I was working on a blog post Monday night, and I wanted to include a picture, so I did a Google image search like I've done so many times before. However, this time that was the WRONG decision, and I ended up getting a nasty computer virus from one of the images I clicked on. It's the kind of virus where you get a message that says your computer is infected with viruses or other problems that are harmful to your computer and that you'll have to pay a $89 fee to fix the problem.
It's a complete scam, of course, and the virus completely hijacks your computer. I couldn't open any of my programs, including the internet. The desktop background was replaced with a blue screen that said, "WARNING, you're computer is infected!" in big red letters which was followed by a poorly written message that had grammatical errors, etc. (Hence the "you're" instead of "your" in the title of the message.)
Long story short, I didn't know what to do and since my computer is my lifeline, it was a very frustrating problem. I told my sister Laura what had happened, and the same thing had happened to her twice before, so she fortunately knew how to fix it. She looked at my computer yesterday afternoon when she was over, and it didn't take her too long to fix the problem and get me back up and running. Hooray!
I'm not saying that I'm going to stop doing Google image searches, but every time I do I'm going to "hold my breath" and pray that nothing bad will happen. The internet can be a scary place sometimes! I wish it were easier to catch the thugs that make computer viruses. What low-lives! It's a pretty cowardly thing that they do – sneakily hiding behind their computers, just waiting to wreak havoc with yours!
If this happens to you, the program that you need to fix the problem is called "Malwarebytes Anti-Malware." (It's free!) Click here to find out more about MalwareBytes'
It's a complete scam, of course, and the virus completely hijacks your computer. I couldn't open any of my programs, including the internet. The desktop background was replaced with a blue screen that said, "WARNING, you're computer is infected!" in big red letters which was followed by a poorly written message that had grammatical errors, etc. (Hence the "you're" instead of "your" in the title of the message.)
Long story short, I didn't know what to do and since my computer is my lifeline, it was a very frustrating problem. I told my sister Laura what had happened, and the same thing had happened to her twice before, so she fortunately knew how to fix it. She looked at my computer yesterday afternoon when she was over, and it didn't take her too long to fix the problem and get me back up and running. Hooray!
I'm not saying that I'm going to stop doing Google image searches, but every time I do I'm going to "hold my breath" and pray that nothing bad will happen. The internet can be a scary place sometimes! I wish it were easier to catch the thugs that make computer viruses. What low-lives! It's a pretty cowardly thing that they do – sneakily hiding behind their computers, just waiting to wreak havoc with yours!
If this happens to you, the program that you need to fix the problem is called "Malwarebytes Anti-Malware." (It's free!) Click here to find out more about MalwareBytes'
2 comments:
You gotta love it. Why are there people who get their jolleys off of infecting other computers? Weirdos!
Glad you are up and running again! We have Malwarebytes too --Tim is the protector of the castle and the computer and that is what he uses. :)
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