just an old-fashioned girl

Hello and welcome. I'm glad you dropped by. If you´re looking for something a little nostalgic of bygone eras with a timeless elegance and a little modern twist – in other words, something slightly “retro” – then you should feel right at home here in my shabby chic room. Month by month, there will always be something new to see so I hope you´ll enjoy your stay and come back again soon.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Held To Ransom


Yesterday I left my computer for a while to attend to my laundry and when I came back the entire screen was filled with a message purporting to be from the police. It informed me that I´d been caught visiting illegal websites and that access to my computer was being denied until I´d paid a fine of €100. Even if I hadn´t heard of this nasty malware I´d have realised immediately that it was a scam but it was still quite a shock to suddenly be denied access to my computer. I was totally perplexed about how to deal with it until it occurred to me to simply switch off the computer and immediately switch it on again. This prompted Windows to offer me the option of running it in safe mode in which I had access to all my programmes but no access to the Internet so I was able to run a malware scan. Sure enough, 3 items were detected and deleted and after I´d restarted Windows things were back to normal again. I´m no computer expert and there´s probably another way of dealing with this pest but it worked for me. If you don´t already have Malwarebytes I suggest you install it immediately. You can download a free version here: www.malwarebytes.org/

3 comments:

  1. Excellent public service announcement. :o) You did exactly the right thing. Another way to tell when a pop-up or email is probably malware or phishing is that the authors usually can't spell. It always makes me laugh. If they're going to try to scam me out of thousands of dollars at least learn how to spell.

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  2. So glad you were able to bypass a computer catastrophe! I don't understand what these people that create viruses and malware think they are going to prove. jerks.

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  3. I can only assume these people have nothing better to do with their time...they need to get a life and leave the rest of us alone. Glad you are so wise and aware!

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