I realize there are a lot of people who know a great deal more about computers than I do, but I also know there are a lot more who don't. Anyway I just experienced a problem no one should have to experience, therefore I am writing this blog to say, "Beware" there are a lot of people in this world who get their enjoyment out of making the life of other people miserable.

 

I found out the hard way you need antispyware installed on your computer to prevent adware and malware infections from infecting your computer. If you own a computer you have adware that has been installed on it without your knowledge by websites you have visited. And chances are you also have spyware on your computer that can pass along any personal information you might have stored on your computer to the hosts of the websites you have visited. If you are using a free program such as Windows Defender to protect your computer, I can almost guarantee you - you have malicious spyware on your computer. Free spyware programs will not prevent your computer from becoming infected. I was depending upon Microsoft's free version of Window's Defender to protect My computer. It didn't, but for about thirty dollars I could have been protected and would not have went through all the trouble I just experienced. 

 

It's amazing how quickly you can become educated about certain things when you are experiencing a problem in that area. For example, a few day ago I googled my blog name and found a couple of pages of listings of the articles I had previously written under that name. I looked down page one at names of the articles, then opened page two where I found three listings. The very last listing on the page had my blog name on it, but I didn't recognize the title. Stupid me, I clicked on it to see what it was and up came some material that I don't have words to describe. Within just a matter of seconds pop ups galore began popping up on my computer screen telling me my computer had been infected by malicious malware and adware viruses; and it supposedly began automatically scanning my computer hard drive. The scan lasted for about five seconds and another pop up appeared telling me I had about two million things threatening my computer that I needed to have removed. At that point a antivirus software companies homepage popped up telling me I could purchase their software and they would take care of my computer spyware problems. I tried to exit out of it; couldn't. Rebooted; same thing happened again. After about two hours of messing with this thing and getting hotter under the collar with each passing moment; I decided to purchase their product. When I downloaded their program I had unknowingly opened the door of my computer to every kind of pop up telling me I needed to purchase this, that, and the other to fix my computer. My computer had been hijacked by a fly by night software company out of the Ukraine. I had noticed a couple of weeks before this event happened that my automatic updates had been turn off, and I could not turn them back on again. And strange little symbols were showing up in the menu bar at the bottom of my screen. Things had been installed on my computer unknowingly by this fly by night software company that would take me two days to find the root to them. I had lost control of my computer. And worse yet, at the time I didn't have a clue as to what I needed to do to get started getting rid of this problem, much less fixing it.

 

After about forty attempts to open my hotmail account, it finally opened and I was able to fire off an email to MSN explaining my problem only to find out it was a dead end when I received a computer generated response directing me to another MSN FAQ support place that wasn't any help either. I messed with this thing for a day; rebooting, and trying again, rebooting and trying again, this went on for hours at a time. Finally, Sunday night about 9 PM I got my homepage to come up and googled the name of the spyware software I had purchased to get rid of my problem - only to learn they were the one that had infected my computer in the first place; and I thought great; what now?

 

I found an article on Google supposedly written by a computer expert about spyware and viruses. He recommended another antivirus software program for thirty bucks that would remove the virus that I had paid the other company to infect my computer. This new company advertised they are a member of the Internet Better Business Bureau; and I thought they can surely fix my problem. So I purchased their software to remove the software I had previously purchased from the company that infected my computer. My new software company guaranteed it would remove 100% of the viruses and malware from my computer. No problem I thought. However, I soon discovered I had another problem. The only way I could communicate with them was via email and I couldn't get to my email to tell them about my problem, nor receive an answer from them. So I wasted another day with them and when I finally did get to my email account I found I had received one email response from them which told me they got my order and my purchase was confirmed. As of this writing I still haven't heard anything else from them.

 

Yesterday, which was Tuesday, the 16th, of June 08, I was able to get onto my computer long enough to find a page on Google posted by a computer magazine I recognized from the store shelves at the local Walmart that graded what they defined as the top ten antispyware software programs. So I figured what the heck, I may as well try the only one they gave an "A" grade and maybe I could remove the software I had purchased to remove the software that had infected my computer. Along with the purchase of their product they provided a chat line where I could talk to a live technician about my problem. After I explained my problem to him, "He told me my computer was severely infected." Upon which I told him, "I know I have a problem, that's why I bought your product. Now help me get rid of this stuff." To make a long story short it took a few hours of scanning and deleting things, but now I have my computer back and it's functioning normally again. 

 

If you want information regarding this subject; Google "Antivirus Pro 2008" and you will learn a great deal more about how fragile your computer is than you want to know. OTBP