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A little help for my father-in-law

AdamA9

AdamA9

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 2, 2010
1,232
355
Hi guys.

We've just had a call from my partners mother. Apparently something popped up on her fathers PC from fix-us.com — the usual 'you have a virus call us to fix it' scam.

So, being the elderly man that he is he called up and handed over £190 to fix it. Needless to say, that money is now gone but I'm more concerned about anything that they might have installed on his computer.

Now I know this isn't a mac, he uses a Windows PC, but does anyone remember form their PC days the logical steps to checking for malware and spyware on a PC and making sure it is clean and safe. We think they've installed something so I've told him not to use it again until I get there.

Thanks in advance.
Adam.
 
This is exactly the kind of thing I am good at.

You want to install AVG Antivirus FREE onto the computer. This is a really good program and from years of using it I have determined it notifies you of a virus once you get to it. For example: you have a virus in a file in the "Downloads" folder, once you navigate to the Downloads Folder, AVG will pop up almost instantly telling you what file it thinks is a virus. Due note that Anti-virus programs do tend to say that harmless applications are viruses such a TweakNT or WinCustomizer. Make sure you install AVG, let it update than run a COMPLETE scan on the system. Have no other windows open and do not use the computer as this scan is in process because doing so will slow it down and take the scan longer.

EDIT: It's even a possibility to install Linux onto his computer..... never has to worry about viruses again
 
Last edited:
I've had good luck using the Trinity Rescue Kit. It is a live Linux CD that has a ton of utilities on it, including several anti-virus programs.

You boot to CD and run the TRK antivirus on your Windows machine and it clears off and quarantines anything it finds. It's really great because you don't have to be inside the Windows environment to clear it. Which sometimes can be a pain when the virus or malware prevents you from easily getting rid of it while it has running processes that may be hard to find and/or kill.
 
Thanks guys.

I don't really want to mess with his computer and put Linux on it. He has just about got used to the PC and getting to Skype to make family calls.

I'll instal AVG onto it and run a full scan and see what's going on. Thank you for the replies.

From memory there are also startup programs and extensions on the browser, I'll try find anything nasty in here, too.

Thanks.
 
AdamA9 said:
Thanks guys.

I don't really want to mess with his computer and put Linux on it. He has just about got used to the PC and getting to Skype to make family calls.

I'll instal AVG onto it and run a full scan and see what's going on. Thank you for the replies.

From memory there are also startup programs and extensions on the browser, I'll try find anything nasty in here, too.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Oh no, you're not installing Linux at all. It runs from the disc only. You boot the PC to CD, run the anti-virus and when you're done, eject the Linux CD and then reboot into your normal Windows environment.

A good idea is to reset all the browsers to factory and clear all the cache and history and look for extensions and plugins that are not supposed to be there.
 
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