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By Riech D. Cruz
CLICK HERE FOR PRINTABLE VERSION
Adware, Spyware and Malware:
It acts like a virus, but it is, "technically," not
a virus!
"My computer is running
slow!" some say, or "I keep getting all these pop ups!"
Does this sound familiar?
Have you been downloading
FREE music from any websites, such as Limewire, Bear Share,
Kazaa, Frostwire, etc? If so... your computer is infected!
Have you downloaded any free
toolbars such as When You Save, My Search Toolbar, Aurora, Sensaura, Web Search, etc? If so... your computer is
probably infected!
What about Free Screensavers,
Shopping Coupons, or Weather Bug? All of these are very
common causes for getting your computer infected.
Have you downloaded anything
that has said it found critical errors on your computer and
it needs to clean it? If it is called System Doctor, Win AntiVirus 2007, or Star Ware, Registry Cleaner 2007, then
your computer is definitely infected!
If you go to pornography
websites you have one of the worst kinds of infections on
your computer! This is what my father has always said, and
it holds very true! "If you go to a whorehouse, you get
gonorrhea, and if you go to dirty websites, your computer
gets infected too!"
HERE'S A TIP
Be careful when you are
installing software, and do not just start clicking NEXT,
NEXT, NEXT... because you could be installing the adware,
spyware or malware into your computer without you even
knowing it! Most things on the Internet that are advertised
as being FREE, are usually not! They offer you a free
service, but for them to stay in business, they are allowing
advertisers to access your computer and monitor your online
habits. They watch you to see where you go, and then they
shoot pop up advertisements, at you, to try to sell you
something!
The majority of the computers
that come into our shop, are coming in because they are
infected. Very rarely do we ever see real
viruses! In these days, the computers are infected with
adware, spyware and
malware. In most cases we see it is
because of music downloads and from going to websites that
they should not be going too!
Adware is where you have a
lot of pop ups and advertisements on your computer. These
will run all the time while you are on your computer and
will slow it down. After some time, you will really notice
a significant drop in speed on your computer and you also
might be bombarded with lots of pop ups as soon as you get
on the Internet!
Malware is "sort of like" a
virus or adware, but what it does, is, it will infect your
computer and lay dormant for a while. Then one day, it will
pop up and say, "Your computer is infected with #
Critical objects! Click here to perform a free scan
on your computer!"
When you click on it, that is
the beginning of your woes! There is another one that is
pretty new, and it is one of the worst ones I have ever seen,
and it
is called WinAnti Virus 2007! It looks exactly like a
legitimate program! But it starts to scan your computer
without you even clicking on it. It will ask you to pay for
the full version, once you click on it, to clean your
computer. What they do not tell you is, that they are
the ones who infected your computer, and now they are
selling you the cure!
So be aware! And, be very
careful!
What can you do to prevent
this from happening to your computer?
One thing is: do not just
click indiscriminately on the Internet. Be cautious when
you search. Always search for something by just typing in
the word of the thing you are searching for, inside the
address bar. The address bar is where you normally type: "www._________.com"
If you are looking for something, for example, Computer
Repair Shop... what you do is, go to the address bar and just
type the words, "Computer Repair Shop." Depending on what
Search Engine you have in your computer, it will show you a
list of websites that offer "Computer Repair." Or, you can
go to
www.google.com and search there. Do not ever
search for something by typing the name of the thing you are
looking for and end it with .com! That is a sure fired way
to get your computer
hijacked! Once it is hijacked, your home page
changes from what it used to be and "they" take you where
they want you to go!
A good tool is to get
SiteAdvisor installed on your computer. It will let you
know ahead of time, about the website that you are going to
visit, if it will infect your computer or not. It will tell
you if there are pop ups on it, and also if there are hidden
programs such as adware, spyware and malware on it, that is
waiting to get into your computer. This is not fool proof,
but it is a very good tool!
Also another good tool is to
download
Yahoo's toolbar, that has free Anti-spyware software
and pop up blocker! That will scan your computer and remove
most adware, spyware, hijackers and Trojans from your
computer. But again, it is not fool proof!
The main thing is:
1. Do not download ANY free
music!
2. Do not go to "dirty"
Websites!
3. Do not install anything
that is FREE on the Internet!
4. Do not click on
advertisements from websites you visit!
5. Do not go to online
dating sites!
6. Learn the proper way to
search and surf the web!
7. No free coupons, free
ring tones, and free screensavers!
If you need help, feel free
to call us or come over. We do clean computers for only $40
and install software to help keep these types of things out
of your computer. There is no charge to look at your
computer and tell you what would be the best thing to do.
And after that, you can have your computer back either the
same day, or next day! Let us know what we can do to help!
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