Computer says no.... to windows and msn.

Triker

Hey all, wonder if anyone has any clues re this little prob that occured.

When we switch the computer on we immeadiately get a message saying that our Windows version isn't legal and that we may have been the victim of computer fraud.

Our version is legal and above board, has been since we purchased it a few years ago from PCworld.

Its registered in our names.

Anyway also along with this we cannot access MSN or Hotmail account or my ebay account on ebay. Which is all a bit wierd.

Have AVG free edition and ran it this morning to check for anything, nothing appeared re virus's or trojans.

Our PC is an emachines420 with 2.60 GHZ and Windows XP preinstalled.
Any one any clues?

Thanks

Mo'_Money

It sounds like you may have Spyware, which can unfortunetaly bypass some anti-virus software. You could try downloading the malicious software removal tool from the Microsoft website https://www.microsoft.com, look under the downloads section to the left.

These pop ups are made to look like they come directly from Microsoft - they do not. If you click on them you are more often than not led to a website to download, what you think, is a spyware removal tool. It is infact another virus!

Please post if you have further questions...

Astaroth

It can be that you have simply been unfortunate. There are websites with long lists of license codes for people to attempt to use on illegal copies of windows... if yours somehow appears on one of these it wont be long before microsoft pick up on the fact that there are a couple of thousand people trying to all claim to have the same license number.

A friend who this previous happened to had a contact number come up (0800 surprisingly enough) and when he got through was told to send his disc and certificate back and they would reissue him with another.

Most of the sites tend to list corporate license numbers because they have unlimited users and so takes a lot longer before MS twig on that there is something wrong but it is possible for them to list private/ single user ones too.

Triker

Thank you for your replies, I have been scanning for virus's Mo_Money and found a very naughty sasser B worm hiding in there so thanks for that.

I will shut down and retart as the Star like symbol that says 'you may have been the victim of software counterfeiting' is still on the bottom blue line next to the time so its not looking good.

It may be as you say Astaroth and I'll have to see what happens in a mo to see if it disappears or not.

Thanks again, Triker.