Windows Security Alert ???

[venice]

in the last week or so a "window security alert" pops up that states my computer has a bunch of viruses, trojans etc and I should download this program that will eliminate them..what concerns me is that I have a subscription to McAfee and I do an entire scanning about every 3 days and they say that i don't have any viruses ?

i've read on how these types of 'security alerts' are really a trojan horse

can anyone give me some insight into this ? thxs

[Captain Tennille]

McAfee doesn't catch everything. Neither do the others. I have found running a combination of Spybot, Windows Defender (now embedded in the new XP upgrade) and my ISP's own spyware control software, I can keep my machine reasonably clean.

In the past I ran McAfee, but found it didn't catch anything the other (free) filter/scanners had already removed. THAT money goes into the "cruise fund" instead.

Spybot also has active protection, which they call immunization, which you need to keep regularly updated. You also have to run the immunization function regularly, since it is not automatic.

I have a Trojan dialer on my machine now, which I have not bothered to remove. It may cause more trouble removing it than ignoring it, since I no longer have a phone line connected to my pc. It does try to dial anyways... persistent little bugger.

[Mike M]

Venice:

It sounds like you have a "hostage" Trojan on your system. This is a Trojan that keeps giving you these pop ups and won't stop until you pay to buy the removal software. You pay with a credit card so that's not a good idea. A lot of people fall for this, believe it or not.

My nephew had this Trojan, or something similar, on his machine and it got to a point where it could not be removed. It disabled all programs from running, shut down the Restore function and disabled Task Manager from being started. It also would not run in Safe Mode or Command Line mode. I had no other recourse than to wipe his disk and reinstall XP and his applications. Of course he had no backup so he lost all of his data and pictures when his disk was reformatted and the Operating System was reinstalled.

I suggest that you get someone (professional) to remove this ASAP.

Take care,
Mike

[venice]

thanks..will contact a friend who knows a professional that will come and remove it in the next few days