Scammers (a long rant )

[davefrombc]

Members of two other forums I'm in have been hit by a phony anti-virus that holds them for ransom by disabling their computers. It is a variant of one that was around last year , and is much more difficult to remove than last years version was because it re-directs executable files to itself so you can't just go into Safe Mode to run Malwarebytes or other programs to kill it . The phony A/V goes by several names, with XP Anti-virus 2011,Vista Anti-virus 2011, or Windows 7 Anti-Virus 2011 being the most common. All versions detect the OS you are running and pop up a fake warning and "scan" to sucker the unwary on clicking on it allowing it to install. If you get such a sudden virus warning and "scan" , just close your browser ..The usual source of the fake comes from web pages that have been hacked, so your favourite sports page , a page you go to in a search , or game site might be host to the scam. I have hit 3 sites now doing a search on aquarium related subjects. The scum also have attempted to sucker people through links on FaceBook and other social sites , and the occasional e-mail.
Here is an article I copied from another forum I'm in .. I don't know the original source , but it is a timely piece that needs to be read by all.

Edit:
Here's a link to the article: http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=62567

[Dan_G_Calgary]

thanks. i cut and pasted this in to an email and sent it to my daughters.

Somedays I swear they get pop ups that say 'do you want haz 'nother virus?'

and they reply "OTAY!"

[CACAdmin]

Thanks for the reminder Dave. Everyone needs to be extremely vigilant and realize that these individuals are always working to come up with new ways to spread viruses.

Make sure you have both a very good firewall and very good virus protection and keep the software and virus definitions up to date Even then, be very careful about sites you visit and email you open.

With email, it may appear to say it came from PayPal or your bank or a company you regularly deal with. If you want to be sure before opening it, you can check the header info of the email. To do this in Outlook, don't open the email, right-click on it in your inbox and select "Message Options". Often, without having to read any further than the first line, which is the "Return-path", this "Return-path will show you who it is actually from. If they're pretending to be someone else, it will be immediately apparent that it's from someone else.

[Kimr]

Thanks Dave, the info was great, much appreciated.

[Dandee]

My other half is a systems analyst for the school division. Over the years he has come across a couple new viruses that had not been reported yet. He has seen some doozies too.

So many new virus's come out constantly. You would think people would have better things to do.

[Kimr]

I just don't understand why people find it so darn interesting to develop virus's to ruin peoples lives! That I will never get.

[silvak]

Some really good advise is to stick with your chosen virus protection program and to keep it up to date.....preferably not Windows. It's the best way to not get fooled into getting viruses.

Have you heard of the hackers/virus developers who do it to help people? They make a virus to go in and kill other viruses, or stop trojans from sneaking out info and stuff. It's pretty cool, but it was years ago that I heard about it.

[davefrombc]

Viruses and trojans are all about making money. The low lifes make millions off compromised computers and stolen credit and bank information. Anti-virus programs don't protect against all attacks .. The scum use more " social engineering" to get people to click to allow installation of their poison as windows itself bwecomes more secure from exploits. the fake anti-virus is a prime example of that .. It does not attack a weakness in Windows , rather it attacks people who mistake it for a legitimate virus warning and scan. There are many spoofed websites out there too , with faked security certificates aimed at stealing your financial information .. Even security and Windows experts have occasionally been compromised by them .. And Mac users should start feeling a lot less smug .. there are viruses and trojans out there attacking them too.. including a variant of the fake anti-virus .Microsoft's free Security Essentials is now a top rated a/v program that is far superior to its original release.

[Kimr]

What anti virus program do you use dave?

[davefrombc]

I have AVG Free in one pc and my laptop and Microsoft's Security Essentials in this one.

[Addicted2Trophs]

its pretty shocking actually how much money is made off of these things, and not only going for things with "real life" value like credit cards
i have a friend taking comp sci and did a research project and it surprised me that a fairly large % of them are targeting the usernames/passwords of users of MMO's like WoW, robbing their accounts and selling the virtual items for US dollars, i think the term for this is RMT real money trading

there's a game called EVE online that was having a huge problem with people in china and other countries where you can pay people very tiny wages - paying people to play the game and sell the stuff for us dollars (RMT), the developers tracked them and banned a huge # of them, referred to as "unholy rage" , they (RMT'ers) responded by hacking the accounts of MANY players and taking their stuff

http://massively.joystiq.com/2009/08/17/eve-onlines-anti-rmt-operation-unholy-rage-bans-over-6200-accou/
http://massively.joystiq.com/2009/08/11/the-fight-against-rmt-in-eve-online/

theyre not just doing it to kill time or be malicious, there is lots of money involved