Random pop-up virus warnings deserve ‘extreme skepticism’
Q: Last week my computer was fine. The next time I wanted to use it, a big message appeared on my screen that a problem had been detected and that I should not turn the computer off, but should call the number listed, which I did. The man on the phone told me my computer was infected with viruses and that he could fix it. I allowed him to connect to my computer, and I was on the phone for four hours when I was told the problem was resolved. He then told me I had to pay $199 for this service and to put it on a credit card. I paid the fee. Have I been duped? Or is that company for real?
A: Yes, you have been duped. What you saw was a pop-up advertisement in the form of a warning. This pop-up was designed to scare you into calling the number and letting this unknown company connect to your PC with the intent of taking your money.
The company may or may not have actually performed any useful actions regarding the functionality and health of your computer, but it certainly made off with some of your hard-earned cash.
If you see a pop-up like this, treat it with extreme skepticism. Reboot the computer to see if it goes away and scan your computer for possible spyware using the free version of Malwarebytes from malwarebyte.com. If you have been infected, this will usually clean it up.
I would be concerned with the fact that you gave your credit card to an unknown entity.
It might be a good idea to contact your bank to see what advice the bankers give you regarding this incident.
Also, I would be concerned about having allowed these people to have access to your computer.
Since we don’t really know what they did while they were connected, I would recommend going through and changing your account passwords for your bank, your email and any other services that control your sensitive data.
At the end of the day, you are likely only out the money you spent on this scam, and you’ve learned a valuable, if costly, lesson.
My rule of thumb is to never do business with aggressive marketers like this. If you think your computer has a problem, take it to a tech you trust.
Q: Is there a way to delete all of my Internet Explorer Favorites at once? It looks to me like you have to delete each folder or website link individually. Please tell me there is an easier way.
A: There is indeed an easier way. All of your Internet Explorer Favorites (aka bookmarks) are stored in a single folder under your user profile called Favorites. Each Favorite is an individual file that can be managed from Windows Explorer.
To access these files, click on the Start or Search button and type c:\users and hit Enter. Then double click your user name and then the Favorites folder and you will see all of your bookmarks. Here you can selectively or collectively delete, rename or even reorganize all of the bookmarks you have saved.
If you are looking to do this in Google Chrome, type chrome://bookmarks into the Address Bar of Chrome and hit Enter. This will bring up all of your bookmarks. Here you can delete them one by one or delete them all by clicking on the first bookmark, holding the Shift key and then clicking the last one.
Once they are all selected, right-click and select Delete.