A NEW Virus ?

HarrySearle

I was the victim of a computer virus or malicious adware/spyware on Friday 30th. September 2005 (let's call it a virus and a NEW one - Microsoft had never heard of it !). The virus first disabled and permanently corrupted my Norton (Symantecs) Anti-Virus software to gain entry to my system, running Windows XP Home Edition.

Having gained entry the virus rendered certain aspects of Windows intermittently unusable and some application software would not run at all. Then a series of pop-up messages began to appear to the effect that 'Your system is unstable and may become unusable', 'the registry is corrupt and is in urgent need of repair', and a variety of others in similar vein warning of dire consequences if immediate action were not taken. All these messages required the user to contact a named website for a solution download !!. ALL of these websites were soliciting money to pay for a "solution" to the "problems" (either spurious or generated by themselves). I only looked at one site before I 'smelled a rat' - they wanted $19.95 plus v.a.t. for a solution download. I then contacted Microsoft who agreed that this was a scam and on no account was I to take a download.

***Boardguide comment*** Links removed (in case they are used by mistake).

The ONLY solution was to download and apply ALL the latest Windows updates/ and patches for XP from the Microsoft website 'www.microsoft.com/protect', in particular Service Pack 2 for Windows XP. Full credit is due to Microsoft here, their telephone advisor was right on the ball and very helpful, (I can't believe I said that, I am not normally a great M$ fan !!). Microsoft have now begun an investigation, and my system has been cleaned and is again fully operational.

Here's hoping this will prevent other MoneySavingExpert forum users from being caught by these villains.

Harry Searle

Tojo_Ralph

With regard to the pop ups... A quick look elsewhere suggests they are Messenger Spam.

To stop the Pop Ups in XP, the solution is simple.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/security/learnmore/stopspam.mspx

PS. If these sites are questionable, why on earth did you see the need to post the website links, rather than their names minus the www. and .co.uk or .com?

HarrySearle

The message I posted was largely a cut and paste from what I sent to Microsoft, hence the full URL's quoted, however I specifically said in the post DONT click on the Links

If this was Messenger spam why then did Microsoft tech. support not say so, and what the solution was ! I can tell you they took a serious view of this.

How do you explain the fact that whatever this was, it completely corrupted my Norton Anti-Virus Protection and caused many other problems both within Windows and a range of different applications.

I think it was a lot more than Messenger spam.

Anyway it reinforces the point - take advantage of any patches/updates that Microsoft have to offer. They are free any can be automatically obtained, and updated, and get decent anti-virus software and keep it up-to-date !!

Thanks for your comments anyway, have you had a similar problem in the past.