Fake BSODs and fake antispyware programs

Here’s some pictures of various fake warnings and fake security messages that you unfortunately may see on your computer….be careful, as they are deceptive and are trying to trick you into spending money on their useless software.

The fake BSOD ( Blue Screen Of Death ) is a good one, it fooled me the first time I saw it. But it is actually a joke program made infamous by Sysinternals a few years back, that has since been used in conjunction with these malware authors’ fake antispyware programs to make you think that your computer is messed up.

You can read more about the Sysinternals bluescreen program at the link below:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897558.aspx

Luckily, most of these infections are fairly easy to get rid of, and don’t cause any real damage, unless of course you give them your credit card information!

Beware of fake emails from MSN or Microsoft

The latest email getting spread around is one that looks like it is from MSN Featured Offers, with the sender being admin@microsoft.com. The body of the email should look similar to the following:

Subject: Internet Explorer 7

Download the latest version!

About this mailing:
You are receiving this e-mail because you subscribed to MSN Featured Offers. Microsoft respects your privacy. If you do not wish to receive this MSN Featured Offers e-mail, please click the “Unsubscribe” link below. This will not unsubscribe you from e-mail communications from third-party advertisers that may appear in MSN Feature Offers. This shall not constitute an offer by MSN. MSN shall not be responsible or liable for the advertisers’ content nor any of the goods or service advertised. Prices and item availability subject to change without notice.

�2008 Microsoft | Unsubscribe | More Newsletters |
Privacy

Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way , Redmond ,
WA 98052

Well unfortunately, if you click on the download link to download the file, it is actually a nasty piece of “malware” (malicious software) that will install itself, called XP Antivirus 2008. This is a fake program that tries to get you to buy it, and it will essentially take your credit card information, charge you bogus charges, and still the program does nothing, as it’s simply meant to get your money. I have read several reports of people actually purchasing the program for it’s price of $39.99 or similar, yet getting charged for $100.00 or more.

Be very cautious everyone, delete any suspicious emails immediately.

Please read more in depth information about this threat at the following security websites:

http://pandasecurityus.wordpress.com/2008/08/07/fake-ie-70-update-full-analysis/

Another fake email that looks like it’s from CNN, that links to the infamous XP Antivirus 2008:
http://pandasecurityus.wordpress.com/2008/08/08/cnn-alerts-new-malcode-antivirus-xp-2008/
And another about a fake Adobe Flash player update, that tries to download malware:
http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=3024

Upgrading from Firefox 2 to Firefox 3 bookmark trouble?

Recently, during the Mozilla Download Day festivities, I eagerly downloaded Firefox 3 to my personal computer. I had installed a couple earlier betas and RC’s prior to this, and they all installed into a seperate folder on my computer, so as to not conflict with my exsisting installation of Firefox 2. Well the final version of Firefox 3 installs to the main Mozilla Firefox directory, overwriting the previous installation. After loading up the final snazzy build of FF3, I noticed my bookmarks were not quite right. Some new folders were missing, and recent bookmarks that I had added were not there either. Now I thought that might be a fluke or bug of the earlier versions I have tried, but it has carried over to the final build. This worried me some as since it installed over my FF2 directory, would all my new bookmarks now be forever lost?

Luckily, this was not the case. The new build of FF3 stores your bookmarks in a different area now, and thanks to Mozilla for having an easy how to article on their website to fix this. A couple files deleted, and move another file, and viola! My bookmarks were all correct and all was well with the world.

Here’s the article that I found on my web searching, hopefully you’ll find it useful as well.

(I used the manual deletion method.)

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Lost_bookmarks_after_Firefox_3_upgrade