Guest Ken8143 Posted November 2, 2009 #1 Posted November 2, 2009 Be careful, folks! I must have downloaded something off the net that looked like it came from microsoft. It is BlockWatcher and is supposed to be good for you - says it will pick up spyware and virus and all - They want you to pay $50 for the privilege of removing bad stuff. It is a scam, pure and simple. And it gets deeply embedded in the computer. It is a mess. You can't uninstall it by any known normal methods. Spent a lot of Saturday messing with that pesky malware - found a program on line to uninstall BlockWatcher. Just because something looks legit doesn't mean it is!
footsie Posted November 2, 2009 #2 Posted November 2, 2009 Try webroot.com spysweeper with anti-virus, has worked well for me. 39.95 per year
Dano Posted November 2, 2009 #3 Posted November 2, 2009 Yup, I have spy-sweeper, AVG and use window-washer if I suspect any hidden downloads. I also use Malwarebytes to scan and get rid of the crap, along with hijack-this and combo-fix. Does a 'puter a world of good. Glad you got rid of it, but it sure is a lot of wasted time to do it!
dunvilsteev Posted November 2, 2009 #4 Posted November 2, 2009 Just went through almost the same thing all afternoon, antivirus seem to catch it, but.... NO!! My little gem was called Antivirus Pro and was a trojan that infected like H1N1... took no prisoners! I couldn't open up anything to "restore" or repair. There was instructions to clean it out manually online but they didn't work for me, or else they have smartened up and taken extra precautions so you can't remove it. It even kept turning on the browser all by itself and switching between Viagra commercials and porn sites... well I guess it wasn't ALL bad, but still I had to do the "reformat polka" most of the aft. and then updates after updates after updates. Finally done! But it does run like a top now! That reformatting must be like a carb tune for the 'puter!!
Dano Posted November 2, 2009 #5 Posted November 2, 2009 Next time it happens, go to www.malwareu.org and they help you get rid of it without having to re-format your 'puter.
SilvrT Posted November 2, 2009 #6 Posted November 2, 2009 Be careful, folks! I must have downloaded something off the net that looked like it came from microsoft. It is BlockWatcher and is supposed to be good for you - says it will pick up spyware and virus and all - They want you to pay $50 for the privilege of removing bad stuff. It is a scam, pure and simple. And it gets deeply embedded in the computer. It is a mess. You can't uninstall it by any known normal methods. Spent a lot of Saturday messing with that pesky malware - found a program on line to uninstall BlockWatcher. Just because something looks legit doesn't mean it is! Ken.. appreciate the warning but isn't what you're saying a bit of a contradiction? If a program can be found to uninstall it, that would seem "normal" to me. I'm just sayin....
lonestarmedic Posted November 2, 2009 #7 Posted November 2, 2009 I have hit a few of these things. A lot of the time you can download legitimate remover software on another computer and put it on a USB stick. Then start the infected compter in safe mode. The old F8 salute before the Microshaft logo. Then you can kill enough of the garbage to be able to go normal at a reboot and finish with the other bug-killers. JB
BOO Posted November 2, 2009 #8 Posted November 2, 2009 I've had a few of these in recent years, you need to stop and immediately go and restore your computer. If you start clicking on different windows and trying to go to another site to download something to fix it you will have more problems. No matter what it says about shutting down and restarting or this that and the other thing I just go and restore. Has worked every time so far.. BOO
ediddy Posted November 2, 2009 #9 Posted November 2, 2009 There is a bad program that will pop up on your computer and say you have malware and it is going to scan your computer. It starts scanning and then says your computer is infected and you need to buy their program for $49.95 to clean it up. It is a scam. You can't exit out of the program. It says it is from microsoft and looks just like the official microsoft program. It locked up my computer and I had three different computer techs tell me the only way to get rid of it is to wipe your hard drive clean and start over. My son did a google search for this program and there were people all over the US that had experienced this program. Some technoweenie had a write up that told you what files in your registry you need to delete to get rid of it. You can't recognize any of the files by the name of the virus. My son managed to get rid of the program but there have been two times since that it popped up and started scanning. I immediately shut my computer off it didn't get in. Oh by the way, the first time it got on my computer my anti virus showed it had blocked it but it didn't. I was watching 60 minutes one night and they had a segment on this malware. It is being sent by a 15 year old boy in Russia. They even showed his picture. He is grossing $15,000 per month spreading this program. You can buy all the spyware and malware programs available but they won't do anything with this malware.
tunish Posted November 2, 2009 #10 Posted November 2, 2009 I got this malware as well. I found out that the malware starts up automatically when you re-boot and I could not uninstall it as it was running. I went to start and typed in msconfig. I went to start up and found the little bugger and shut it off at start up, and was able to remove it after another reboot. It took me a long time to figure it out. I know many others who got this too. I would like to meet the person who released this malware into the computing world and smack him around a bit. This was about a year ago, so maybe the malware guy made it even harder to get rid of. I would think some of the better malware programs could remove it pretty quick. Just spend the extra forty dollars and be done with it.
Guest Ken8143 Posted November 3, 2009 #11 Posted November 3, 2009 Ken.. appreciate the warning but isn't what you're saying a bit of a contradiction? If a program can be found to uninstall it, that would seem "normal" to me. I'm just sayin.... Yeah well - what I wanted to say is that the antivirus programs dont help a bit to remove it once it is there. Like running Norton stuff. Wont touch it. You have to go deep into the registries or be lucky to find a program that will uninstall. Because are are so many files and registries involved.
SilvrT Posted November 3, 2009 #12 Posted November 3, 2009 Yeah well - what I wanted to say is that the antivirus programs dont help a bit to remove it once it is there. Like running Norton stuff. Wont touch it. You have to go deep into the registries or be lucky to find a program that will uninstall. Because are are so many files and registries involved. ok ... I understand .... what's that saying... something like "I know you understand what you think you heard but I'm not sure you heard what you thought I said..." (something like that) LOL That was me on that end LOL
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