A Warning To All Safelist Users

[rpsmith]

Hi,

If you use safelists, I am posting this for you. There is a scam that is online where you (the intended victim) suddenly find yourself looking at an official looking webpage (It could look like it came from Microsoft or your Internet Provider) with a loud and repeating warning that your system has been infected with some sort of virus. Furthermore, it instructs you to call a number to have it removed.

 

DON'T CALL THAT NUMBER AND DON'T PANIC! It's all a scam! To clear the page and the annoying alarm hit the ESC key. To be on the safe side, You can log off and run your virus scanner just to make sure! (I can't emphasize the importance of keeping your virus scanners up to date).

 

It is important to remember that these pages are set up to get you to panic. To the uninformed, they are very effective.

 

The reason I post this is to warn everyone of these pages and what NOT to do. I ran across one a few days ago and then again two days ago when I was working through some ads in one of the safelists I belong to.

 

To Your Success!

[captkirk]

Hi,

If you use safelists, I am posting this for you. There is a scam that is online where you (the intended victim) suddenly find yourself looking at an official looking webpage (It could look like it came from Microsoft or your Internet Provider) with a loud and repeating warning that your system has been infected with some sort of virus. Furthermore, it instructs you to call a number to have it removed.

 

DON'T CALL THAT NUMBER AND DON'T PANIC! It's all a scam! To clear the page and the annoying alarm hit the ESC key. To be on the safe side, You can log off and run your virus scanner just to make sure! (I can't emphasize the importance of keeping your virus scanners up to date).

 

It is important to remember that these pages are set up to get you to panic. To the uninformed, they are very effective.

 

The reason I post this is to warn everyone of these pages and what NOT to do. I ran across one a few days ago and then again two days ago when I was working through some ads in one of the safelists I belong to.

 

To Your Success!

 

Thanks for the warning!

[Clare Bowen]

Wow, thanks a stack for the warning.

[Monika]

Thank you for the warning.

I too have gotten similar warnings a few months ago.

I always hit escape, then do a virus scan.

 

All the best to you.

[ckoch]

most of the time if you use control alt delete you can close the browser and sometimes you can go in history and

delete the page.

 

I had to reset the browser once as a last resort.   I once emailed a company about these.  They said and I quote

those are just ads Claire.   Don't download or make any calls youll be ok.

 

haha not when my virus software comes up and warns me too.

 

how can they be just ads if they are tricking people and you can't x out of them?  For goodness sakes

[Darren Olander]

Yea these are nasty, I've run across it before. Sometimes you can close the window really quick otherwise you are usually stuck with closing down your whole browser, they want you to think you are infected with a virus so that you will call their # and take your money. They may even try to get access to your computer when you call them for "tech support" so you would feel forced to pay them to clean up your computer. If you're running virus protection then most likely you are not infected and you just need to close the window. 

 

Anything like this should definitely be banned on any safelist, it is NOT ok!

[affilliate3percent]

Warning!! Today there were at least 8 e-mails being circulated that warned of phishing codes in the e-mail itself via Google Gmail. If you use G-mail phishing e-mails have a red oval that warns when you click the e-mail that the code of the e-mail contains maliscious content used to steal your private data. Threee of the e-mails were related to quality leads and the 4th was for iCoinPro that I saw. I was on my phone at the time so I don't have a list of all the subjects.

 

Andy Zeus Anderson

[rpsmith]

I have seen those messages popping up in just about every safelist I belong to. (I.E quality leads subject line).

[Bruno Duarte]

didnt this messages used to pop now and then back in the late 90s?

[Steve Man]

Thank you for the warning.

[rpsmith]

Yea these are nasty, I've run across it before. Sometimes you can close the window really quick otherwise you are usually stuck with closing down your whole browser, they want you to think you are infected with a virus so that you will call their # and take your money. They may even try to get access to your computer when you call them for "tech support" so you would feel forced to pay them to clean up your computer. If you're running virus protection then most likely you are not infected and you just need to close the window. 

 

Anything like this should definitely be banned on any safelist, it is NOT ok!

 

Another point to mention about this scam is that their "tech support" may be either planting a virus or scanning your browser history to locate your financial information. One of the major tip offs to this is how fast their "scanner" does its scan. I have seen some really fast scanners, but nothing like theirs. Plus, if you look carefully, it does even have your disk files on it.

 

As a funny note, I saw some vids on youtube where hackers destroyed the "tech support" computers with viruses or even removing all of their OS files. You should have heard the reactions when the scammers finally figured out what had happened.

[rpsmith]

Hello all,

I wanted to update this thread and give an additional warning about this particular scam. A couple of days ago, I ran into an updated version of this scam. It went through the warning part, but then indicated that it would "lock down" my computer to "prevent further damage." I tried the ESC key and even tried to close the windows all to no avail. Given the issue of people having their computer files encrypted and destroyed by this form of Internet trash, I went to my last resort and emergency shut down my computer. On restart, I noted no issues outside of the standard boot up sequence. My scanner ran yesterday and gave no indication of any problems.

 

For all of this, i would like to offer a few tips: 1) Make backups of your important files and keep them seperate from your computer hard drive. 2) Keep your anti virus/anti malware, and firewalls updated. 3) If you run into this, take no chances. If you have to do the same thing I did, hit the power button fast.

 

To your success,

Ryan

[thegiant]

A lot of the people I work with are stumbling upon these, just web surfing like normal, luckily most of them know to ask me, before they do anything drastic like call the number.

[PDFutral]

My mom fell that and totally got screwed over they messed her comp up bad.  We had to take to a computer repair shop.  I told her when that stuff happens just leave the page.  She said she couldn't get off the page.  I said reboot it but don't believe this if it ever happens again.  200 dollars listen learned.  Glad it was only 200

[market101]

Someone wrote about a safelist scam:

 

DON'T CALL THAT NUMBER AND DON'T PANIC! It's all a scam! To clear the page and the annoying alarm hit the ESC key. To be on the safe side, You can log off and run your virus scanner just to make sure! (I can't emphasize the importance of keeping your virus scanners up to date).

 

I appreciate the warning, but I have a question.  What's the difference between hitting the Esc key or the Del key?

 

 

[rpsmith]

TRuthfully, I have never tried to use the DEL key. Only the ESC key. So I really couldn't tell you. The only thing I can tell you is that the ESC key is the only one that seems to work to break out of this. As I may have mentioned in an update to this, I ran into one of these that did its best to lock up my system, but I forced a shutdown (I.E. the power button) to break out. i also scanned my system to see if I had been infected with some sort of virus. Fortunately, I came up clean.

[pf4edward]

Greetings.

 

If you are using Windows, MacOS, and even Ubuntu operating systems, your computer is getting hacked on every day.  

 

Do your computing in a GNU/Linux OS environment that puts your freedom as a user in the #1 spot of priority.  The list of gratis OSs you can sample without ruining your installed OS are here: gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html

 

i bet this problem won't be an issue as it NEVER was with me.

 

I recommend PureOS or Trisquel.

 

FWIW.

[caceytaylor]

Greetings.

 

If you are using Windows, MacOS, and even Ubuntu operating systems, your computer is getting hacked on every day.  

 

Do your computing in a GNU/Linux OS environment that puts your freedom as a user in the #1 spot of priority.  The list of gratis OSs you can sample without ruining your installed OS are here: gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html

 

i bet this problem won't be an issue as it NEVER was with me.

 

I recommend PureOS or Trisquel.

 

FWIW.

 

 

Did you receive a virus from a safelist or something? If so do you have a program or list of safelist programs we should avoid?

[pf4edward]

Did you receive a virus from a safelist or something? If so do you have a program or list of safelist programs we should avoid?

 

In the past when i used Windows, & MacOS, it happened and i was a victim with my data held hostage by a virus (and it didn't matter how i got infected). i played the "whack-a-mole" version of using anti-viral software... and avoiding other anti-viral solutions ... and lost good and meaningful data in the futile exercise.

 

But the scam warnings others have experienced and shared, the knee jerk reaction of one killing power to the computer possibly damaging the hard drive itself, and the incomplete protection tips left by yet another member all screamed VICTIMIZED by design from the proprietary operating systems that runs the computer at the lowest level.

 

That's why i posted the missing solution/tip of changing the OS software to the free/libre ones that nips such problems "in the bud", by design.

 

Currently, no, my computer does not receive viruses unawares.  and changing the OS was the solution i found to be most effective.

[rpsmith]

Hello everyone,

I wanted to pass on an update to my original post. There is, apparently, an updated version of this scam making its way around the Internet. It starts out the same as the original, BUT there is a significant difference to the new one: It apparently loads the sound file into your computer's memory and continues to repeat the original warning. I'm not sure why, except to create panic. hitting the escape key does not seem to work as before. BUT, I found a solution: use your browser's forget feature, if you have it. I mention this to warn you all. I have run into this a few times.

[Cynthiagarden]

Actually, I was hit hard by these scammers. Without thinking through it, I lost money and time because I thought my computer was infected, and after contacting my service provider, I found out I was scammed. Not a good feeling. But...a lesson learned!

[weblord]

i think this is one of their ads where you will receive a lot more trojans if you download one.

[downliner]

 

Those messages are what is known as Javascript alerts (scam tech support companies buy them to use for their businesses) and they cannot do any harm to your computer. They are intended just to get you to think there is a problem.

 

Sometimes you may find it difficult to get rid of the alert however and in this case it's best to just close the browser using Alt + F4. Some javascript codes are designed to listen to where your mouse heads (simialr to that of a splash page that detects your mouse is moving off the page so shows you a last chance popup) so it's recommended to use your keyboard rather than your mouse to close them.

 

Aside from that they are harmless and if you want to have a laugh and prevent someone else being scammed you can dial the number and waste a bit of their time. Always remember they will try to convince you your computer is damaged and they usually do this through the command prompt and the event viewer as the event viewer always shows errors and warnings no matter how in shape your PC is. 

 

If you are experienced enough and want to really waste their time then set up a virtual machine on top of your existing one and then take the "Microsoft technisheern" through the steps to connect to your system. They can't do anything to your actual system because they will only be viewing the virtual machine and most don't even know it! 

 

Otherwise just close the popup and carry on as normal. You don't need to do a virus scan as nothing can be put on your computer without your explicit consent (ie you download and open something). 

[weblord]

great to know, that you came out clean, and thanks for the warning.

TRuthfully, I have never tried to use the DEL key. Only the ESC key. So I really couldn't tell you. The only thing I can tell you is that the ESC key is the only one that seems to work to break out of this. As I may have mentioned in an update to this, I ran into one of these that did its best to lock up my system, but I forced a shutdown (I.E. the power button) to break out. i also scanned my system to see if I had been infected with some sort of virus. Fortunately, I came up clean.

[ckoch]

There are a lot of low lifes sending emails that if you don't pay them they are gonna post you looking at porn all over the web.  Too bad I never look at porn lol.  Its almost as bad as this only different because they don't lock down anything.  Just a heads up ignore the emails.