Thanks for the heads-up, Tammy.....we need all the help we can get when it comes to the nasties out there.

Phyllis

WOW! I have Vista so I would likely not be sucked in, but that is good info about clicking the X.

Thanks, Tammy.

Rita, you can get it with Vista too. So be careful.

Thanks Mickey!! I just copied and emailed your post to a couple people.

Thank you! I also emailed your advice to a few friends.

Trish

Thanks bunches!!!!

I went thru it the begining of the month I just hope I got it all out of my computer!!

Excellent advice Tammy. I was hit a couple weeks ago with this virus and knew what to do. I did forward your info though on to my family members.

Jodi-

I have heard that not only do these pop-ups give you the virus if you choose to click [close] or [cancel] but are also now designed to give it if you choose to click the 'x' in the box. Its a fake 'x'. Tricky. The better way is to close the tab or even shut down the browser and not to choose 'continue session' when opening the browser up again. You might lose what you were working on but that is better than clicking on a virus. Is what I've heard true?

I got it on my laptop...that's why I did a rebuild a couple of weeks ago...it was soooo ingrained in everything there was no way to get rid of it...It is one nasty virus and my dh has been in the computer business for the last 25 years and finally gave up trying to fight it and just did a reinstall...The bad thing is...I have NOOO idea where it came from...My McAfee caught it immediately but I was the sucker who clicked on the wrong thing and it was on and having a field day!

Liz, it has popped up at me twice while I was on myspace. Luckily I knew to "x" my way out of it. I'm sure you can get it other places too though.

Dillydally, The only problem with these popups is that they are not within your browser or a new tab. Closing your browser will still leave the popup, it stands alone, if that makes sense.

Like I told Liz, it has popped up to me twice while at myspace, and when i clicked the x a new box would pop up, but I just kept hitting the x on each box and it got me out of it and i didn't get the virus.
Hope that helps.

The one I got about a month ago said "Anti Virus 2009"

I just meant if I got a message pertaining to XP that I would be immediately suspicious since I run Vista.

:-)

Thank you for thinking about us! I would have never guessed that would be a virus.

One of the girls here at work clicked on it and got the virus. What a mess. We're still working to clear it up.

Thanks for the info! I'll be extra careful.

I had it pop up today. Nothing turned it off so I turned my computer off. That did it. It came up when I opened a link to check telephone insulator prices. Have some to sell for my neighbor.
Kathy

My parents just lost their computer. I wonder if this is what killed it.

It really burns me. My parents are not computer-savvy. They just want to play a few games and keep in touch with their kids. It's so hard to explain to them what is 'safe' and what isn't.

The people who create these viruses have to be among the lowest forms of life.

Oh boy, you are not kidding with this. It pops up from your system tray like an update, and it looks like a bona-fide windows message.

My parents had to do a complete restore of their computer and lost everything. This was after I spent a few hours trying to clean it off. Plus I have been chasing it all over the office for the last few days. Can you say nightmare?

Thanks, Tammy. I got your email before I came here. Yep, I can vouch for you!

Tami

Will your Pop-Up Blocker stop it? But, I don't click
on anything anymore.

My pop-up blocker is constantly beeping here on Garden
Web. I don't know what they are, of course, but they
sure must have a lot of them going.

You have probably single handedly saved many a computer with your message. I for one, really appreciate it and have passed your message on.

Trin

we have been dealing with this nasty thing daily here on the computer help forum and on many other tech help forums I work on. It is on many legit sites, it gets into the website through a "hole" and even the website owner has no idea it is on their site infecting their visitors.
There are 2 very good free programs that so far have been getting rid of it completely. I will provide the links here for you, if you have any problem with this thing head over to the computer help area here and we will help you with it.
Also I will give a link here that is excellent in explaining just how this thing works.

these 2 free programs are ones you can install and use weekly to make sure your pc is staying clean, but always update them before running a scan.

SUPERAntiSpyware

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware here are the directions for this one
# Double-click mbam-setup.exe and follow the prompts to install the program.
# At the end, be sure a checkmark is placed next to Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, then click Finish.
# If an update is found, it will download and install the latest version.
# Once the program has loaded, select Perform full scan, then click Scan.
# When the scan is complete, click OK, then Show Results to view the results.
# Be sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected.

this is the article Anatomy of a Malware Scam
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/22/anatomy_of_a_hack/print.html
very good advice there.

stay safe!

I got one too, but I just hit the x as I have an antivirus already and wasnt interested. Wow, Im glad I did. Had no clue!!!!