PC game installation scam. virus deleted my files!!!

[Integra]

was looking for syndicate wars to play on mac. downloaded the game and when i ran the install file it suddenly began to delete a massive amount of files from my mac desktop and more.

i'm only just now finding whats been deleted. luckily i was able to shut down X11 which shut down the install program but i've lost a lot of files.

where did the files go and how do i recover them???

it came from this site:

http://swars.vexillium.org/#authors

thank you.

 

[blueroom]

If there is nothing in your trash then you'll need to restore from a backup.

No backup, then it's gone.

 

[Integra]

ok how do i do that?

this thing firstly deleted every file then looked like it deleted each file again.

none of the files that it had deleted were in the trash.

 

[blueroom]

Trash has a Put Back option. Right click on the file.

If it were me I'd just reinstall OSX from scratch, who knows what it did.

 

[Integra]

i don't have any OSX cd. so is this thing still on the system?

will any anti virus find it?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

In what OS did that happen? I am confused, since this is the Windows and other OSs sub-forum and the game you linked is ported for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.

But since you mentioned X11, I guess you were using Mac OS X?
And do you or do you not employ a backup strategy in order to restore lost files or data?

And if you do not have your grey Restore DVDs you can contact Apple for sending you another pack for a small fee.

And if it happened in Mac OS X, it was no virus:

Currently there are zero viruses affecting Mac OS X in public circulation, but there are other kinds of malware existing, that can infect your Mac.
To learn more about malware in Mac OS X and what steps can be taken to protect yourself, read the following F.A.Q.:

Mac Virus/Malware Info by GGJstudios​

It probably was something else (Terminal command or so ...), but as you do not provide that much information, we can only guess, and to be honest, it gets tiring.

 

[Integra]

i ran these command lines in terminal and it came up clean.

defaults read /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info LSEnvironment
defaults read /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/Info LSEnvironment
defaults read ~/.MacOSX/environment DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES

 

[Integra]

In what OS did that happen? I am confused, since this is the Windows and other OSs sub-forum and the game you linked is ported for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.

But since you mentioned X11, I guess you were using Mac OS X?
And do you or do you not employ a backup strategy in order to restore lost files or data?

And if you do not have your grey Restore DVDs you can contact Apple for sending you another pack for a small fee.

And if it happened in Mac OS X, it was no virus:

Currently there are zero viruses affecting Mac OS X in public circulation, but there are other kinds of malware existing, that can infect your Mac.
To learn more about malware in Mac OS X and what steps can be taken to protect yourself, read the following F.A.Q.:

Mac Virus/Malware Info by GGJstudios​

It probably was something else (Terminal command or so ...), but as you do not provide that much information, we can only guess, and to be honest, it gets tiring.

because it was a pc .exe file that i ran using wine. the thing opened up as a dos type installer and then began to delete a whole heap of files starting from the desktop. yes im running a mac with OSX 10.6.4