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Location: Finally made it to Florida and lovin' every minute!
22,677 posts, read 19,260,249 times
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GOsh, I hope I can explain this well enough.
I'm currently in NY, visiting relatives. DH is down in SW Florida, holding down the fort.
Tonight, he got into the computer and the spyware program told him that somebody had managed to get into our computer and steal some info. So far, we have hired someone to come to the house and see what's going on, but that's not happening till 1:00 in the afternoon.
He called our stock trading co. and informed them of the situation and they've put a security hold on the account so nobody can sell our stocks on us.
I checked our bank online from NY and it looks ok, but they won't be posting till overnight anyhow. He's going there 1st thing in the a.m. to check it out.
So far, that's all we've done. Any suggestions? Should we wait till the geek comes by and checks it out before we call the credit card companies? Any ideas you can give us would be appreciated.
we pay our bills online, BTW. I thought you may need to know that.
Yeah, if you get a popup, you may have some spyware or other malware which could give you a popup which is designed to get there claws into your machine with more maleware.
Location: Finally made it to Florida and lovin' every minute!
22,677 posts, read 19,260,249 times
Reputation: 17596
Gosh, harry, thanks for chiming in. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with the spyware, etc. Our 'puter is about 7 years old and we've not done any upgrades in a while.
Brian, it did appear as a popup. What's maleware??? I am so non-geeky it's scary. Luckily, someone is coming to look at it tomorrow. So you think it may be a game? He's not able to get into some of our programs. HOw does that look? I think that's what scares me the most.
Thanks for your help. I wish I could give you more info.
I would like to know what that error message was and how it told you that someone was trying to hack into your computer? I run a couple of spyware programs and I have never seen any kind of message like that. I would think that your firewall would protect you from hackers. Malware is similiar to spyware I think. Spyware programs get rid of malware.
One of my favorite programs is CCleaner. I think it works by getting rid of a lot of files that aren't necessary. These files are probably what are most likely, IMO, to be targets for malware. They will ask for a donation, but it's not necessary.
I also use Spybot Search & Destroy. But I don't run it, I only keep it up to date and immunized.
My Anti-virus program is Avast. It also has a firewall. BTW, it is free, too. You may have noticed a pattern developing, here...
That'll get you started. But if you still have problems, there is Hijack This. This is not for the regular guy to use. But there are places you can go for help with it. But don't worry too much about that, now.
Location: Finally made it to Florida and lovin' every minute!
22,677 posts, read 19,260,249 times
Reputation: 17596
Thanks, Brian. Free is good...very good. I'll pass these on to DH. I tell him not to worry unless we find a reason to do so. I'll let y'all know how we make out. Again, thanks for the support.
Location: Finally made it to Florida and lovin' every minute!
22,677 posts, read 19,260,249 times
Reputation: 17596
The good news is we weren't hacked into, but we did pick up some kind of nasty virus. Hubby's been wanting a new computer, so it looks like we'll be getting one now. The repair guy said neither of his programs could kill the virus. So be careful out there.
I think we've learned our lesson - run the anti-virus program often.
Thanks again for your thoughts.
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