Sunday, February 15, 2009

Watch Out! There’s a Virus About


Today, on a quiet Sunday stroll around the Interweb, I was suddenly interrupted by a message, allegedly from Microsoft, warning me that several of my computer files were corrupted with a virus. It also told me to download software to clear the virus.

Immediately alarm bells began ringing in my head. Back in 2002, my old computer was struck by a virus, and the only way hubby could get rid of it was to completely wipe my hard-drive. At that time, I had no back-up system in place and lost everything.

This time, I looked at the web address where the message originated – there was no mention of Microsoft. I ought to have made a note of it, but didn’t. Sorry! I know it said www police, and ended with promo 3. I immediately closed down the Internet, and set my own anti-virus program running – it detected nothing. I then went onto the Internet, clicked on Tools, and Internet Options, and deleted my browsing history, and all cookies.

Just thought I should pass this along in case it happens to any of you. Be careful out there.

Toodle Pip for now.

3 comments:

Lakeland Jo said...

This one came in for us on Christmas day and completely crashed my system for days. It is really sinister.

DeniseinVA said...

Thanks for the reminder Jan. We have to be so careful on here. I am glad you were forewarned, sadly through a previous nasty episode and appreciate you passing the warning on.

Raquel said...

I had the same thing happen to me . . . on my work computer and then we also had it on our home computer. A good little thing to install is Malwarebytes. They have an anti-malware program and it will take it off if you do get it. Worked both times for me. It is a trojan something or another. Hope the dental thing is progressing well! Ugh, I hate dentists. Much love, Raquel XO