A new virus is plaguing the internet.  A series of boxes pop up keeping you from completing the simplest of tasks. If you notice the small box on the right of the taskbar, it will say something to the effect of “antivirus scan” or “online spyware test”. When you try to resolve the issue and click the “fix now” button, you will be asked to pay anywhere from $39.99 to $49.99. This is a hijack. Never enter your credit card information. These companies are based overseas and are not held under US laws. If you pay them a ransom to “remove” their own virus, not only will the pop ups not go away, but your credit card will continue to be charged in small increments. The charges will be virtually unnoticeable, like $8.15 or $12.02. Charges you will not normally pay attention to but will milk your account for a significant amount over a course of a year.

How can they get away with this? How can they be avoided? Again, these people bypass our laws and for all intensive purposes cannot be stopped. So let’s not worry about how they can get away with it, and why is obvious: the money is good. Hijacks usually start out as a very convincing popup. It will look like something from Microsoft or from your own computer warning message system. The message usually says something similar to “Your computer is infected with 12 Trojan Viruses, click here to fix”. Your first instinct is to click that banner or popup. By then it’s too late. The hijack has taken control of your computer the moment you touched the popup. Knowledge is always the best defense against viruses. When you see these messages on your screen, do not simply ignore them, but carefully try to locate a “close” button or an X symbol at the top right and attempt to close the banner.

If there isn’t any apparent way to close the banner, simply close all of your programs and reboot (restart) the machine properly. If you didn’t activate the virus, the message should not be there after you have restarted the machine. On the other hand, if the message is still there, do not panic. Call your computer specialist and inform them of the situation. Do not try to fix the problem yourself or just hope it will go away. It will get worse and continue to infect your machine until it is unusable. It will also expose any flaws or deterioration in your hard drive and cause it to fail. This will result in a total loss of your data. Therefore, do not continue to use the computer until you have contacted a professional to help you remove the virus. Call us for a free no obligation diagnostic today! Mobile Computer Specialists 720-242-7409!