Beware of ANTIVIRUS LIVE scam!

[chickensoup]

     I've had no contact with the Navitron site (its like having arm missing) due to my recent laptop...RIP!! contracting the Antivirus live malware, i had some viruses over the years, but nothing as aggressive as this. It comes on the screen as an antivirus software, that has just found some serious viruses on my laptop and that i must download the software for £69 from....well somewhere!
                         The thing is though, it prevents you from opening or starting anything..no tinternet, no system restore, rejects all cd-rom anti malware software, there is a manual way, but as I'm no computer whizz, removing registry keys is way out of my depth. I called my local independent computer company, they said it  could be done but there's no guarantee. They also said, removing and reinstalling windows may also remove it, but as I've lost my boot disc, I'd have to buy a new bundle..about £100. My memory was getting low on my old lappie, and an upgrade would be about £100, so I've cut my losses and bought a cute little netbook from good old Argos reduced to £250.

     So be vigilante and run a good anti malware program, and I've just also downloaded firefox on this new lappie and the other kids p.c's.

                       
              Chicken                               

[martin]

Don't chuck your old computer, a friendly geek can almost certainly revive it by ripping off the remains of Windoze and installing Ubuntu (which comes for free, and is far less likely to get viruses)
Nice to have you back!

[RichardKB]

Yes they are nasty to remove.

I have managed to clean quite a few of machines with those rogue programs on.

Started off with windows antivirus 2009 when it was 2008.

It usually starts with a popup on an infected website and can't be cancelled, You have to kill it with control alt delete.

Then scan with antispy software to make sure it is clean.

Rich

[petertc]

yes some of the little so and so's recognise the name of removal software and wont allow you to run/ install it.

one machine i found i had to rename the .exe file as test or something like that to get it through.

Normally the best method is to have you handy bootable Linux Live CD and usb hard drive,
run from linux get all of the data off that you need then reinstall the OS again ( and Again , and Again  )

I do the IT for the company i work for as a secondary job with all of the AV hogging the resources i wish we could dump windows and move to something less virus prone.  But we need the software vendors do port there products over or allow them to be run from an internal web server.

we also run unix workstations so not many issues with them ( aprt from you can't buy unix workstations any more even though the cad systems are still being sold that run on them ( Catia V4)