These annoying bits of software pop up and tell you your machine is infected with 176 (any number will do here!) viruses and you need to do a scan right now! You attempt a scan and at some point you’re told you can purchase the program for $89.95 and your computer will be cleaned. What? Umm, you know you just paid your Norton renewal fee. Why would you need to pay for anything? Well, you don’t.
The author of the program just wants your money. Not much of a surprise there. The program disables your current Antivirus system and leaves itself free to beg for your credit card information. What can you do? Well, one free malware removal tool usually takes care of it. If you already have it on your computer, you just need to update it and then run it. If not, you need to get it installed and run it.
Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware takes care of the large majority of this type of program. Download the Free Version and get it installed on your machine. If you have no internet access, you can download it on another computer and save the file to a USB drive or write it to CD, then move the file to your infected machine and install the program.
Occasionally, your computer will not allow you to install it once the computer is infected. If this is true for you, turn your computer off, turn it back on and when you see your logo screen begin pressing the F8 key (once per second) until you are provided with a menu. You will see an option for “Safe Mode.” Select “Safe Mode” and your computer will continue to start. This is a no frills way to boot your computer and it may take a little while. Once you see a desktop, go ahead and install Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware. This is one of the few programs which will install in “Safe Mode.”
After running. Malwarebytes, your computer should be fairly clean of viruses. Go ahead and do a scan with your normal antivirus software just to verify!
