not sure that I will be able to return each comment this week because of the time I lost this weekend having to clean up this virus attack instead of doing my favorite thing, commenting and reading the posts on your blogs.

Many of you are asking about online back up services. I found a really good one and I will write a post about it. It is a must have in this business. I LOVE our back up service!

Hi Katerina - There is always something new to worry about. What a pain in the neck! Thanks for keeping us informed.

I have to remember to make sure we make the switch to Firefox very soon. Sounds like it is a lot safer.

My husband got a virus last week and had to take his computer to the shop. They told him his anti-virus had a virus. Glad it all worked out for you.

I hate these things. I remember about two years ago, I got a virus. It took my wife forever to clean this and still at the end of the day we had to reinstall everything. It was a terrible day. Thank goodnes we were able to get at all the important files and get them on Cd before we had to reinstall. Always get prtected with a viurs protection it is worth every penny you pay. It will only happend to you one time.

AUG

2008

Katerina~ Thanks so much for taking the time out to give us this warning!

Good post. I got hit with a version of this about 3 months ago. Pretty much the same virus. It took me about half a day to get it cleaned up.

I personally use Avira. It is free and is currently ranked the best there is by http://www.av-comparatives.org/ That site is the only site that independently ranks AV programs. They prevent me from showing you the results but you can go there yourself. The best thing you can do to protect yourself is make sure it is up to date and also install a software firewall. The one that comes with windows is basically useless. With a software firewall even if you are infected it will block any outgoing traffic which renders helpless trojans etc.

I had this same program attack my computer. It seems they attach the program to something ismple and seemingly harmless, like asking you to upgrade your flash player, or some other useful program on your computer. It changes several major settings in your computers registry that will try to block you from removing it. It's a total pain, and one of the most troublesome malware programs that I've seen.

If you get attacked by this program do a search for "remove antivirusxp 2008" and you should find some help. There is a new version of this just for Vist, also.