System tool virus software - is it legit or a scam

Passport1

Hi
Is there any organisation or forum in Dublin you can contact regarding VIrus software companies and if they are legit or if its a scam

I had issue last week with my personal laptop computer whereby i turned it on one morning last week and starting getting popups saying i had all these virus' on my computer. I have my own virus software that i update regularly and its running in the background all the time and runs daily scheduled scans

These alerts were telling me i needed to install 'System tool' to clear the alerts and clean the virus

Trying to dismiss these alerts, it was like the software or whatever it was was taking control over my whole machine. If i tried to start explorer it wouldnt let me - it told me my file was infected, same if i tried to load a CD/DVD, same if i tried to manually run my own virus software, same if i tried to run IE, same if i tried to start applications. The machine was completely locked down and i couldnt do a thing.

I shut down machine and started it in safe mode and ran a deep scan of my virus software and it reported no errors or virus.

I restarted machine normally and same thing - all these messages about my machine having all these virus and not able to do anything .

The only way i was able to unlock my machine was to buy this virus software and it installed and allegedly cleaned my machine and everything returned to normal and machine has been running fine since

I got email acknowledging my purchase of this virus software but when i ring the number which is US number i just get routed to a cd track playing

Anyone know if this is legit virus software and above above or have i been scammed.

If it above board and legit - great. If it a scam, i can live with my personal loss of the cost they charged me but it would be good to be able to notify relevant organisation regarding this so that similiar doesnt happen to others

Thoughts?
PM if it more appropriate
Thanks

Moocawn

Hey Passport1,

I just read your message there. In my opinion this was definitely a scam and if you paid for it using your credit card you should request a charge back and cancel your card. They now have your credit card details and will probably use them again. I have cleaned dozens of these type of fake virus alerts. You won't be able to detect them using your normal antivirus, what antivirus do you use? In my opinion you should download malwarebytes anti-malware (http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php). It is a free program that is quite good at picking up these trickly little malwares. There are numerous other programs that I could recommend but I find malware good for a the most of them. I don't believe in paying a lot of money for antivirus software, I find the free ones do a good job, I use avast free and I also use a free firewall called Comodo, (http://personalfirewall.comodo.com/free-download.html). It is quite good and as I said it is free. It does have its limitation however, I find the easiest way to pick up malware is by doing things like streaming tv series/movies off the internet and visiting websites that look dodgy. I use web of trust (http://www.mywot.com/) for firefox and it is generally good enough. If malwarebytes doesn't find anything you can pm me and I will recommend a different course of action.

I hope I have been of some help to you.

P.S., I wouldn't be sure on who you could contact in relation to this, these companies and ten a penny on the net and I doubt there is any suitable recourse that would bring them to justice!

u140acro3xs7dm

I would notify your credit card company asap. They could be taking money from it as we speak or they could have sold the information. As far as i know you will be issued a new credit card with a new number.

As for the actual virus. If you get it again start up in safe mode with networking by tapping f8 when the pc is starting up. Run rKill then Malwarebytes as mentioned above.

bhickey

Lucy Whispering Igloo wrote: »

I would notify your credit card company asap. They could be taking money from it as we speak or they could have sold the information. As far as i know you will be issued a new credit card with a new number.

As for the actual virus. If you get it again start up in safe mode with networking by tapping f8 when the pc is starting up. Run rKill then Malwarebytes as mentioned above.

Cleaning this one looks like it needs just a little bit more work than just the usual Rkill + Malwarebytes because it changes proxy and hosts file settings. See here for reliable instructions on how to remove it. Even if your system seems clean, run these instructions anyway. These people are criminals so it's not safe to assume that they've undone the damage.

As for the credit card, contact your credit card company as suggested and get a new card. Remember, these are not nice people.

emsharon

Hi Passport1

Like you i unfortunately fell for this scam as it took over my computer. I have contacted the credit card company but they didnt seem overly helpful. I have requested a charge back explained that i didnt receive anything for my money and this company are misleading people into thinking they are buying a windows product. We have also cancelled the credit card. I ran a superspyware product and am hoping that it is deleted also restored my computer to a few days previous when i knew it was ok. I have saved everything on my comp now incase i have to have it wiped.

obrien.cathal

Hi guys,

Sorry to hear about your issues with these scams. They can sometimes prove quite tricky to remove and other times can be relatively simple. To add to that, sometimes you may get simultaneous infections with both adware and rootkits and the like which can make it even more tricky. If you want more information on how to remove them yourself Technibble can by quite a good resource. Their forums are usually buzzing with details of the current scamware. We also provide a virus removal service if you would prefer to get someone else to do it .

Cathal

cookie1977

You could also try kaspersky antivirus remover passport:
http://devbuilds.kaspersky-labs.com/devbuilds/AVPTool/
It's updated daily and is pretty good at removing viruses although sometimes in the end if a machine is riddled it may be best to format and reinstall the os