Online Virus?

Hey guys

Well i have internet explorer, and i have the recent posts page bookmarked in one of my tabs. 2 days ago i clicked this, and it loaded a page saying initializing virus scan instead of the page. It looks more like a virus if i was to click "Scan". Now i check the recent posts fairly often, like probably every 2hours or so when im on. I thought at first i just had a virus on my pc, i have scanned using all the software i have available, and i found nothing. About 10mins ago, i clicked the favourite again and it loaded the same page, the only way to close it is via task manager.

Now it has come up twice when i have tried opening ATS, but no other site, since it has happened twice already, if it happens again i will post a screenshot of what it looks like. Really have no idea why this is happening, dont suppose anyone else has come across this?

Yes this issue has been brought up before and has happened to many people.Not sure what's being done about it, though....

Bending the rules a bit (executive decision) and copy/pasting a post I did in another thread just about an hour ago.

Originally posted by Hefficide

There has been a rash / plague of rogue antivirus activity on the web in the last few months. Some information regarding that can be found here. These are insidious little programs that infect your system and sit idle - attacking at a later time (based upon any number of trigger mechanisms).

It sounds to me like you may be experiencing this problem. Here are some resources:

An overview "How To".
Malware Bytes.
Avast Antivirus.
Windows Defender.

All of the above have links to free of charge versions that work very well.

There are many members here, on ATS, who are very skilled at helping and are usually quite happy to do so. You'll probably have to devote a couple of hours to clearing this up - and will probably need to start your system in safe mode. If you are tech savvy, this won't be an issue at all. If not, please be honest with those helping you, let them know exactly what you are familiar with, and what you are not. They will walk you through it all very patiently - and they've helped many members fix these types of issues lately.

~Heff

I hope this helps.

reply to post by Hefficide


Heff the issue is it ONLY happens when people are on ATS so it's not the member's computer that is the issue....

This is a common virus/malware that has caught a lot of people out including myself though not associated with the ATS page ! Scan using malwarebytes and this will identify and remoe the fake virus etc !
When you next go to your bookmarks the problem should be gone ?
Hope this works for you ?

Download free version here

www.malwarebytes.org...

reply to post by Skippy1138


I, and many others are on ATS many hours each day. Me with a laptop, two desktops and now a tablet PC. I have never experienced anything on IE, FF or Opera.

As this only happens to a very small percentage of members overall, logic dictates it is not ATS.

Semper

reply to post by Skippy1138


I understand that it appears to be so. But if you visit other high traffic web destinations you will see similar concerns. These malicious programs are designed to make it appear as though they came from sites that did not distribute them. This is done for two reasons. First it makes it difficult for them to be tracked back to their source - as the legal penalties are severe for writing them - up to and including the death penalty in some nations. Seriously.

Also, if you blame the wrong site for infection you, you are far more likely to willingly visit the site that did infect you.

Rest assured that the reality is that SkepticOverlord really does to more than almost any other site that you'll visit on any given day to protect you on ATS. I'd have to find it, but there is a post from S.O. where he plainly states all the measures that ATS takes to protect our members. And they really are, by far and away, a cut above.

~Heff

ETA: Found the post from SkepticOverlord here.

No something is up... it has happened to me twice today, never before previously. I too use the "recent posts" page so maybe there is a connection. I had to use task manager to close it down. My anti virus tells me there is nothing present on my PC. I visit ATS daily.

This should help anyone experiencing these type 'fake fraud alerts' whilst surfing the Internet.

Pop-Ups, Redirects, Malware Alerts and Fake Alerts: SUPPORT THREAD

As always please feel free to U2U with any questions or concerns you may have.

For those of you experiencing this, how many other pages do you have up at the same time as ATS?

I have been here for years and never once had an issue.

I find it hard to believe that out of 6 or 7 hundred members on ATS at once, this happens to a few people, and that you really think this is something ATS is doing. I just don't see it. Sorry.

I may be wrong, but aren't there some virus' and malware that get into your computer and "sit" until a pre-programmed time and then come "alive" ?

reply to post by 12m8keall2c


Hasn't happened again yet... and has never happened to me on this site before. Now I see a thread reporting a similar experience by another ATS member at roughly the same time. Seriously something is or was up on this site. Will let you know if it happens again. But I don't think this is a mistake on our part. I haven't logged into this site in ages but after I saw this thread had to log in to post a reply as it had just happened twice to me, approx an hour before I replied on this thread.

reply to post by Phantasmagoria


This article addresses, briefly, that these types of attacks sit dormant and wait for triggers. This one gives an overview of how to find the trigger database file.

Only coming to ATS is not indicative of this being the source of infection - merely that something to do with this site (something innocent in the layout for example), or your behavior while here (link clicking - method of navigation, number of clicks, entering text, etc), is triggering it.

~Heff

reply to post by Hefficide


I disagree with your take on what happened today, but will take on board your points if it happens again. I have a feeling it won't happen. I've given my PC a good once over can't find anything. Thanks for taking the time to help, because it is appreciated.

Very Annoying!

This bugger is a most-annoying example of Mal-Ware. What looks to be like a "windows menu / box" is actually a socially-engineered attack, which when activated, downloads a trojan or virus to your computer.

HOW TO AVOID CATCHING THIS BUG:

1. The only way you can prevent this infection, is when you see a "Your PC is Infected" window or pop-up, DO NOT CLICK THE RED X on the menu or window. I know this looks like a typical Windows menu, but it's not. When you click the red "X" to close the window, you're actually downloading the trojan to your PC.

2. CLOSE ALL INSTANCES OF INTERNET EXPLORER, or any other browser, by using CTRL + ALT + DELETE and finding the running processes on Task Manager then END PROCESS TREE OR END PROCESS.

This is the only way to prevent this trojan download and save you alot of annoyance and time trying to figure-out how to get rid of it. Please don't pay those folks money to remove it. honest business won't use that kind of trick to get business. But, you'll be surprised how many folks do actually buy the service or program. If you do that, you'll probably put your checkbook in danger of being overcharged or worse.

BE SAFE FOLKS, USE YOUR NOODLE!

If this virus is the one I am thinking of, you will "allow" it to download to your system by simply clicking anywhere on the screen. The only way to prevent it from auto-installing is by using ctrl+alt+del on a Windows Machine, or using command+Q on a Mac System. Although, I have been using a Mac for two years now, and I have not seen this rogue "anti-virus" installer yet. I had a friend a few months back that got infected by this thing, and in the end, I ended up having to wipe his entire hard drive, partitions, the whole nine yards. Not saying that this is what you have to do, but if it comes to that, I would look for a program called "Boot n' Nuke." This is a DoD-grade reformat program. This will delete all partitions, hard drives, etc. and replace them with zeros. This is a last ditch effort to wipe out this particularly nasty virus that will replicate itself to recovery partitions. I've seen it happen on more than one machine. If you decide to take this route after consulting with the computer guru's here at ATS as well as all the links provided, make sure you have your original installation CD's for your system and any pertinent driver information as well as 24+ hours of free time, as that is how long it takes for this program to completely wipe your hard drive clean.

Good luck.



Peace be with you.

-truthseeker

reply to post by daveyboy1991


Dave I started a thread last week about the same thing. About getting attacked by a virus.

Come to find out. Which will probably be denied as impossible but I was attacked by conficker virus. Which has since been removed.

You have to keep in mind that this site is watched. If for some reason your talking about specific stuff you may be a target for attack so they can obtain access to your pc and veiw everything on your system.

Everything.

Just putting it out there.

reply to post by truthseeker1984


Yes, I had to re-install more than a couple of operating systems due to this bug. It uses stealth and you'll drive yourself nuts if you try to get rid of it yourself. Some Mal-Ware programs can't fix it either. They might get some, but when a trojan uses stealth, it can exist almost anywhere, including critical Windows Operating System files, so you'll have to re-install anyway.

I used to work in IT and even I got caught out by this virus about 2 months back, really nasty piece of work, had to format and reinstall everything from scratch... it lurks on innocent websites - even places like bbc.co.uk were sources

Just for clarification, because I saw what saw is my pc now infected? I closed down my pc both times and nothing is happening now? thanks for the help.

Sandbox your browser and you should never have a problem. Using malwarebytes and such is a last resort, your computer shouldnt get infected to begin with.

Sandboxie