Surfers and downloaders beware

 

The U.S. government just broke up a real humdinger of a scam.

The scammers created a virus that would turn off your virus updates and it would re-direct your browser to their servers that in turn would direct you to bogus sites that were loaded with ads that they got money for - whether you clicked on them or not.

The FBI replaced those servers with their own, so that people would not lose their internet connection. Removing the virus sets thing straight, but they can't figure out who all the users are to tell them.

The servers are going off line June 9, 2012. After that those that are infected with the virus will lose their connection to the internet.

Hmmmm, if you lose your connection, how do you get the software to fix it.

Anyway, wouldn't hurt to read the story and go to the site provided (linked) in the story, and check your machine.

Also, manually getting your virus updates and running a virus check may work. I don't know, because I don't have the virus. grin

It's a very small percentage of computers that are infected. But, God Forbid it if anyone here has to go through Poi-Factory withdrawal. sad

See:

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/04/23/hundreds-thousands...

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Metricman DriveSmart 76 Williamsburg, VA

Nice to know

It would be nice to know if anyone here does find the virus on their machine.

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Metricman DriveSmart 76 Williamsburg, VA

I saw the article in the

I saw the article in the newspaper last week. Checked 3 units and all were OK.

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Charlie. Nuvi 265 WT and Nuvi 2597 LMT. MapFactor Navigator - Offline Maps & GPS.

Checked two and were okay

Checked two and were okay

Clean

metricman wrote:

It would be nice to know if anyone here does find the virus on their machine.

Mine's clean. I appreciate the heads-up, though.

--
"No misfortune is so bad that whining about it won't make it worse."

Squeaky-clean here

mrgreen

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Nüvi 255WT with nüMaps Lifetime North America born on 602117815 / Nüvi 3597LMTHD born on 805972514 / I love Friday’s except when I’m on holidays ~ canuk

Mines OK

charlesd45 wrote:

I saw the article in the newspaper last week. Checked 3 units and all were OK.

I too saw that article and checked my PC, all ok.

--
Always on the Road Knowing where I've Been

Checked Out

Checked out my PCs and fortunately all are OK. Also advised famil and friends.

--
Bob: My toys: Nüvi 1390T, Droid X2, Nook Color (rooted), Motorola Xoom, Kindle 2, a Yo-Yo and a Slinky. Gotta have toys.

Good info. to know. I am

Good info. to know. I am sure MS will have an update to remove it, if they haven't pushed it out already. Keep your system up to date.

I think the government would

I think the government would be doing the world a favor. Those who lose internet may actually get some real important things done, and stay off the internet when they can't keep their computers secure.

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http://www.poi-factory.com/node/21626 - red light cameras do not work

Can't they just take you to a page that says you're infected?

Instead of happily re-routing you so that you don't realize you're infected, why don't they just route you to a page that says you're infected and what you need to do to fix it.

Mines OK

Mine checked out good.
Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

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Tight lines

This doesn't pass the smell test.

metricman wrote:

Snip

The FBI replaced those servers with their own, so that people would not lose their internet connection. Removing the virus sets thing straight, but they can't figure out who all the users are to tell them.

Why would the FBI purchase enough servers to supply Internet connection to folks who are infected? How does the FBI's server know your original Internet destination?

Something isn't right with this and, if it's all the same to you, I'll stay away from the "test" site.

Smells bad to me, too

jackj180 wrote:
metricman wrote:

Snip

The FBI replaced those servers with their own, so that people would not lose their internet connection. Removing the virus sets thing straight, but they can't figure out who all the users are to tell them.

Why would the FBI purchase enough servers to supply Internet connection to folks who are infected? How does the FBI's server know your original Internet destination?

Something isn't right with this and, if it's all the same to you, I'll stay away from the "test" site.

Yes, this is a lot of to-do from companies who make a profit providing removal services. The very simplest solution would be to set the fake proxy servers to display a "If you are reading this, you are infected. Click one of the links below for help." The list of participating help sites in these articles is not very impressive. Where are the big well-known names like McAfee or Symantec?

Forwarding the infected users quietly without any notice does absolutely nothing to help them.

Weird

Very smelly article indeed. It seems that it might be more appropriate for an April 1st article.

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Tuckahoe Mike - Nuvi 3490LMT, Nuvi 260W, iPhone X, Mazda MX-5 Nav

For The Doubters

More information here:

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=97510.0

The original post in that thread said...

"Also, fbi.gov doesn't have any reference to it either..."

...but that is not true:

https://forms.fbi.gov/check-to-see-if-your-computer-is-using...

Thanks

VersatileGuy wrote:

More information here:

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=97510.0

The original post in that thread said...

"Also, fbi.gov doesn't have any reference to it either..."

...but that is not true:

https://forms.fbi.gov/check-to-see-if-your-computer-is-using-rogue-DNS

Thanks VersatileGuy for the links.

Searching for DNSChanger @ Google brings up plenty of hits.

This article claims it may be on Apples with OS X:

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/november/malware_110911

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Metricman DriveSmart 76 Williamsburg, VA