Scareware!

For safer surfing, better use Firefox with NoScript installed.

I have read numerous emails from folks that get one of these scareware alerts. Most of them are wanting to know how to remove it as their security protect doesn't help.

Today I experienced first hand one of these 'fake alert' scareware/malwares. I like to read the comics online and have a few sites bookmarked. As soon as I clicked on one of them the 'fun' began.

My browser opened full screen (which is an annoyance) and then I got the alert telling me 'your computer is infected!' It appeared to be scanning something, however I know it wasn't scanning my computer.  These malware writers really know how to scare folks. The alert looked real and if I hadn't known about these scammy 'alerts', I might have been hooked into buying thus infecting my computer with more spyware!

Firefox had opened a new tab from a site, isoft-online. (I would not go there if I were you!) The alert was there, all but screaming at me. I could not close the tab and I could not close Firefox. My ESET flashed that a threat had been quarantined, but I still could not close Firefox.

I brought up the Task Manager and closed Firefox. When I reopened Firefox there it was again. Task Manager again closed it. The next time I opened Firefox it asked me if I wanted to restore the previous session and of course I clicked 'no'.

Lesson learned, install NoScript on Firefox.

To test, I went back to the infected site. Something tried to load besides the site, but was unsuccessful. I am still going to update my spyware programs and run indepth scans, just to be sure there are no infections.

I checked the quarantine logs to see what was blocked and it was listed as 'NSIS/TrojanDownloader.FakeAlert.C trojan. You just can't be too careful on the Internet these days.

Martha

Spoofed Calls

We changed our phone number recently to 'unlisted'.  Unfortunately for us, the new number once belonged to some folks who didn't pay their bills. For some of the calls we've manged to convince the callers that the debts don't belong to us and they have stopped calling.

One type of call I really hate are the jerks that give you the option to 'Opt out', but you have to listen to the entire call to get the option to press '2' or another number to opt out. Those calls ensure that I will never under any circumstances use their product/service or whatever they are trying to sell.

But the worst offenders are the 'robo' calls, especially the robo calls using spoofed phone numbers! These perps belong to the same class of email scammers that fill our inboxes with spam!

I keep getting calls from folks trying to get me to lower my interest rate on my credit cards. I just need to 'press 1 now to speak to a representative'.These calls are filling my answer machine so I decided to see if I could 'opt out and answered a call. The robot went through
the spiel and I patiently waited for the call to get to an option for opting out. However I waited in vain! Instead the annoying person repeated three times 'Press 1 now!, each time getting louder and more annoying.

I decided to call the number displayed on the caller ID and was greeted with the message 'your call cannot be completed as dialed'. So what is going on? Is this really a legitimate call for me to lower my interest rate? Nope, it is a scam.  They will try to sucker me into paying for some scammy service that doesn't really exist or they just want my credit card details so they can steal them and rack up a lot of fraudulent charges.

So from now on when the phone rings if I don't recognize the number, the answer machine will just get busy. Or maybe I'll just turn the sucker off!

Martha