A couple of weeks ago I got a call from a family member asking me to come look at his computer.
Before I even got off the phone I had a pretty good idea what was wrong with his computer; it had a virus.
Thinking it was just like the last virus I had to fix, yes he seems to have a problem with clicking on links and downloads that he shouldn’t, I determined he had installed a quite nasty one.
One so vicious it even disabled the ability to roll his system back to a restore point. But, the virus had actually deleted every restore point, leaving only one option, reinstall the operating system.
After inquiring as to what brought about the problem, he told me he tried to install a free version of a game that had just released, which was a telltale sign he had downloaded software that was not what it claimed to be.
The lesson here is simple. Just like with phone and mail scams that claim to provide you with money in exchange for money, if it sounds too good to be true, it is. Just go ahead and err on the side of caution and don’t download it.
Hackers will continue their attempts to gain control of your computer by tricking you into providing personal information, or having you download software that could fish it out, also called “phishing”.
While perusing today’s Internet, you may come across a number of tempting things to click on. Just don’t.
You’re only going to wind up messing up your computer and be forced to either pay big money to have your computer fixed, or if you’re lucky, calling your computer literate relative to fix the problem.
To be fair, this relative helps me out with things I have little understanding of, such as central air and heat systems; so we trade out on knowledge.
In closing, be careful of where and what you click on while surfing the World Wide Web.