I just spent 234.00 to have a computer specialist remove hundreds of malware and 7 critical viruses from my laptop, requiring repair of my OS.
I paid 128.78 for 3 licenses to Webroot Sept. 5th and it has been running on a new laptop bought in March 2012 and has been updated, running and telling me the system is free of problems since then.
My daughter's desktop WEbRoot is doing the same thing-- stating the system is clear while a free utility like Spybot run right afterwards finds malware and viruses.
The computer specialist assured me WebRoot was running perfectly and is updated-- then she told me to get another better virus program.
Webroot used to be good-- what happened?
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Hello Lynn,
Sorry to hear what happened but why didn't you contact WSA support as they would of checked and clean your system for free! If you could please contact the WSA support inbox via Submit a Support Ticket they could hopefully see the scan logs from that system to see if it is fully free of Malware and explain what happened!
TH
Sorry to hear what happened but why didn't you contact WSA support as they would of checked and clean your system for free! If you could please contact the WSA support inbox via Submit a Support Ticket they could hopefully see the scan logs from that system to see if it is fully free of Malware and explain what happened!
TH
Hi Lynn,
Triple Helix has given you a good suggestion. If it was a real virus you could have had it removed using Webroot Technical support for free ... but if it was not a real virus (false positive) then... I'm gonna tell you my own experience:
My wife's laptop took an eternity to boot up. We took it to Best Buy's Geek Squad and told us it was a virus problem, so they offered us to repair it for 'only' $200 plus an extra $100 fee for backing up her data. I was shocked because I was sure it was not a virus problem (I already ran under safe mode 4 different antivirus software and none of them found anything) so I asked to see the store manager to see a full report of their test. When I got it I learnt that they ran 5 different kinds of antivirus software and ONLY one of them found viruses (PC Tools: 15 in total)... well it seems PC Tools was showing the presence of inoffensive adware and it turned out it was just HP Build-in legitimate software. I complained to the Store Manager (obviously they were not good professionals), he admitted that my wife's laptop didn't have a virus problem but a software problem... and they didn't have a clue what kind of problem it was...
Finally I took the laptop to another computer specialist (just charged us $30) and found out it was a bug in that version of Webroot software which was fixed with an update of that software just released.
Beware of certain Computer specialist if you haven't used Webroot Technical support first
Triple Helix has given you a good suggestion. If it was a real virus you could have had it removed using Webroot Technical support for free ... but if it was not a real virus (false positive) then... I'm gonna tell you my own experience:
My wife's laptop took an eternity to boot up. We took it to Best Buy's Geek Squad and told us it was a virus problem, so they offered us to repair it for 'only' $200 plus an extra $100 fee for backing up her data. I was shocked because I was sure it was not a virus problem (I already ran under safe mode 4 different antivirus software and none of them found anything) so I asked to see the store manager to see a full report of their test. When I got it I learnt that they ran 5 different kinds of antivirus software and ONLY one of them found viruses (PC Tools: 15 in total)... well it seems PC Tools was showing the presence of inoffensive adware and it turned out it was just HP Build-in legitimate software. I complained to the Store Manager (obviously they were not good professionals), he admitted that my wife's laptop didn't have a virus problem but a software problem... and they didn't have a clue what kind of problem it was...
Finally I took the laptop to another computer specialist (just charged us $30) and found out it was a bug in that version of Webroot software which was fixed with an update of that software just released.
Beware of certain Computer specialist if you haven't used Webroot Technical support first
I'll add the Official Webroot Reply here...
No offense to any computer repair shops, but "Oh No! Viruses! Quick! Pay us to get rid of them!" is not only a common catch-all, but is also a common scam, to the point where scammers are even cold-calling people successfully. It's a very high-income scam unfortunately, and they prey off the concept that if the average computer user is given a list of files and told "These are viruses!", that user will believe it.
With so many programs installing start-up items and background processes these days, it's trivial for a computer to slow down to a snail's pace. But think about it from even a non-scam repair shop's viewpoint. Which sounds better:
"Well, you installed so much junk that the computer was running out of memory and took 15 minutes to start everything when it boots, so I charged you $234 to take five minutes and turn off all that stuff."
or
"I found hundreds of viruses! It was horrible trying to clean it all off, it took hours, so you owe me $234 because I gave you a big discount. Oh, and you should buy this better AV program from me so I can make even more money from you."
Depending on what technician worked on the system (Over the phone, for example), you may have actually been a victim of a scam in fact, though local computer shops are not above this kind of action.
Also, what is detected by a program differs. Many other security programs will try to scare you into thinking they are great because they call cookies threats. Just because something shows up on the radar, so to speak, doesn't mean it's a threat. Cookies are going to be there. If you visit any website, or spend a few minutes surfing, you will have cookies, and they are anything but dangerous. They are literally just a small string of text that a web site server machine asks your browser to hold onto and give back when it asks for web pages. That doesn't stop other secuity software from finding them and crowing about them though and patting themselves on the back for removing them.
So perhaps the question of "What is Spybot detecting exactly?" should be considered. Is it finding "Spy cookies"? Is it finding false positives on legitimate software? Is it finding javascript files that can't ever affect a properly-patched computer and so pose as much of a threat as rain does when you're indoors in a good house?
Also, if you purchased it in September, that would have been the 7.0 version (8.0 was released October 5th). Did you upgrade for free to the 8.0 Webroot SecureAnywhere program as we've been strongly encouraging our customers to do for months? If not, then the tech who said you were up to date was also wrong on that account.
Anytime you do have a real threat on your system (not something that somebody else tries to scam you into thinking is a threat), Webroot can and will help you remove it fully for free. We don't charge a bit. Even if it's something we can't fix (Like "too many startup and background programs"), we can generally point you in the direction of the true problem. But keep in mind, the 8.0 software works by knowing what everything is doing on your computer, and whether it is safe or not. Even brand new real viruses are "Unknown" before becoming bad, and so it's easy enough for us to check our database for you and see whether you have any unknown things that could possibly be bad.
You could have had your computer checked for viruses for free. :( You say your daughter's computer is "acting up", so you still can have that checked for free. Or you can pay somebody else $234 to potentially scam you again.
Free with Webroot.
$234 elsewhere.
No offense to any computer repair shops, but "Oh No! Viruses! Quick! Pay us to get rid of them!" is not only a common catch-all, but is also a common scam, to the point where scammers are even cold-calling people successfully. It's a very high-income scam unfortunately, and they prey off the concept that if the average computer user is given a list of files and told "These are viruses!", that user will believe it.
With so many programs installing start-up items and background processes these days, it's trivial for a computer to slow down to a snail's pace. But think about it from even a non-scam repair shop's viewpoint. Which sounds better:
"Well, you installed so much junk that the computer was running out of memory and took 15 minutes to start everything when it boots, so I charged you $234 to take five minutes and turn off all that stuff."
or
"I found hundreds of viruses! It was horrible trying to clean it all off, it took hours, so you owe me $234 because I gave you a big discount. Oh, and you should buy this better AV program from me so I can make even more money from you."
Depending on what technician worked on the system (Over the phone, for example), you may have actually been a victim of a scam in fact, though local computer shops are not above this kind of action.
Also, what is detected by a program differs. Many other security programs will try to scare you into thinking they are great because they call cookies threats. Just because something shows up on the radar, so to speak, doesn't mean it's a threat. Cookies are going to be there. If you visit any website, or spend a few minutes surfing, you will have cookies, and they are anything but dangerous. They are literally just a small string of text that a web site server machine asks your browser to hold onto and give back when it asks for web pages. That doesn't stop other secuity software from finding them and crowing about them though and patting themselves on the back for removing them.
So perhaps the question of "What is Spybot detecting exactly?" should be considered. Is it finding "Spy cookies"? Is it finding false positives on legitimate software? Is it finding javascript files that can't ever affect a properly-patched computer and so pose as much of a threat as rain does when you're indoors in a good house?
Also, if you purchased it in September, that would have been the 7.0 version (8.0 was released October 5th). Did you upgrade for free to the 8.0 Webroot SecureAnywhere program as we've been strongly encouraging our customers to do for months? If not, then the tech who said you were up to date was also wrong on that account.
Anytime you do have a real threat on your system (not something that somebody else tries to scam you into thinking is a threat), Webroot can and will help you remove it fully for free. We don't charge a bit. Even if it's something we can't fix (Like "too many startup and background programs"), we can generally point you in the direction of the true problem. But keep in mind, the 8.0 software works by knowing what everything is doing on your computer, and whether it is safe or not. Even brand new real viruses are "Unknown" before becoming bad, and so it's easy enough for us to check our database for you and see whether you have any unknown things that could possibly be bad.
You could have had your computer checked for viruses for free. :( You say your daughter's computer is "acting up", so you still can have that checked for free. Or you can pay somebody else $234 to potentially scam you again.
Free with Webroot.
$234 elsewhere.
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