Lesson Learned

Our laptop got infected with a serious virus and it was all my fault.

On Sunday night, I was searching some random sites for clipart. I was about to download a little package when a security warning popped up in my system tray that said an attack has been initiated on my computer. Then another pop-up said a virus had been released. So I opened our Norton Anti-Virus (which I renewed online in February but it has never worked properly...should I have taken care of it then? YES! But did I? NO!) and it froze up and said the file has been infected and I should open up my anti-virus software. Um, that's what I was trying to do. So then I was worried about opening up any other files for fear of infecting them (especially Gary's research files for his thesis). A Windows screen shot then appeared and showed that my Spyware was on but my Anti-virus was off (which was completely true...Spy Sweeper had been working the whole time). Another pop-up came up and said I could purchase Windows Police Pro anti-virus to get rid of the virus. Otherwise, it was recommended that I open my current anti-virus software, if I had any. Since Norton wasn't working, I decided to purchase the Windows Police Pro...a one-year licence for $49.95, just like all the other anti-virus software. Right after I purchased it, all the windows closed. I immediately received an email thanking me for purchasing Antivirus 2010. So I got online and searched that and found out the whole thing was a SCAM. Can you believe it? Instead of purchasing a new anti-virus software for $50, I just purchased myself a virus. To make a long story short (okay, this isn't exactly short anyway...) within minutes, everything froze up and I couldn't even access the Internet. Luckily here in Chicago there is an awesome company called Geeks 24/7. For a total of $120, they completely eliminated the virus, cleaned up our whole hard drive, got Norton working properly and fixed some problems we were having prior to the virus. As for our credit card, I called our bank and they said I could easily dispute the charge since this happens quite frequently. We still decided to cancel our credit card and get new ones. Those came in two days, so we're back to normal now.

Here's my question. WHY? Why do people do this? I completely understand the part where they are trying to make money. But once they get the $50, why do they have to infect me with the virus? It's not like me having the virus makes them any more money. When my laptop is frozen, I can't even get on the Internet to get into more trouble, right? So I don't get it.

I am just so grateful that this virus only froze up the laptop and didn't infect any files. We had backed up all our pictures and stuff but it has been a few months so that would have been really sad. So if this happens to you, don't fall for it! Get on the Internet and search Antivirus 2010 (or Windows Police Pro) and there are directions on how to get the pop-ups to go away. This virus makes everything look "Windows authentic" so you believe it. It also freezes up everything, even before you actually get the virus, just to make you purchase it so make sure to follow the steps online on how to stop it before it gets started.

Any time we say "stupid" at our house, we get reprimanded by our three-year-old. But I think it's appropriate this time to say STUPID INTERNET HACKERS!!