DON'T OPEN ANY PRIVATE MESSAGES FROM ME!

[klutch]

I had a virus on my computor, it's dead now but it may have got onto my account here so if you recieve any private messages from me about a "security tool" or a link to something don't open it!

Sorry guys 

[Troy]

A virus cannot get on your account here - nor can an email from your home computer create a PM here on the site. I think we're ok.

Troy

[MoparManJim]

A virus cannot get on your account here - nor can an email from your home computer create a PM here on the site. I think we're ok.

Troy

Troy, first off, I know at times I'm alittle slow  , BUT can something please tell me then, when a person makes a virus, how does it get off there computer and onto others?  . It has to leave a computer some how.. doesn't it? because isn't that how other computers catches it I would think. 

[69bronzeT5]

A virus cannot get on your account here - nor can an email from your home computer create a PM here on the site. I think we're ok.

Troy

Troy, first off, I know at times I'm alittle slow  , BUT can something please tell me then, when a person makes a virus, how does it get off there computer and onto others?  . It has to leave a computer some how.. doesn't it? because isn't that how other computers catches it I would think. 

Messenging programs are a good way (MSN, Yahoo etc)

[RamchargerMopar]

A virus or some thing got into my mail account and sent out spam from my email...dont know if thats the same as this guy...

[Troy]

Email is completely different. I'd venture to say that 99.99% of the time a computer gets a virus because someone clicked on a link (to a bad program) or opened an email attachment (containing a bad program) that they shouldn't have. In the first case the "code" for the virus is downloaded and installed using the browser (and sometimes it's smart enough to bypass Windows' user permissions and install an executable file outside the browser's "sandbox"). In the second case, the user is basically installing the bad software thinking that it is something else (popular ploys are screen savers, tool bars, games, and "free" software or movies). In both cases the user has to do something and in both cases the "bad" software is installed on that user's computer. A virus can, at times, tap into the email program on the user's computer and mail a copy of itself to everyone in the address book. A standard antivirus program running in real time should catch most of these but it doesn't hurt to run a "full scan" regularly and to also use programs like Spybot and AdAware (which look for different types of bad software).

An account here basically just means you can log in to the forum (which runs almost completely on a "server" - not your computer). You cannot install software on the server nor does any software run on your behalf. I don't know of any virus/trojan (yet) on a computer that logs into web forums and sends PMs as the user. Since attachments aren't possible in PMs the only thing that could be sent is a link to a bad site in the hopes that the next user falls for the trick.

In short, don't click on anything that you don't know what it is. Be very careful with "free" gadgets and downloads. Never give out your password and always do a "sanity check" before following any links (make sure the address your going to at least looks realistic). Basically, think before you click! It is very smart to run a good antivirus program - but I haven't for years and have avoided getting infected by anything (just by being smart about what I'm doing).

Troy

[klutch]

I saw that another member here posted a thread saying that he recieved an email this morning about "Security Tool 2010" and that was the virus I had on my computer, needless to say I must have read his post too fast and saw that it was a one star member (like me) that had sent it to him. What I didn't read the first time around was that he mentioned it was a false account "forumteam", ruling out me.

Sorry guys, false alarm. 

[ionracer24]

my bonehead son clicked on that virus from one of those stupid kid games websites took me two hours to get rid of it....

[poppa]

Bummer. I thought this was going to be more like Cheech and Chong...don't answer the phone.
I hate viruses,trojans,etc.

[MoparManJim]

my bonehead son clicked on that virus from one of those stupid kid games websites took me two hours to get rid of it....

I almost got that virus the day myself. Just lucky my computer had a skippy momute as the pointer click on it and the computer was doing a task and didn't recive the comand for the click which I'm very very glad of to. 

Oh yea, your right, your son is a bone head, just like the rest of us are. He has a skull