Internet explorer has been taken over my a trojan or virus and control, shift & escapes doesn't help
I clicked on a sight and immediately a notice flashed on my screen stating that my computer was infected with a virus or trojan and that I needed to call this 1-800 number. I've had this happen to me in the past and I usually just press control, shift and escape all at the same time. When task manager opens I click on End Task and that usually clears the notice and I can access internet explorer once again. This time I'm unable to rid my computer from this. Please help.
Hi 1969Caddy
Welcome to the Community Forums.
This is a scam most likely caused by a non-malware program we commonly refer to as a PUA or Potentially Unwanted Application. If you can provide further information relating to the message we might be able to be more precise in identification.
Having said this these PUAs are very annoying at best in that they cause pop-ups, redirect your browser home page, and other behaviour that may slow down the computer and direct ads your way, but they are not actually doing anything bad like damaging files or stealing information. Often they are installed intentionally by you the user as browser add-ons for various tasks such as quick search tools. But they also come with the result of added annoying pop-ups and ads. Other times they 'piggy back' with other software that you installed, or try to 'sneak' onto your system entirely.
The key to avoiding them is to make sure that when downloading apps one does so from the author's own website or one that they have recommended, and not 3rd party downloading site.
WSA does detect and remove many PUA's, and more are being added, but WSA does not detect all of them. A simple browser add-on with PUA behaviour that is easy to identify and easy to remove is not likely to be detected and removed by WSA. Those that are intentionally difficult to locate and remove are. Please see THIS LINK for more information regarding Webroot's stance on these annoying programs.
To make sure that your WSA is checking for PUAs proficiently, it sometimes helps to reset the PUA detection within WSA's settings. For PUA's that had previously been scanned and determined to be OK, but have since been added to detection/removal, you may want to complete the following steps:
If that does not helps and you feel or consider yourself technically proficient then you can try these steps to remove it from your system.
And if that does not work or you do not feel technically capable then the best thing to do is to Open a Support Ticket & ask Webroot Support to take a look and remove these for you. There is NO CHARGE for this for valid WSA license holder.
Regards, Baldrick
Welcome to the Community Forums.
This is a scam most likely caused by a non-malware program we commonly refer to as a PUA or Potentially Unwanted Application. If you can provide further information relating to the message we might be able to be more precise in identification.
Having said this these PUAs are very annoying at best in that they cause pop-ups, redirect your browser home page, and other behaviour that may slow down the computer and direct ads your way, but they are not actually doing anything bad like damaging files or stealing information. Often they are installed intentionally by you the user as browser add-ons for various tasks such as quick search tools. But they also come with the result of added annoying pop-ups and ads. Other times they 'piggy back' with other software that you installed, or try to 'sneak' onto your system entirely.
The key to avoiding them is to make sure that when downloading apps one does so from the author's own website or one that they have recommended, and not 3rd party downloading site.
WSA does detect and remove many PUA's, and more are being added, but WSA does not detect all of them. A simple browser add-on with PUA behaviour that is easy to identify and easy to remove is not likely to be detected and removed by WSA. Those that are intentionally difficult to locate and remove are. Please see THIS LINK for more information regarding Webroot's stance on these annoying programs.
To make sure that your WSA is checking for PUAs proficiently, it sometimes helps to reset the PUA detection within WSA's settings. For PUA's that had previously been scanned and determined to be OK, but have since been added to detection/removal, you may want to complete the following steps:
- Open Webroot SecureAnywhere
- Click on ‘Advanced Settings’ from the top right
- Select ‘Scan Settings’ from the left side
- Unselect the option “Detect Potentially Unwanted Applications”
- Click on the Save button (you may have to enter in a CAPTCHA)
- Reselect the option to “Detect Potentially Unwanted Applications”
- Click on the Save button
- Run another scan with Webroot and remove any items that get detected.
If that does not helps and you feel or consider yourself technically proficient then you can try these steps to remove it from your system.
And if that does not work or you do not feel technically capable then the best thing to do is to Open a Support Ticket & ask Webroot Support to take a look and remove these for you. There is NO CHARGE for this for valid WSA license holder.
Regards, Baldrick
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete Beta Tester v9.0.24.49, imaged by Macrium Reflect v7.2
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