Virus help

[fireheart]

This isn't me, it's for a friend. I use fairly decent antivirus software (Trend) on my laptop and I'm smart enough not to click on stupid links, but this is what's been happening lately.

Friend will pop up, leave me a spam link i.e. "100% FREE.... get yours here FREE! http://<friends name>.free-giftcardz.info/free.php" which I KNOW is a virus link, and then he'll log off. I've let him know that there's a virus of some sort, but he says that his antivirus works.

What's going on?

[Rapscallion]

Friend has a virus that sends that message out. I have a chum who will shortly end up on block on MSN if he doesn't get it sorted.

His antivirus is working on the virii it can detect. It's obviously not up to date.

Rapscallion

[Broomjockey]

Heh. Spiffy had that one once. It may be that the system itself is clean, now, because it only needs the password and user name to log on to the chat, and it could be done from anywhere. Thus, his security's probably comprimised, so he should do a round of password changes as well.

[NightAngel]

That one (or similar) must be quite common as I just got rid of it from my computer as well.
I was stupid, shut down Zone Alarm Firewall for *whateverreason* and then forgot to turn it back on before surfing the net. Sure enough- my computer got infected- I didn't think I had clicked any "stupid links" either.

All it took was to reactivate ZA and do a full scan to get rid of it. There is a free version of ZA as well- not sure if that will help. AdAware is also very nice to have onboard.

[lordlundar]

Personally, this thread should be named "Ignorant Friend Help" because the real problem isn't the virus (well known type, not the newest one out there, and not the worst to eliminate) It's the fact that your friend doesn't want to deal with the problem.

Might I suggest getting him to take his computer to a tech for a virus cleaning? At gunpoint if necessary?