Nigerian prince meets paranoia princess

[hungry_worm]

While I was innocently using Google's image search function to remember how P.Arquette looked like when she was younger, within opening the first five or so images in tabs, a "system warning"(*) of "my own virus scanner" (**) alerted me to immediately check because some "malicious virii/worms were invading my machine

Comments

[pocketmouse]

That's another thing to love about having a Mac. Even if there are bugs out there for Macs, they don't tend to come hiding as a PC security system.

If you are on a PC, something you can do to protect yourself from things like that, especially here since it theoretically brings up a whole 'window,' not just a popup, is to change the colors of your system display. Most of them come with a green theme as well as the usual blue one, and I think one other. The scam versions always use the default blue.

[hungry_worm]

Oh, that's a smart way to prevent being fooled!

[guiltyschu]

Oh man, I've actually had that virus, it's a nasty one. As the above commenter suggested, I've always got my windows switched to olive, not the blue default, so I knew right away it was a scam, but it still sneakily downloaded itself in the background before I could stop it. I had to wipe my whole computer to get rid of it. :/

I know PCs are way more vulnerable than Macs, but I just love them too much. I couldn't ever make the permanent shift to a Mac. I'm doomed to be vulnerable forever!

[impressioniste]

That particular malware is ridiculous, it installs even if you cancel / deny it most of the time. My whole family pretty much had it :|

[hungry_worm]

My first computer was an Acer laptop (Win95) and I was totally fine with using it - but it had no internet connection and thus no risk. My brother always put up sticky notes on our family's pc on "virus days" so we wouldn't switch it on... and honestly? I am too forgetful for stuff like that. My next laptop was a mac and I stuck with it. XD Both OS are functional when you know how to use them, but I found macs' system files' structure easier to deal with.

[cicer]

I think I had that same 'warning' a couple weeks ago! At any rate, something popped up that looked a whole lot like the Windows warnings, but I was suspicious anyway and closed my browser, and then ran my own virus scan. Nothing turned up, thankfully. Those things are so sneaky. :/

[hungry_worm]

It takes the fun out of the internet, sort of. I mean, if you're familiar and not naive with stuff like that (especially on the net) you know how to deal with it, but many people probably just don't feel suspicious and end up with lots of trouble. I found computer frustration to be one of the worst things!

[impressioniste]

Both my parents and my sister had that malware. The worst part is that if you're on a windows system, even if you choose NOT to install / use / agree to their software, it installs anyway, and it's nearly impossible to get off the system. They all had to wipe them and/or get new computers.

[hungry_worm]

People who write these things really have too much time on their hands. Very annoying.