Suspicious AntiVirus Alert Popped Up on Web Page

Anonymous
2013-05-11T03:08:31+00:00

I am suspicious about messages that popped up when I went to a web page I'd never been to before. First a message popped up stating "Microsoft Antivirus has found critical process activity on your PC. You need to clean your computer to prevent system breakage."  And then right afterwards another message appeared -- I might have pressed okay --  in a rectangular box with a thick red stripe across the top that read "Potential Threat Details," and then below "Microsoft Security Essentials detected potential threats that might compromise your privacy or damage your computer. You need to clean your computer immediately to prevent the system crash."  But I noticed that "might" was spelled "mihgt." Then below that it listed the threats as:

Trojan PSW.Win32Launch

HackTool:Win32/Welevate.A

Adward.Win32Fraud

It said each of the three was "critical" and "active" and recommended I "remove" them.

Then below all this was a box I could check that said "clean computer."

Now aside from the misspelling of "might," I do not have Microsoft Security Essentials; I have Windows Defender, so I'm pretty sure this is a fake alert.

And I didn't press "clean computer." But I'm wondering what would have happened if I had; would I have gotten a virus, or a sales pitch to buy more antivirus software? But mostly I want to know what really will happen when my antivirus program -- which, again, is Windows Defender for Windows 8 -- does detect a real virus. It hasn't happened yet so I don't know, and I also would like to be able to distinguish the real alerts from the fake ones, especially if the fake ones do not have misspelled words as a telling sign.

Thanks

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Security and privacy

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Anonymous
2013-05-11T09:37:27+00:00

It is a fake alert and creater of that alert can enter as many virus names as he/she can, don't worry about that alert. Just practice safe browsing, do not click on Ads (specially of unknown source), always use original software and download them from their genuine sites only. Run scans from the tools you downloaded, and use free version only (neither Pro nor Trial).

About Trojan in quarantine-

Items in quarantine are neutral and cannot harm your PC, just like criminals in jail. There is no need to delete items in quarantine. You can also run a full scan of your PC to ensure no virus is lurking in your PC.

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Anonymous
2013-05-13T15:28:33+00:00

As per your description above, except for the part... "it said it couldn't do much with that"... (Don't know what you mean by this?)

When someone tries to close AdwCleaner after clicking on 'Search' button then AdwCleaner alerts that it has only scanned for Adwares, not removed them and asks to click on 'Delete' button to complete removal. This is what he is trying to say.

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-05-13T19:54:51+00:00

    Rick CP,

    Thanks yet again for your great answer. I did put the log files in search and C:\AdwCleaner[R1].txt. showed up, but its information page is mostly Greek to me.  I saw it mentioned View Point Media Player, so it must have removed that, and afterwards I saw "Key Found" with "HKLM and HKCU Software" written next to it.  

    And then it mentioned Google Chrome in a long, long paragraph with mostly indecipherable words, or codes, except for "Blacklist True," which was written over and over, so it must have done something to Google Chrome because I decided to uninstall and reinstall it yesterday, which was no big deal. What's strange, though -- at least to me -- is that I hardly ever use Google Chrome, but am almost always on Internet Explorer, but that seemed to be entirely left alone. Again, I'm not sure I read that page correctly.

    As far as being worried about the publisher being unverified I wrote to Bleepingcomputer.com again and they said it's "normal," which is news to me. I had assumed if my computer has to recheck if it should go ahead with a download because the publisher is unknown that that means I should stop the download.  Apparently I'm wrong. I guess if the web sites themselves are so well established, like Bleeping, it doesn't matter if the download is from an unknown source.

    As far as downloading it from CNET as opposed to its original site, I did read your other answer along with the article link you provided, and now I'll think twice about downloading from CNET, although I have to reread that article again because, as I said before, computer lingo is not my strength, and so I'm not exactly sure what the danger is.

    Thanks again.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-05-13T16:20:46+00:00

    I didn't really care about installing ViewPoint Media Player -- I don't really know what it is -- but its message popped up repeatedly, so I just gave up. But first, I read it was part of AOL, and that it automatically comes with an AOL download, so, apparently, I've had it for a long time without knowing it. Is it necessary for my AOL?

    Why should I remove it?  Does it cause problems?

    Viewpoint Media Player is installed on a user’s computer in any of the following ways:

    • Downloading it directly from the Viewpoint website
    • Required with installation of AOL, AIM, current versions of the Netscape web browser, certain Adobe products, and some retail computers sold today
    • From opt-in prompts on websites that require Viewpoint Media Player to view site content.

    Viewpoint Toolbar is installed ONLY by:

    • Downloading it directly from the Viewpoint website.
    • From opt-in prompts provided by Viewpoint and Viewpoint clients.

    So, how was it? Are any of these two items still listed as an installed program in your Control Panel?

    If it was installed by AOL without your consent, then it'll be removed again by AdwCleaner.

    Did you get to the logs files?

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-05-13T15:23:46+00:00

    You are not yet infected. But 'bad guy' is trying to infect you by asking you to download and install their (fake) MSE. Do not download it. Your browser may be infected by some Adware which is showing these kind of fake alerts. Run a scan with SUPERAntiSpyware(Free) and AdwCleaner to remove them.

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