Beware of Bogus Websites Offering Unkown Antivirus Software!!!

Shermie

Well-known member
Site Supporter
Hi, Everyone.

This is to inform you to stay clear of of bogus websites offering Antivirus software.

These sabotage websites automatically places a pop-up warning on your screen, telling you that your pc is or might have a virus, and for you to let the so-called safe software scan your pc to supposedly check for any viruses or corrupted files.

It forces its way into your machine to supposedly scan stuff that it claims might be contaminated or otherwise no good. But it could really be HARMFUL to your computer!! Sounds like it is trying to corrupt things and get a blaster worm or other spyware into your system.

It could also be the malicious work of a hacker!! They are mainly featured on Google. I'm shocked and appauled that Google lets these bogus websites be
accessed through them!!

I've already got McAfee aintivirus software in my pc, so why would I want to even be bothered with some bogus unknown no-name supposed ant-virus software that I know absolutely nothing about anyway?

Luckily, the WOT (Web of Trust) software posted a pop-up warning, letting me know that those websites are NOT to be trusted and to leave them immediately!! The little circle also was in red, a waring sign. But these untrustworthy websites don't care!! They override that and will gorilla their way in reguardles!

If you go to a website and you see that warning, then close out of it immediately!! Don't take any chances. Any software from a webite that automatically forces its way into your pc without your approval to supposedly scan for viruses is without a doubt no good!! Something is rotten in Denmark! :puke1:
 
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Doc

Administrator
Staff member
Gold Site Supporter
Good post Shermie! A very valid warning right now. AVG is putting out pop ups of their own and someone could easily copy them and get ya. Don't get your virus protection via a pop up or you are likely to get more than you bargained for.
 

chowhound

New member
Good post Shermie! A very valid warning right now. AVG is putting out pop ups of their own and someone could easily copy them and get ya. Don't get your virus protection via a pop up or you are likely to get more than you bargained for.

Been there. Didn't do that!
I was heavy into seaching cell phone info last week and wound up on a site that didn't look very kosher. Next thing I know I got an AVG pop up asking me to download about ten updates right now, everything was expired... :bonk: Uh-huh.... that'll happen while I'm sitting here on some bogus site that didn't look like it had anything I was searching for.
I immediately closed out and ran all my stuff and I was fine, but if I had clicked on that bogus anti-virus update...

ETA; And I run AVG! So this site must have either detected that or made a lucky guess.
 

Shermie

Well-known member
Site Supporter
Good post Shermie! A very valid warning right now. AVG is putting out pop ups of their own and someone could easily copy them and get ya. Don't get your virus protection via a pop up or you are likely to get more than you bargained for.



Thank you, Doc, and you made a very good point!

Like I explained earlier, I have McAfee anti-virus software and it is very reliable, so, like YOU said, that bogus stuff is no bargain.

Also, as the old saying goes, if something sounds too good to be true, then it probably isn't :applause:
 

Shermie

Well-known member
Site Supporter
Been there. Didn't do that!
I was heavy into seaching cell phone info last week and wound up on a site that didn't look very kosher. Next thing I know I got an AVG pop up asking me to download about ten updates right now, everything was expired... :bonk: Uh-huh.... that'll happen while I'm sitting here on some bogus site that didn't look like it had anything I was searching for.
I immediately closed out and ran all my stuff and I was fine, but if I had clicked on that bogus anti-virus update...

ETA; And I run AVG! So this site must have either detected that or made a lucky guess.



.....You more than likely would have been S-C-R-E-W-E-D!! Glad that you immediately took some evaisive action!

I'm also puzzled as to why the gov't won't step in tha try to make it extremely tougher for these bogus websites to do that.

Fool people into thinking that a pop-up supposedly free and supposedly trustworthy anti-virus software is good when all it is is just a way for worms, viruses and diseases to snake their way into your pc and mess things up and possibly causing your pc's hardrive to ultimately crash!!

i will run a complete system check tomorrow to make sure there is nothing dangerous in my files and then I'll do another backup.
 
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chowhound

New member
Well, the minute they step in and start regulating, all the good stuff will get regulated and the hackers, criminals and whatnot will just side-step like they always do. Leaving law-abiding sites and citizens to foot the bill. IMO.
 

Shermie

Well-known member
Site Supporter
It's awful.

There ought to be a law against these criminals!

The work of a sick depraved career criminal Frankenstien and Internet Schoolyard Bully who was too much friggen time on his hands with nothing else better to do!!

I wish that there was software strong enough to stop that from happening!!
 

Shermie

Well-known member
Site Supporter
Yeah, forgot to mention that every bogus website that I've accidentally come accross, has this bogus software, and that it is NOT to be trusted at all. That if immediate evasive action isn't taken, then it could open the door for your files getting hacked, corrupted, computer freezes and a severely damaged hard drive. Don't take any chances!

Once you close out of that site and immediately stop that pop-up from appearing, then you should be safe from it!
 

bigjim

Mess Cook
Super Site Supporter
Internet scams are everywhere. On a recent airline ticket purchase, paid for by credit card to Orbitz, my credit card was billed for 2 months (August 30 and September 2) for $9.95 each month. Turns out that there is a block on Orbitz, and many other sites, which asks if you want to save on your next ticket purchase. If you check that block, you have signed up for a vacation coupon package. The aggrevating part was that apparently Orbitz giave CC numbers to Great Vacations, or is billing for them. Further investigation indicated that there are several supposedly reputable sites, including most of the ticketing sites, that do this. The fix was reissue of the cedit card number, and AMEX took the charges off my bill. emails to all the ticketing sites were not answered. According to the complaints, Great Vacations complaint sites are numerous, and they work under a number of names. Point is, read everything on the site that you give CC numbers to, and check your bille. Some of the complainers state that Great Vacations has been taking the charge for a year. They have been under indictment and lost in many states, but they just change the name of the site.
 

Wart

Banned
.....You more than likely would have been S-C-R-E-W-E-D!! Glad that you immediately took some evaisive action!

I'm also puzzled as to why the gov't won't step in tha try to make it extremely tougher for these bogus websites to do that.


WWW= Which Government?

I believe some Governments actually encourage such behaviors.

Far as Google, not much to be done there. A while back I read how a site hosted in "other countries" set up, list numerous keywords, and cross link with numerous other sites of the same ilk, many times which they also own. Result is that pretty much no matter what search terms are used in Google these hack sites pop up near the top of the search list.

In short they have learned how to use Googles algorithms against us.

To Googles credit I have noticed these types of sites popping near the top of the returns less than I did a couple years ago.

>>

Once again the best protection is an aware user.

When going to an unfamiliar site which has a popup, and clicking on the popup, is pretty much as bright as sending money to Nigeria.

Why do these sites with bogus popups still exist? Because people still send money to Nigeria.

I too run WOT and the least it does when it stops the loading of sites is make me stop and think.

I also use several other add ons, the one I like best is NoScript. NoScript is a PITA as it prevents scripts from running until allowed. Thats not too bad from the top level, what I've found is some legitimate sites have 'outsourced' scripts and script hosting, it's not unheard of to have pages with 10 or more external scripts.


What it comes down to is when on the Web to make sure you wear your rubbers and be careful where you .... step.
 

bigjim

Mess Cook
Super Site Supporter
I think you are right. Most of the scam sites originate in "safe haven" countries such as Nigeria and the former USSR countries. The US government is powerless to regulate the internet. The best regulation is to monitor your own computer action and keep a good anti virus program current.

As for government regulation, only a few months ago, the current administration set up a web site asking americans to report "fishy" sites. Of course, for Obama, this meant sites that were active against his policies, particularly his health care plan. I'd just as soon the government stayed out of my computer, and my life.
 

Shermie

Well-known member
Site Supporter
Mine is through Comcast.

When I first saw that pop-up for that so-called anti-virus software, I, at first, thought that it was MY OWN pc's software issuing that warning.

I downloaded and installed a Windows Malicious Software Detector, so hopefully, I won't get that pop-up any more.
 

ChowderMan

Pizza Chef
Super Site Supporter
that Windows product does nothing for pop-ups.

the pop-ups are being generated by the web site and/or its links / scripts / whatever.

>>Mine is through Comcast
not terribly effective, eh?

>>MY OWN pc's software issuing that warning.

that's their point. fool you into clicking on someplace you really should not be going.

you should also be aware that since it's the bad guys doing the "programming" they usually define a click on _anything_ to be an "OK" - so whether you click on Yes, No, Close or TurnUpSideDown, you click you go there, or install something, or whatever other evil they are up to.

use Task Manager to shut it down.
 

Shermie

Well-known member
Site Supporter
The pop-up that I spoke of was from that bogus software.

I have Comcast Pop-up Blocker which works against websites that displays those annoying pop-ups that try to get you to buy their products and / or services. Some of those websites such as IMDB.COM must have a deal Netflix to try to get surfers to rent movies on DVD from them, because without the pop-up blocker, that blasted annoying Netflix pop-up keeps appearing when you change pages on that site!!

And even sometimes, the pop-up blocker itself is annoying when you try to clock on a link from a page.

Incidentally, don't trust Symantic either! Last month, I got unfairly billed $120.74 for stuff that I never even ordered! Or maybe it was a hacker who stole my debit card # and used it to buy something from Symantic.

Either or, Symantic had absolutely no right allowing that to go through without first checking to see if the "purchaser" was legit!
 
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Shermie

Well-known member
Site Supporter
My laptop pc that I'm using now, I did not include WOT.

I think that there were some blaster worms or viruses in there that had corrupted the other pc and things just went haywire, friggen slowing down and freezing the pc, making it seem so old when it's not even a year old yet and is supposed to still have mad milage in it!!

I'm not trusting any of those website for software again!! There is nothing worse than a virus-ivected slow-moving practically useless pc!! It's very annoying and frustrating!
 

Shermie

Well-known member
Site Supporter
Those are the worse!

Without Pop-up Blocker, you'll get all of those annoying pop-ups, and some of them could corrupt the files in your pc, causing it to have a mountain of problems!
 

High Cheese

Saucier
Those are the worse!

Without Pop-up Blocker, you'll get all of those annoying pop-ups, and some of them could corrupt the files in your pc, causing it to have a mountain of problems!

Oh, so you know all about those porn sites?
busted.gif
 

Adillo303

*****
Gold Site Supporter
I really think the shopping sites are worse than porn sites for dumping stuff in your computers.

So no one hs to ask, I know because, I get to fix a lot of computers.
 

Shermie

Well-known member
Site Supporter
Oh, so you know all about those porn sites?
busted.gif



Yeah, I've seen a few of them.

What's with that Slap Chop crap ad? Seems it's trying to gorilla it's way onto my screen without my permission! I'm not ordering that. :excl:
 
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YeOldeStonecat

New member
These "rogues/fake alerts/scare-ware" buggers have been on the increase over the past couple of years. They've taken over as the biggest threat, we don't see actual viruses much anymore.

I'm an SMB Network Consultant for a living (Small to Medium Business networks). I run across these rogues often, every week we have rigs come in...the majority of them my clients home computers...as I have most of my business networks heavily protected.

For home users, first...get Microsoft Security Essentials for your antivirus...it's a relatively new antivirus product that Microsoft release last October, and it's FREE. It's VERY good, it's gotten great ratings at av-comparatives.org (a good neutral/unbiased antivirus comparison site that does real world testing). MSE is free, low system impact, simple interface, runs quietly in the background, automatic updates, simple interface. It's better than most pay for products too. I see AVG frequently used. Sorry..but AVG isn't good anymore, it's relatively low in detection/cleaning rates, and it's gotten quite heavy..bogs down your PC. Avast is pretty good, but bogs down your system a bit. AntiVir..another good free one, low system impact, but it nags you often to upgrade to the pro one.

A great free "ad/spyware" cleaning too is MalwareBytes. Keep it installed on your PC, and update it every now and then. Since man of these rogues will prevent you from installing cleaning programs, having MWB installed already, you're ahead of the game. Some rogues prevent you from updating the cleaning tools, so if you're install of MWB is rather recently updated, you'll have a new version, and you can manually go download the manual update files and you're all set to scan/clean.

These rogues can still hit you even if you use alternative browsers like Firefox. And popup blockers/stoppers don't stop them either, rogues use a different method to jump up on your screen than popup ads do. Although I still need my adblock+ for sane surfing. :)

Years ago if someone got a rogue/trojan, someone would surely say "Stay off the porn sites". Not necessarily to blame anymore. The people who spread these rogues look for legitimate websites that aren't secured properly...they hack into the website, and they type in the code for their "drive by install" of the rogue. So you, the end user, you go to your normal everyday websites..totally legit safe ones, and BAM...you're hit!

Some of the methods used by the rogues to hit your system, outdated and vulnerable operating system (not up to date with patches), same thing with Java, or Adobe Flash and Shockwave. So keep those up to date. As you update them, just keep and eye on the install...and uncheck those "me-too" wares that tag along with most free installs these days, like added toolbars such as AskJeeves or Bing or Yapoo toolbar, or Norton security scan or McJunkee security Scan.

Other popular methods utilized to infect your system..websites that ask you to download media codecs so you can view multi-media. And.."poisoned content" on those p2p/torrent sites, you go searching for your favorite songs or movies or software thats..err..."free"...you go install the software or play the song, and yeah the song may play, or the movie may play..but quietly in the background..it came with some baggage you didn't know about...you just quietly installed a rogue into your system, or turned your computer into a member of a netbot army.
 

Wart

Banned
...
For home users, first...get Microsoft Security Essentials for your antivirus...it's a relatively new antivirus product that Microsoft release last October, and it's FREE. It's VERY good, it's gotten great ratings at av-comparatives.org .... low system impact, simple interface, runs quietly in the background, automatic updates, .....

About system impact, when I first tried security essentials, IIRC, it chewed up the better part of one or two CPUs. I looked around a bit and found I wasn't the only person having this experience. I guess MS fixed it? Or or mayhaps it was switching the user account to Power User, or mayhaps it was leaving the machine on all night ... Got me. Now there are times when Essentials shows heavy CPU utilization, doesn't seem to last long. Only takes up about 65 meg ... Only .. LMAO!!! remember the day when ...

The interface. I would like a slightly more involved interface. OTOH a more involved interface would create more opportunity for a user to bugger things up and probably create more ways for a hostile to compromise the system.

A curiosity: Essentials creates a log file/directory in the all users folder. another anti-viri picks up whatever is in that log file as a Trojan. Can't access the directory contain the log even from an Armin account. When the second anti-viri program picks up on the log it gives me a pop up that can't be shut off. Only way to shut off the pop up is to choose "delete file on reboot' option then reboot. If I don't reboot the window pops up, again, after a minute or so. Irritating.

I know, running programs in tandem isn't the greatest idea but, seriously, how much can I/we trust MS to secure a system? :whistling:


A great free "ad/spyware" cleaning too is MalwareBytes. Keep it installed on your PC, and update it every now and then. Since man of these rogues will prevent you from installing cleaning programs, ... Some rogues prevent you from updating the cleaning tools, ...


Yep, got it installed.

And, rogues can do more than prevent installing and updating, once or twice I've gone wandering through the ... dirty side of town ... a security update from MS would be gone. Running Update again would give an indication of a successful install of the security update but running update again would result in MS Update stating the security update needed installed ... Crafty rogue.



so if you're install of MWB is rather recently updated, you'll have a new version, and you can manually go download the manual update files and you're all set to scan/clean.

[
These rogues can still hit you even if you use alternative browsers like Firefox. .... Although I still need my adblock+ for sane surfing. :)

I also use a script blocker.

Wife doesn't, and ...

Years ago if someone got a rogue/trojan, someone would surely say "Stay off the porn sites". Not necessarily to blame anymore. The people who spread these rogues look for legitimate websites that aren't secured properly...

The way things are going these days it wouldn't surprise me if IT/the site developers are putting bogus stuff on their own sites under the direction of Management.


Some of the methods used by the rogues to hit your system, outdated and vulnerable operating system (not up to date with patches), same thing with Java, or Adobe Flash and Shockwave.

Same with browsers.

ZDNet: Should I dump Internet Explorer?

OK, should you dump Internet Explorer? Well, if you are using an old version (IE6, IE7) then you really should. These are old, outdated browsers that you should make the break from. If you are running IE6 then you really need to do that as a matter of urgency.​

Goes on to mention Shockwave.Golly, it's the day after Tuesday, time to log on as an Admin and do my updating chores.
 

bigjim

Mess Cook
Super Site Supporter
One problem I ran into with IE 64 on Windows 7 was that it was not compatible with Flash Player, and I could not play some photos or videos. Flash site stated that they are working on it. They claim to have it fixed, but I still cannot load photos or videos with IE 64.

The alternatives were to use IE 32 or go to Firefox. I chose Firefox. I still prefer IE as it seems faster to me. But am still using Firefox.

Any suggestions?
 

YeOldeStonecat

New member
I've had good experiences installing it on a wide variety of systems...including quite a few older "slow" systems. Even the wifes old laptop, an early Pentium 4 pre-hyperthread days, just 512 megs of RAM. For really old slow systems, AntiVir is about a light as you can get. Since you mentioned 2x antivirus programs at the same time, perhaps you ran into a little conflict which caused sluggishness? Running 2x AVs at once, they can actually interfere with each others (step on each other toes), in regards to the real time file protection, rendering them less effective, as well as possibly causing file corruption.

Microsoft has been on a slow and steady path regarding protecting their operating system. Years ago they bought up Giant Software, which made an antispyware application that Microsoft turned into their first version of Microsoft AntiSpyware (the orange bulls eye). That evolved into Windows Defender, which introduced other technologies they picked up purchasing other antivirus software companies...such as Sybari, GeCAD being 2 big companies they bought up, plus a few more little ones. Their ForeFront antivirus, designed for business networks, is very effective. MSE shares much of that technology.

They hit a home run with this one, seriously.

I'm an Eset Gold Partner reseller, Esets NOD32 has been steadily one of the top several antivirus brands out there, along with Kaspersky. I can use their software all I want with my NFR licenses, but ya know what I run at home on my bunch of systems? MSE. :wink: I find it very good at cleaning up infected computers, I've actually been finding it better than NOD32 which we use on our bench rig that scans/cleans clients hard drives (along with a lot of other tools).

I see sooo many rigs come into our office for cleaning that have AVG on them. I just doesn't cut it. Pains me to see people still using that, gotta spread the word!
 

Shermie

Well-known member
Site Supporter
These "rogues/fake alerts/scare-ware" buggers have been on the increase over the past couple of years. They've taken over as the biggest threat, we don't see actual viruses much anymore.

I'm an SMB Network Consultant for a living (Small to Medium Business networks). I run across these rogues often, every week we have rigs come in...the majority of them my clients home computers...as I have most of my business networks heavily protected.

For home users, first...get Microsoft Security Essentials for your antivirus...it's a relatively new antivirus product that Microsoft release last October, and it's FREE. It's VERY good, it's gotten great ratings at av-comparatives.org (a good neutral/unbiased antivirus comparison site that does real world testing). MSE is free, low system impact, simple interface, runs quietly in the background, automatic updates, simple interface. It's better than most pay for products too. I see AVG frequently used. Sorry..but AVG isn't good anymore, it's relatively low in detection/cleaning rates, and it's gotten quite heavy..bogs down your PC. Avast is pretty good, but bogs down your system a bit. AntiVir..another good free one, low system impact, but it nags you often to upgrade to the pro one.

A great free "ad/spyware" cleaning too is MalwareBytes. Keep it installed on your PC, and update it every now and then. Since man of these rogues will prevent you from installing cleaning programs, having MWB installed already, you're ahead of the game. Some rogues prevent you from updating the cleaning tools, so if you're install of MWB is rather recently updated, you'll have a new version, and you can manually go download the manual update files and you're all set to scan/clean.

These rogues can still hit you even if you use alternative browsers like Firefox. And popup blockers/stoppers don't stop them either, rogues use a different method to jump up on your screen than popup ads do. Although I still need my adblock+ for sane surfing. :)

Years ago if someone got a rogue/trojan, someone would surely say "Stay off the porn sites". Not necessarily to blame anymore. The people who spread these rogues look for legitimate websites that aren't secured properly...they hack into the website, and they type in the code for their "drive by install" of the rogue. So you, the end user, you go to your normal everyday websites..totally legit safe ones, and BAM...you're hit!

Some of the methods used by the rogues to hit your system, outdated and vulnerable operating system (not up to date with patches), same thing with Java, or Adobe Flash and Shockwave. So keep those up to date. As you update them, just keep and eye on the install...and uncheck those "me-too" wares that tag along with most free installs these days, like added toolbars such as AskJeeves or Bing or Yapoo toolbar, or Norton security scan or McJunkee security Scan.

Other popular methods utilized to infect your system..websites that ask you to download media codecs so you can view multi-media. And.."poisoned content" on those p2p/torrent sites, you go searching for your favorite songs or movies or software thats..err..."free"...you go install the software or play the song, and yeah the song may play, or the movie may play..but quietly in the background..it came with some baggage you didn't know about...you just quietly installed a rogue into your system, or turned your computer into a member of a netbot army.



I am now strongly convinced that this was part of, if not the main reason,
why BOTH of my laptop pc's had to be given a complete recovery, erasing all bad and possibly virus-infected material and restoring them both back to like-new configuration.

Because at first, I, also, thought that there really was a problem with my pc's and I let the bogus pop-up info take over!!

But this mainly comes from visiting bogus websites, especially those that are not acceptible by McAfee.

You might not see the actual virus(es), but this bogus fake & rogish scare-tactic info can really work your nerves and make your pc so slow and sluggish almost to the point where it won't work properly at all!

I couldn't even complete a virus scan because of a problem with Windows - which I think was totally currupted and affected with the most nasty malicious viruses imaginable! :oops: :puke1:
 
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