MSE alert but not installed

Yorkie1

I was browsing on ebay, clicked on a link and got this message:



Slightly puzzled by a) the mis-spelling of 'might' on the red MSE alert, and b) because I don't have MSE on my PC as far as I'm aware (unless it got installed along with IE10?).

I therefore wondered whether this was likely to be a scam message in itself ...

I clicked away from the page without doing anything else or clicking on the links on the MSE box, and the page is now disappeared - but of course if it was a genuine alert, I may now have problems on my PC.

My anti-virus is Avast and that shows no problems.

Any thoughts, please?

somersethillbilly

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-fake-microsoft-security-essentials-alert

Yorkie1

Phew - glad I was suspicious now and didn't take action on it now!

Might not have spotted it if they hadn't mis-spelt "might".

debitcardmayhem

I really would replace MSE , others may disagree but there has been a lot of comments (including from Microsoft) MSE is not fit for purpose I would suggest using Avast or if you bank with Barclays you can get Kaspersky for free, or Avira can also be installed for free.

Johnmcl7

The OP doesn't have MSE installed on their machine - it's malware imitating MSE just as it used to imitate the Microsoft security center.

However I'd be curious to know when did Microsoft claim their own product and the one they now ship Windows 8 with as default was not fit for use? If they don't think it suitable, it's strange they would then choose to ship it as default and use a variant of it as their enterprise AV solution.

John

bod1467

http://www.howtogeek.com/173291/goodbye-microsoft-security-essentials-microsoft-now-recommends-you-use-a-third-party-antivirus/

waddler_8

debitcardmayhem wrote: »

I really would replace MSE , others may disagree but there has been a lot of comments (including from Microsoft) MSE is not fit for purpose...

bod1467 wrote: »

http://www.howtogeek.com/173291/goodbye-microsoft-security-essentials-microsoft-now-recommends-you-use-a-third-party-antivirus/

Don't believe everything you read.

That's yet another piece of "Journalism" repeating an article with misconstrued quotes taken out of context. Nowhere do MS say "Windows users should install antivirus above and beyond its own Security Essentials."
http://askleo.com/do-i-need-to-stop-using-microsoft-security-essentials/

As it turns out, the majority of the “journalism” on the topic over the past couple of weeks has simply been repeating a single source of information. Worse, the repetition included not only a couple of quotes without full context from a Microsoft spokesperson and also additional speculation by the author of that original piece. As the story was repeated, even more speculation was added and assumptions were made.

The real story from MS:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/mmpc/archive/2013/10/09/our-commitment-to-microsoft-antimalware.aspx

We are fully committed to protecting our consumer and business customers from malware. Our strong solutions provide the comprehensive defense needed against malicious code and attacks.

They decided some time ago to stop trying to predict test samples.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/mmpc/archive/2013/01/06/customer-focused-prioritization.aspx

We realize that the way we prioritize our protection may not always align with how the independent anti-virus product testers measure our effectiveness. We believe that adhering to a customer-focused prioritization process allows us to protect and keep our customers safe.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/mmpc/archive/2013/10/25/our-protection-metrics-september-results.aspx

Our goal is to provide great antimalware solutions for our consumer and business customers. I hope this blog demonstrates how committed we are in raising the bar for ourselves and others in the industry for doing so.

Make your own minds up.