There seems to be an increase in "scare-ware", specifically programs that look to be legitimate anti-virus programs, that will popup while you are browsing and tell you they've detected dozens of trojans and viruses.
Two people at work, a neighbor and my son have all got these, most while in Google images.
These look pretty realistic - most look a lot like Windows Vista or Windows 7 screens. They have names like "Windows 7 Antivirus 2011" and you'll see popups that look a lot like the real windows popups.
They can lock down your computer so that you can't run programs or scans, and may hijack your browser so that you can't easily browse the internet for solutions. You'll want to shut down, get on the internet on another computer and print off instructions how to remove the specific version you've got.
I had one of these pop up, and I immediately hit Ctrl-Alt-Del and logged off and back on, and had no trace of the virus. My son clicked on a Cancel button, or the red "X" to close the window and it installed hooks in the registry and startup so that it kept coming back. We ran malwarebytes and that removed it completely. My neighbors weren't so lucky. Malwarebytes couldn't run due to the virus, so we booted in Safe Mode and it still wouldn't run, so we had to restore from a restore point. Took about 3 hours to remove the thing.
So if you see an over-the-top virus scan reporting dozens of trojans and suggesting you purchase the software to remove them, know that it's most likely a scam. Try not to click on the window at all. Log off or shutdown your computer instead and you may escape.
If you do end up with one of these, you'll want to do the following - and it will depend on exactly which variant you get
1) Shut down and start in Safe Mode. In most cases the computer will start up cleanly and you can then do one of two things:
a) Restore your computer from a Restore Point (from Conrol Panel - Recovery)
b) run a full scan with your antivirus - if you're lucky it will find and remove it
c) install and run malwarebytes (from malwarebytes.org or cnet) - this has worked 100% in all cases I've helped with
d) Ad-Aware may remove it - it didn't in one case I know of
2) If safe mode doesn't work, you'll want to boot from the Windows CD (or recovery disk - if you never made one, and that would be most of you!). Choose the option to install or repair, choose the windows installation, and then the option to recover using a restore point.
Like I said, I know three people (myself included) who had these pop up when searching through google images, so it can happen to anyone. Some antivirus and anti-spyware/malware programs will stop these better than others. Apparently Kaspersky is good at stopping it. I use AVG and haven't had any virus problems in years, but it did not detect this. Norton Corporate at work did.
Suggest you all make sure you have a recent restore point and if you don't have a recovery disk, you might want to make one now.
