Hi Guys, just today I am getting a pop-up window every half hour that I have 6 virus's which I must address urgently by clicking on an activation button, as my machine is in grave danger.
It seems to be coming from Mcfee, but i don't use Mcfee.
I have done a complete virus check with BitDefender and there was not an issue at all.
Check your Programs and Features in Control Panel, and look for anything MacAffee. MacAffee is often bundled with other software and if you don't deselect it when installing the other software it would be installed. If it is there and you are running some other anti-virus software, delete MacAffees.
Anti-virus software are notorious for detecting each other as viruses or malicious software because they contain most of the signatures for viruses and malware, so it's usually not a good idea to run multiple anti-viral software packages.
If that's not the problem, then I would say you have picked up some malware, so I'd advise NOT to click on any links or activation buttons - download something like MalwareBytes and scan for the malware.
Al I did download Malwarebytes, and i told me all was good than that Mcfee window poped up again asking me to activate account as it failed or some rubbish like that.
HI Leon...
You will probably not find McAfee anywhere in your computer.
Whatever you do.....do NOT click anything in the pop up.
Do NOT "activate" it.
It's just a scare tactic that mainly the 'Indian" scammers use to trick you into installing their remote access program, then they show you all the "stopped" MS programs (all perfectly normal) & stealing all your money from your bank accounts.
Programs such as > "Anydesk, Teamviewer, Zoho.....etc., "
Just close the pop up & shut down your computer & restart it.
They may keep at you but it's just a scam.
"You No Clicky....Anywhere." O.K.?
They masquerade as McAphee, MS, Amazon & lots of others.
None are legitimate.
If you want more info on how "they" operate, look on YouTube for Scammer Payback,aka > "Pierogi" along with "Kitboga" & "Jim Browning".(3 of the best ones.that I check out.)
There are lots of other scammer hunters that stop "them" from stealing people's money.
Please post Windows version, Broswer information and the website address that is causing the problem.
I suspect that it's a javascript code from a website that has deposited a browser highjacker onto your computer and Malware Bytes can only detect it if it's in their signature database.
I'll go to the site and inspect the underlying elements to see what's going on...
Hi Leon - not sure if this will help however, this is about pop-ups from the mcafee website. It details how to turn them off. Maybe this is your issue? I hope you get it fixed as they are annoying and you have to be really careful.
So can I still use certain pages on this machine safely or do i need to just ditch the drive in the desktop and plug in the other one which has the same stuff on it that i use now, or burn it altogether.
What ever i do it just keeps coming up and i did what Al suggested which did a scan and said it had one issue and it was PUP.Op Pdater or something similar.
It asked me to Quarantine it which i did and then say your all good and safe and then the bloody thing poped up again.
Looks like a typical browser-based extension that's installed something and is causing it to pop-up the notifications.
Follow Geoff's instructions to narrow down where it's coming from, and also grab yourself a copy of MalwareBytes to do a full scan. Make sure you have no applications (browser, word, etc, etc) running when you do so.
As an aside, what browser are you running? It might be time to ditch it and move to something a bit more security / privacy focused. FWIW, I use "Brave" with the 'NoScript' extension installed.
Damien I have no idea i think it just happens when i turn on the WiFi, I,m not game to mess around with it and just click the right top corner so it disappears.
One thing I missed before - on the top of the pop-ups there is a website - 'totalrecaptcha.top'. I dropped the domain name into one of our security tools and it was reported as malicious.
So I suspect you've picked up a gremlin along the way somewhere. Now to get rid of the devil before it does any further damage to your machine.
Use another (clean!) computer to download the MalwareBytes malware scanner tool and copy it to a USB stick.
On the infected machine, turn it on and do not enable the WiFi. Use the USB stick to install MalwareBytes (remove the USB drive after installing) and do a full scan. Quarantine / remove anything it finds and then run another scan.
Turn on the Wifi and see if it comes back.
Sadly, you might need to do a full "burn it to the ground and rebuild from trusted media" on your laptop to totally get rid of it.
which i think means the problem is seated on the laptop somewhere
most probably in the windows registry
but then again it could just be the browser settings
you could try blocking pop-ups in the browser settings
the windows experts might chime in here - i have been using linux for some time now
Delete all cookies from the browsers
Look at programs and settings make sure you check recent as first
Delete most recent programs
Check the settings on your browser and delete ALL extensions, you can always reinstall them later
If not use a mallet and smash the laptop and get a mac
Well thank you all for your assistance, I have opened the desktop and disconnected the drive that has caused me so much grief and connected the second drive that is in there and now i am using that, it seems to be working fine
I always had a Win 8.1 fully loaded with everything and a Win 10 with the same stuff so I have actually stepped up in the world a bit
Surly that will stop it till i get this thing home and burn it.
Have Bitdefender on both and a couple of other browsers
Hi Leon, I found this, and other similar articles, https://www.myantispyware.com/2023/0...removal-guide/. If you have somehow allowed notifications from this website when you visited it, it would explain the behaviour. Follow the removal instructions relevant to the browser of your choice, remove the notification permissions and see how it goes.
