Woodythepecker
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- 30 Jul 2004
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I am what you would call a novice when it comes to computers and in the world of virus's or intruders i know zilch. So i hope that someone can help me.
The other day i ran the AOL spyware protection software and it came back and told me that i had something called a "Key Logger" which i have since found out is a program that copies every key stroke that you make and sends them to some ars--hole who can then use details of my credit cards etc. I don't know how long this program was on my laptop or if they got any details that i would not want them too have, but i removed it with the spyware tool and i am now hoping for the best.
Now i do not know if this was anything to do with the keylogger or not, but yesterday for no reason i can find (and i still do not know why it happened) my laptop suddenly crashed and i could not get it to boot up again. I phoned Packard Bell and because my machine (my son's really) was out of warranty they charged me £1.50 a minute to talk me though the recovery program, which put the computer back as it was when it was new. At first they tried something called a "Non-Destructive Recovery" but a message said something about:
An Error during extraction process. "Error detail Automatic error the file or directory is corrupted"
In the end we had to do a Destructive Recovery where we lost all of our files, photos etc. Their final word of wisdom after charging me £20+ was that i should make backups of files.
Anyway ever since i came back on the internet yesterday i keep on getting something called a "MESSENGER SERVICE" popping up. This is not like the Security Alert Details that Norton Internet Security sends me when something is trying to get into my computer. Who or what ever is sending these massages keeps on changing the wording. For instance it states that my computer is infected and that if i am using"x operating system", and then it goes onto mention all the operating systems that it will effect, which is all of them except M E.
It then goes on to state that my system resources are being used for illegal activity like sending spam, committing fraud and flooding the internet with Dos attacks!
After this it points you to a web site where you can learn to remove these malicious programs for FREE!
They seem to pop up every 30 minutes or so and they are always a different message with a different web site address. Do you think that these are genuine or are they bad? Also do you think that they had anything to do with my computer crashing?
Finally i have Norton Internet Security so how did that keylogger get into my computer?
Regards
Woody
The other day i ran the AOL spyware protection software and it came back and told me that i had something called a "Key Logger" which i have since found out is a program that copies every key stroke that you make and sends them to some ars--hole who can then use details of my credit cards etc. I don't know how long this program was on my laptop or if they got any details that i would not want them too have, but i removed it with the spyware tool and i am now hoping for the best.
Now i do not know if this was anything to do with the keylogger or not, but yesterday for no reason i can find (and i still do not know why it happened) my laptop suddenly crashed and i could not get it to boot up again. I phoned Packard Bell and because my machine (my son's really) was out of warranty they charged me £1.50 a minute to talk me though the recovery program, which put the computer back as it was when it was new. At first they tried something called a "Non-Destructive Recovery" but a message said something about:
An Error during extraction process. "Error detail Automatic error the file or directory is corrupted"
In the end we had to do a Destructive Recovery where we lost all of our files, photos etc. Their final word of wisdom after charging me £20+ was that i should make backups of files.
Anyway ever since i came back on the internet yesterday i keep on getting something called a "MESSENGER SERVICE" popping up. This is not like the Security Alert Details that Norton Internet Security sends me when something is trying to get into my computer. Who or what ever is sending these massages keeps on changing the wording. For instance it states that my computer is infected and that if i am using"x operating system", and then it goes onto mention all the operating systems that it will effect, which is all of them except M E.
It then goes on to state that my system resources are being used for illegal activity like sending spam, committing fraud and flooding the internet with Dos attacks!
After this it points you to a web site where you can learn to remove these malicious programs for FREE!
They seem to pop up every 30 minutes or so and they are always a different message with a different web site address. Do you think that these are genuine or are they bad? Also do you think that they had anything to do with my computer crashing?
Finally i have Norton Internet Security so how did that keylogger get into my computer?
Regards
Woody