Amid a season of Halloween horrors, the scariest thing most of us will contend with are the litany of Internet threats that can readily crash our computer system and wreak havoc on our personal and business lives.
To help folks compute with confidence this season, Nick Nascimento, Chief "Geek" at AGeek2Go—a senior-level IT service and support company—offers this hit list of "scareware"—the 4 creepiest threats Internet surfers should be aware of right now:
I. The FBI MoneyPak Trojan
This is in a class called "ransomware." which are Trojans or Virus’ that force you to PAY for them to "remove it " and of course after you pay they never do, If while surfing the Internet your computer screen is filled with a FBI warning page that claims you have to pay the $100 fine, you’re infected! Most of the time, ransomware locks up the user’s desktop, disables task manager and other system utilities to avoid the termination of the process by the user as well. However, FBI MoneyPak ransomware takes it to the entirely new level by adding a little video recording square in the top right corner of the fake FBI warning page. It supposed to be your built-in web camera. Curiously, this little square shows up even if your laptop doesn’t have a built-in camera.
FBI MoneyPak is a very convincing looking scam. It has the official FBI logo at the top and lists victim’s IP address, location, and the name of their ISP. The fake warning claims that your PC has been locked by FBI because you downloaded or distributed copyrighted material or viewed child pornography. Creepy, isn’t it? And, it asserts that if you don’t pay the fine you will go to jail. Simply visiting an infected web site is enough to trigger this exploit kit which will download a malicious DLL file onto your computer. This is an Advanced level Bug to deal with so if you are not familiar with more advanced parts of your computers operating system such as editing the registry etc. it’s advisable to consult a professional Removal Specialist.
II. Malicious ‘eventvwr’ SCAM from Offshore Call Centers
This second troublemaker doesn’t START with your computer but it very well ends there. This scam can be especially dangerous for unsuspecting, less computer-savvy target victims. The scam goes like this: You get a call from a guy with a generic name such as "Adam Smith" who explains to you that he’s a registered Microsoft technician and received a call alerting him that your IP address is the source for serious attacks on their servers due to multiple computer virus infections on your end. If you ask for any information on the source or target IP addresses involved, the person will attempt to deflect the question, and inform you that he/she is unauthorized to provide you that information!
They will proceed to try convincing you that your computer is full of viruses (based on some standard status and error messages automatically generated by your computer), and they try to get you to grant them complete access to your entire computer, including passwords, credit cards, and other sensitive information, via the free "Ammyy Admin" remote desktop control software. If you don’t agree to buy their useless, thieving "support services", they’ll use the computer access you openly granted them to damage your computer and randomly delete files.
III. Fake Virus Alerts / Scareware. One of the most virulent is known as "MSREMOVAL TOOL
It is just ONE of the Fake Virus removal programs that install themselves onto your PC and request Money to make them work. THEY WILL NOT WORK AND IF YOU PAY THEM THEY WILL NOW HAVE YOUR CREDIT CARD INFORMATION. Here are the two most common ways they are distributed:
(a) Via Infected IMAGES you may view Via Search engines!
(b) Via Pop – UNDERS (pop-ups that hide behind the page you are viewing.) When you see that FLASH be sure to LOOK QUICKLY. You just may see a very small window that is downloading the Malware CLOSE IT!! If it completes its task it will then launch that warning window. That is the other way they are delivering this malware.
IV. FakeInst SMS Trojan and its variants
Now we turn to the most overlooked segment for attacks: mobile users. Mobile users are MUCH easier to attack, not just because of their cell phone vulnerabilities but the fact that people do not even THINK about their phones as the Small Computers they are.
"FakeInst disguises itself as popular apps like Instagram, Opera Browser, and Skype, and sends SMS messages to premium-rate numbers. There are more than a dozen variants of this bug and growing. There are well-known companies that produce security software for mobile phones and many of them have FREE versions that can and do help keep you safe from these types of attacks. Remember, by simply getting your apps from the OFFICIAL app sources, either your phone’s app store or the app developer’s own site, you can virtually eliminate this type of threat all together.
"Computer users need not despair," Nick notes. "Sometimes we do win the fight as was the case when a Federal court imposed a $163 million judgment on a woman who the FTC says helped run a scareware ring that tricked more than one million consumers across six countries into purchasing fake security software. But it’s imperative to be vigilant and ‘in the know’ as dangers definitely lurk."
Nick Nascimento is Chief Executive Geek at aGeek2Go LLC Computer Repair, San Diego’s most trusted provider of IT Services & Support as well as computer repair for home and business users both on-site and remote. He may be reached online at ageek2go.com.
