On Wed Jul-26-2017 07:08, Daryl Stout (1:19/33) wrote to ROGER NELSON:

RN> 7 tips to stay cyber safe this summer

 DS>   Thanks for these posts. I'm saving several of them, and creating
 DS> ZIP files for download, in the Computer Virus Protection Area on my
 DS> BBS. 

Everytime I get one from Wendy Zamora at Malwarebytes, I post it.  If you
aren't running Malwarebytes, I highly recommend it.  I use it and MSE to
keep my system safe.  Even the free version of Malwarebytes will save you a
lot of heartache.

 DS>   On another note, I had a virus scare last week, but I recognized
 DS> it as a scam.

 DS>   The deal locked up Google Chrome, displaying a message that "my
 DS> system was infected, and I needed to call Microsoft at this toll
 DS> free number". 

I don't get those as often as I used to, but I did the same thing you did
except I didn't reboot.

 DS>   Suspecting it was a ruse (it was, confirmed by 2 fellow ham radio
 DS> operators...one who had worked in IT for years), I just closed the
 DS> browser with the Windows Task Manager. I then rebooted the system
 DS> into safe mode, and ran a full virus scan (which took all
 DS> night)...but, the system was clean. When I restarted Chrome, it
 DS> asked if I wanted to "restore" it. Realizing that would activate
 DS> that crap again, I told it to instead "open a new window". I then
 DS> went in, and flushed the cache (I normally have it set to do that
 DS> when I exit Chrome). The former IT guy (he has retired, due to
 DS> health issues) notes that he usually sees this twice a week.

I dumped Google Chrome last month.  Caused me some problems and I only use
Firefox now.  If I want to use Chrome, it's on my Android.  (-:

 DS>   Basically, if you call that number (it is NOT Microsoft, and
 DS> Microsoft does NOT offer "a virus help line"), these thugs (for
 DS> lack of a better word), convince people to download this "virus
 DS> cleaner", but it's malware designed to scan your system looking for
 DS> important data. Then, they cause panic in saying you need to pay
 DS> them large amounts of money to get things fixed...which you have no
 DS> guarantee of them doing...never mind you may have just become a
 DS> victim of identity theft.

Microsoft has spent hours on the phone with me trying to straighten out a
problem I had with a system I bought for my son-in-law back in January. 
The key lasted for 6 months -- something I never heard of before and so
last night, they put a new install of W7 64-bit on the machine and
everything is fine now.


Regards,

Roger 
--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+