XP Security questions.

I have a little run circle with a white X in it that appears on my taskbar, It keeps flashing the Message "Your computer is infected with Spyware!"

I clicked on it and it downloaded what appears to be a Windows anti-virus program. The program ran and claims to have found 31 infected files. Then it asked me if I want to delete them. I said sure.

Then it wants me to register the software first for $49 a year!!!

And it sends me to the following link to make payment.

http://www.xpsecuritycenter.com/buy.html

Is this really Microsoft? Or is this whole thing just a scam in itself to get my credit card info???

second question

How do I make that red ball with the white X in it go away???

It keeps flashing the message that my computer is infected every couple minutes, it's really annoying and I can't make it go away!!!

Is this part of Windows XP, or is this whole virus warning system a virus in it's own right????

Anybody know?

How to I get rid of this crap???

NOW THERE'S BUG CRAWING ON MY SCREEN EATING UP THE WEB PAGE!!!

WHAT DO I DO???

you better get a fifth of whiskey and a hammer...

JMO - think it's just to get your personal info

if you have spyware, go to www.downloads.com download spybot, free.

I also use Adaware from lavasoft, also free

This is more than just spyware!!!

This is a major virus!!!

BUGS CRAWLING ON MY SCREEN!!!

WHAT IS THIS???

CAN I RECOVER FROM IT???

HELP!!!!! QUICK!!!

I'M NOT KIDDING!!!!

also download AVG - for virus scans

never heard of a bug on screen so cant help you there, but I would uninstall whatever you just downloaded.

My sister is having the same issue with her laptop....I would like to help her with this so what should we do?

Go here and download the basic protection. But...remove any other anti spyware you have on your computer before downloading AVG otherwise there is a possibility your pc will get corrupted.

http://free.grisoft.com/

Do a search for Avast. Its totaly free as long as you don't use your pc for work or business. I got it and it works great. It updates daily which is kind of annoying and it scans slow. But it works great and its free, Check it out!!!

avast.com

I've already lost complete control of that computer. Whatever it is has taken over everything I don't know if I'll be able to recover it or not. I had to shut it down.

I'm using a differnet computer now.

Has anyone seen anything like this? It's taken over complete control. It's calling up DOS PROMPTS and everything. I went to activate the TASK MANAGER and it says that it has been disable by the administrative manager.

As soon as I saw that I just shut down the whole comptuer. I'll try to reboot without an internet connection and see if I can regain control of it. Otherwise I'll have to reload the entire system. Fortunately I have data backed up on other comptuers.

I just wonder if someone got any of my personal information and passwords? All my cookies disappeared.

Whatever this thing is it's really NASTY!!!

not sure but cover your a$$, change passwords especially if you have used 'that' computer to do personal banking, etc.

I don't know if I'll be able to download anything with it.

I'm thinking I might have to do it using a CD Boot-up with a boxed antivirus software. I don't think I can run the comptuer booting up from the C drive. I lost everything I'm afraid.

Yes, I can go do that from this comptuer right now. This comptuer hasn't been infected.

well at least you're prepared and have the data backed up.

but honestly start changing all your passwords, rather be safe than sorry

I'm chipping away at them. At least I got to my bank before they did.

I still have some other accounts to change too thought. I'm on it right now! It's slow with dial-up though.

It's nice to have a back-up computer, I'll tell you that much!

...I got a webroot virus/spyware removal and protection @ Best Buy....ran it for 4-7 days every day, it finally got most of that stuff off, put it in quarintine for me...

I think I'm going to have to do a reformat and system restore to get rid of this beast. Fortunately I have all my files backed up.

That's the nice thing about having 4 computers networked together.

I chose to do that instead of buying back-up drives, etc.

The other three computers weren't affected by the virus because they weren't turned on at the time.

Owl just wipe out the infected computer and restore it like new.

It's not a biggy.

But my God! That's a nasty virus whatever the heck it is!!!

It actually generates graphics of cockroaches eating up the screen!!! They don't only eat the web browser, but everything else too including the taskbar and the desktop!!!

I don't know how I got that sucker!!!

Owl have to install a better virus detector to prevent that sort of thing from happening in the first place.

look into the ones I mentioned, I use AVG, Spybot and Adaware. all free and I have not had problems

Download:

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

and

http://www.ccleaner.com/

and

http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

DON'T EVER CLICK ON ADVERTISEMENTS!

They installed an old silly trojan on your computer to make you scared and buy their software, which would just remove the trojan they installed. It's a scam. Remove whatever software it was that you installed. It's adware. Run the above programs and it should fix your issues.

Don't give them the satisfaction, just remove their junk. And NEVER click on anything that says "YOUR COMPUTER MIGHT BE INFECTED!" or something to that effect. It installs spyware or adware or trojans or all three. You might still have to blow your computer away, but you can probably fix the problems with the software packages that I listed.

I never do. And I didn't install anything on purpose. But this thing was pretending to be part of Windows XP. I kind of thought something was up. I should should have shut down earlier and rebooted and reconnected before it was finished downloading. That's was my stupidity!

I knew something was up. But it did it all on it's own. I didn't give it permission to do anything, and I'm not sure that I did to trigger the event, if anything?

I did click on that balloon from the Windows security alert. That may have been part of the whole scam.

These virus writers really tick me off.