Hit with Malware...UGH!!!

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Permalink Reply by Julia Mason on August 22, 2012 at 7:45pm

Tabby,

If you don't have a program called Malwarebytes on the computer, go to this website www.malwarebytes.org and download it. Install it on the computer in question and shut the computer down and reboot into Safe Mode. Run the Malwarebytes program and if you are infected with that scam , it will detect it and remove it to quarantine. I han tell you this program is free  for home users but they do sell a Pro versions for businesses. I have used it ever since I found about it in a computer forum I belong to.The forum is called PCQ&A so Google it for the website. The guys there are very helpful if it is something they can help with they will provide it free of charge. I am registered there as Daylilydayzed.. Another forum for help is the Computer help forum on the Gardenweb.com site. You have to register there but it is free if you want to post your problem there. I hope these ideas will help you.

Good luck to getting your computer cleaned of the hostage email scam.

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Permalink Reply by Tabby on August 22, 2012 at 9:06pm

Thanks....I'll let hubby know.  i pulled my antivirus and noticed no malware protection.  I thought it had it.  I know he ran Microsoft (neighbor runs it) program and showed nothing. Will tell him the program you suggested. Sometimes I hate computers..lol

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Permalink Reply by Allyson Pereira on August 23, 2012 at 9:32am

My husband is a computer tech, we're in North Lakeland. If worse comes to worse and you need a repair, let me know. He is cheap and does excellent work. He can fix anything.

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Permalink Reply by Tabby on August 23, 2012 at 11:16am

Thanks!!!  This morning hubby went and restored it from a week ago rather than reinstall everything and lose all my games on here.  I was able to pull off all pictures, videos and recipes with no issues.  Will try running the malware later today just in case.  When he tried hooking up to the internet this morning before going back a week, that screen popped up and could not go any further.  He went back a week, hooked up to the internet and so far no pop ups and I can surf the web with no issues.  I do got to look at all our IP addresses because McAfee is saying one is untrusted, but we can trust it or delete it.  I think it's the desk top.  So many things to figure out.  LOL

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Permalink Reply by Allyson Pereira on August 23, 2012 at 12:38pm

Kaspersky is the BEST anti-virus to use ...just for future reference :) Let me know if you need any help!

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Permalink Reply by Christie Henderson on August 23, 2012 at 9:27pm

I've actually always used AVG Free antivirus and never had any problems. Now I have a Mac and no antivirus, still no issues. To remove existing problems, antivirus programs, no matter how good, are generally not helpful. If you haven't reformatted yet, download Hitman Pro (free trial is fine) and it will find and remove the existing malware without having to reformat and start from scratch. I've used it on 5 or 6 people's computers and it's worked perfectly every time.

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Permalink Reply by MR Mom on August 24, 2012 at 10:06am

I had a very similar sounding issue with my computer, the virus I had wanted a "fee" to have it removed also. If you need help with computer related issues I use Christa, aka: "My Computer Girl." Her cell is 863-521-1079 and she will either come to your office/home, offers pick-up and delivery as well as allowing you to drop off or pick-up. I found her services excellent and the fee's very reasonable too.

This is the process I had to use to eliminate the similar virus I had, which sounds like what you have might be the same one. It does take quite an effort but it worked. Good Luck!

(Copy and pasted text):

Print out these instructions as we will need to close every window that is open later in the fix.

It is possible that the infection you are trying to remove will not allow you to download files on the infected computer. If this is the case, then you will need to download the files requested in this guide on another computer and then transfer them to the infected computer. You can transfer the files via a CD/DVD, external drive, or USB flash drive.

This infection changes settings on your computer so that when you launch an executable, a file ending with .exe, it will instead launch the infection rather than the desired program. To fix this we must first download a Registry file that will fix these changes. From a clean computer, please download the following file and save it to a removable media such as a CD/DVD, external Drive, or USB flash drive.

FixNCR.reg (http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/reg/FixNCR.reg)

Once that file is downloaded and saved on a removable devices, insert the removable device into the infected computer and open the folder the drive letter associated with it. You should now see the FixNCR.reg file that you had downloaded onto it. Double-click on the FixNCR.reg file to fix the Registry on your infected computer. You should now be able to run your normal executable programs and can proceed to the next step.

If you do not have any removable media or another clean computer that you can download the FixNCR.reg file onto, you can try and download it to your infected computer using another method. On the infected computer, right click on the Internet Explorer's icon, or any other browser's icon, and select Run As or Run as Administrator. If you are using Windows XP, you will be prompted to select a user and enter its password. It is suggested that you attempt to login as the Administrator user. For Windows 7 or Windows Vista, you will be prompted to enter your Administrator account password.

Once you enter the password, your browser will start and you can download the above FixNCR.reg file. When saving it, make sure you save it to a folder that can be accessed by your normal account. Remember, that you will be launching the browser as another user, so if you save it to a My Documents folder, it will not be your normal My Documents folder that it is downloaded into. Instead it will be the My Documents folder that belongs to the user you ran the browser as. Once the download has finished, close your browser and find the FixNCR.reg file that you downloaded. Now double-click on it and allow the data to be merged. You should now be able to run your normal executable programs and can proceed to the next step.

Now we must first end the processes that belong to Win 7 Antispyware 2012 & Vista Antivirus 2012 and clean up some Registry settings so they do not interfere with the cleaning procedure. To do this, please download RKill to your desktop from the following link.

RKill Download Link - (Download page will open in a new tab or browser window.)

When at the download page, click on the Download Now button labeled iExplore.exe download link . When you are prompted where to save it, please save it on your desktop.

Once it is downloaded, double-click on the iExplore.exe icon in order to automatically attempt to stop any processes associated with Win 7 Antispyware 2012 & Vista Antivirus 2012 and other Rogue programs. Please be patient while the program looks for various malware programs and ends them. When it has finished, the black window will automatically close and you can continue with the next step. If you get a message that RKill is an infection, do not be concerned. This message is just a fake warning given by Win 7 Antispyware 2012 & Vista Antivirus 2012 when it terminates programs that may potentially remove it. If you run into these infections warnings that close RKill, a trick is to leave the warning on the screen and then run RKill again. By not closing the warning, this typically will allow you to bypass the malware trying to protect itself so that rkill can terminate Win 7 Antispyware 2012 & Vista Antivirus 2012 . So, please try running RKill until the malware is no longer running. You will then be able to proceed with the rest of the guide. If you continue having problems running RKill, you can download the other renamed versions of RKill from the rkill download page. All of the files are renamed copies of RKill, which you can try instead. Please note that the download page will open in a new browser window or tab.

Do not reboot your computer after running RKill as the malware programs will start again.

There have been reports of this infection being bundled with the TDSS rootkit infection. To be safe you should also run a program that can be used to scan for this infection. Please follow the steps in the following guide:

How to remove Google Redirects or the TDSS, TDL3, or Alureon rootkit using TDSSKiller

If after running TDSSKiller, you are still unable to update Malwarebytes' Anti-malware or continue to have Google search result redirects, then you should post a

virus removal request using the steps in the following topic rather than continuing with this guide:

Preparation Guide For Use Before Using Malware Removal Tools and Requesting Help Topic

If TDSSKiller requires you to reboot, please allow it to do so. After you reboot, reboot back into Safe Mode with Networking again.

Download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, or MBAM, from the following location and save it to your desktop:

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Download Link (Download page will open in a new window)

Once downloaded, close all programs and Windows on your computer, including this one.

Double-click on the icon on your desktop named mbam-setup.exe. This will start the installation of MBAM onto your computer.

When the installation begins, keep following the prompts in order to continue with the installation process. Do not make any changes to default settings and when the program has finished installing, make sure you leave both the Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware checked. Then click on the Finish button.

MBAM will now automatically start and you will see a message stating that you should update the program before performing a scan. As MBAM will automatically update itself after the install, you can press the OK button to close that box and you will now be at the main program as shown below.

On the Scanner tab, make sure the the Perform full scan option is selected and then click on the Scan button to start scanning your computer for Win 7 Antispyware 2012 & Vista Antivirus 2012 related files.

MBAM will now start scanning your computer for malware. This process can take quite a while, so we suggest you go and do something else and periodically check on the status of the scan. When MBAM is scanning it will look like the image below.

When the scan is finished a message box will appear as shown in the image below.

You should click on the OK button to close the message box and continue with the Vista AntiSpyware 2012 & Win 7 Home Security removal process.

You will now be back at the main Scanner screen. At this point you should click on the Show Results button.

A screen displaying all the malware that the program found will be shown as seen in the image below. Please note that the infections found may be different than what is shown in the image.

u should now click on the Remove Selected button to remove all the listed malware. MBAM will now delete all of the files and registry keys and add them to the programs quarantine. When removing the files, MBAM may require a reboot in order to remove some of them. If it displays a message stating that it needs to reboot, please allow it to do so. Once your computer has rebooted, and you are logged in, please continue with the rest of the steps.

When MBAM has finished removing the malware, it will open the scan log and display it in Notepad. Review the log as desired, and then close the Notepad window.

You can now exit the MBAM program.

As many rogues and other malware are installed through vulnerabilities found in out-dated and insecure programs, it is strongly suggested that you use Secunia PSI to scan for vulnerable programs on your computer. A tutorial on how to use Secunia PSI to scan for vulnerable programs can be found here:

How to detect vulnerable and out-dated programs using Secunia Personal Software Inspector

Your computer should now be free of the Vista AntiSpyware 2012 & Win 7 Home Security program. If your current anti-

virus solution let this infection through, you may want to consider purchasing the PRO version of Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware to protect against these types of threats in the future.

If you are still having problems with your computer after completing these instructions, then please follow the steps outlined in the topic linked below:

　

　

　

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-win-7-antispyw...

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Permalink Reply by Joyce H on September 23, 2012 at 7:51pm

Hi Allyson,

I just sent you a friend request because wanted to chat with you about your husband's computer services.  Our computer crashed on the weekend and wondered if it is worth fixing and you mentioned your husband does computer repair.  Not sure if it is worth fixing, but there are pics and documents on the computer that I would like. 

Thanks,

Joyce

Allyson Pereira said:

My husband is a computer tech, we're in North Lakeland. If worse comes to worse and you need a repair, let me know. He is cheap and does excellent work. He can fix anything.

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