internet av scareware

Osem · 25-05-2011, 11:54

I've been trying to explain about the problem of fake security alerts to my aged mother-in-law who I believe would certainly fall victim to this sort of scam were she to be unfortunate enough to come upon one whilst surfing the web.

I've tried explaining what to do verbally i.e. how to recognise and deal with these things but I know she's not really taking it all in so I'm wondering if anyone could point me to a genuine* site containing clear actual visuals showing how these things appear on screen and how to avoid falling victim to them.

TVM as always.

*links to actual scareware sites NOT appreciated thanks!

grandmaster · 25-05-2011, 12:09

Could you not install teamviewer and ask her not to purchase anything other than from known sites and if in doubt let you know and you can connect and take a look?

Osem · 25-05-2011, 12:27

Thanks but I've never heard of Teamviewer. To be honest I'm not the most PC savvy person out there and don't have the time to keep checking everything that pops up on her PC screen. The best I feel I can do is to show her the sort of thing that happen when visiting even legitimate websites and how to advoid falling for it. That's why I'd like to actually show her how these things will appear on her screen and what not to do. Anything more complicated than that will just result in her panicking even more than she already does.

PaulCorbet · 25-05-2011, 13:16

how about setting her up a limited user so programs like this can not be installed?

joglynne · 25-05-2011, 13:22

Maybe be this will help?

https://www.phish-no-phish.com/default.aspx

You may also care to look into her using WOT which uses a traffic lights system to warn users of dodgy sites. Once installed it works without her having to do anything other than watch out for the different coloured markers.

http://www.mywot.com/

heero_yuy · 25-05-2011, 13:49

Change the colour scheme: The web fake virus detect pages are always in the Windows default colour scheme so using a completely different one helps make them stand out.

**Stuart** · 25-05-2011, 13:52

Or (and this is an extreme solution), use a Mac. While they are certainly not immune to this kind of thing, as noted above, the scams commonly use windows set up to look like Windows default. Thus they will appear completely different to the OSX default. The same applies for Linux (which is considerably cheaper).

Mick Fisher · 25-05-2011, 14:08

Thought I would try WOT.

The first put off for me was when it wanted all my personal details before installing. There was a privacy assurance but we now know they are worth nothing.

The second thing was, after stopping the install, I decided to try the test at the bottom of the home page where you can check the rep of your favourite website.

I chose to test a site on which I used to moderate until after it was persistently hacked and infected by Russian hackers. The owner got depressed about it and closed the site until he makes up his mind whether it is worth while continuing with it.

If you try to google the site, google warns that the site may be harmful but WOT gives it an excellent rating on all counts.

Hmmm....Seems while WOT may be a good guard against phishing it doesn't seem to warn about sites that are obviously infected.

Thirdly, although IE is not my default browser, trying to install WOT caused it to load and to try to hijack my browsing. So probably WOT requires that you use IE??

Think I'm going to pass on installing WOT.

joglynne · 25-05-2011, 15:05

Nothing is 100% proof but I have used WOT for several years and have never had a problem with sites it identifies as good. I guess a lot depends on the types of sites you use. WOT depends on users keeping it up to date so if it isn't informed a site has gone bad then dodgy sites can slip through the net and you did say the site you tried it on was inactive so presumably not a threat?.

When I first joined CF it was showing as slightly dodgy but that was due to no real positive votes by our members I hope.

As for using it on different browsers I have used it on IE, Firefox and Chrome run on MS XP, Vista and Ubuntu and never had it try to hijack my browsing.

Osem · 25-05-2011, 16:42

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I've since managed to find this:

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/security...ware-40092311/

Which I emailed her to look at. It's quite clear in showing what these fake windows alerts look like so hopefully that'll do the trick. The idea of changing the colour scheme is an excellent one too - something simple which should give a very visible sign that things aren't quite right.

Depending on how she gets on I'll consider the WOT option however if that does just show up known dodgy sites, presumably it won't give any warning of the sort of 'attack' caused through a rogue advert attached to a genuine site. The version of Avast I have actually gives a 'webrep' against websites listed as search results so does WOT operate in a similar way?

Update:

This is something of a coincidence but our eldest has just told me that, last night whilst he was surfing the web on nanna's PC, he clicked on a football related website and a similar windows type AV alert appeared on the screen followed by an alert from something called ESET which offered to do some sort of scan to 'identify the threat'. Stupidly he clicked on it and ESET started to install itself showing what looked like the Windows 'My Computer' screen with some sort of scanning visual indicator. Worried by this point, he exited IE but the ESET window remained on the screen so he then closed it. He then did an Avast scan which showed nothing untoward but when he tried to relaunch IE another alert box opened stating that 'safety mode has been switched on' and preventing him accessing the internet. Each time he tried to do this, popups appeared asking him to register and pay for ESET which he declined to do. Finally he right clicked on the ESET icon which had appeared in systray and selected uninstall. This appeared to work and the PC seems to be fine now however I'm obviously concerned. I'm hoping that ESET is simply a genuine product which the developers are trying to get people to buy by what I would call an unethical method and that it's been removed. I'm dreading that ESET is something worse, however, and that something nasty might still be lurking on the machine that we don't know about. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

TVM as always.

DaiNasty · 25-05-2011, 18:38

There's a genuine ESET antivirus but I wouldn't believe for a moment that they would pull a stunt like that. Far more likely he's been hit by this:

http://www.malwarehelp.org/eset-anti...oval-2011.html

Looks like Malwarebytes will deal with it.

joglynne · 25-05-2011, 19:20

Hi Osem, me again

. After Micks comments about WOT I thought I would recheck the nets opinion of it in case I was mistaken about it's usefulness when browsing as I do get some of my older friends to install it and wouldn't like to be putting them at undue risk. I found the following reviews in case anyone wanted to see any reports on it before giving it a try.

2009 review http://review.techworld.com/security...cmp=rv-ia-tb-2

2011 review http://www.brighthub.com/computing/s...ews/28120.aspx

Mick Fisher · 25-05-2011, 19:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by joglynne

Nothing is 100% proof but I have used WOT for several years and have never had a problem with sites it identifies as good. I guess a lot depends on the types of sites you use. WOT depends on users keeping it up to date so if it isn't informed a site has gone bad then dodgy sites can slip through the net and you did say the site you tried it on was inactive so presumably not a threat?.

When I first joined CF it was showing as slightly dodgy but that was due to no real positive votes by our members I hope.

As for using it on different browsers I have used it on IE, Firefox and Chrome run on MS XP, Vista and Ubuntu and never had it try to hijack my browsing.

I had another fiddle with it.

I use slimbrowser which is based on IE but WOT won't work with it.

I tried dragging the link they recommend to my favourites. With that you have to click on the link after you arrive at the site to get a score on it. Too cumbersome and a case of closing the door after the horse has bolted.

I fired up IE and tried it. It still gave the infected site the thumbs up but issued warnings about a couple of other sites that I have never had a problem with.

So I have my doubts about it's effectiveness and worth but if you get on with it and have confidence in it I guess it might be better than nothing.

Personally I will continue to put my faith in keeping my OS's up to date, Avira free AV, Private firewall and common sense.

joglynne · 25-05-2011, 19:59

I am currently using ubuntu ... which I hate.... so will be back out in the big bad world on Windows 7 at the weekend and will have to be a lot more security conscious again. I will be installing WOT and also a whole raft of other security bit and bobs but nothing is any use without a good dose of common sense.

Mick Fisher · 25-05-2011, 20:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by joglynne

I am currently using ubuntu ... which I hate.... so will be back out in the big bad world on Windows 7 at the weekend and will have to be a lot more security conscious again. I will be installing WOT and also a whole raft of other security bit and bobs but nothing is any use without a good dose of common sense.

You are spot on there Jo.

I tried Ubunto back in the day and I hated it too.