I was surfing the Internet, minding my own business, hoping to find a good price on an airline ticket to Hawaii. As I was finalizing the ticket reservation, a small popup began to flash, notifying me that my PC was infected with spyware. As the popup looked exactly like a Windows system warning, I clicked Ok and it began to scan my system. When the scan was complete, the software notified me that I had 152 malicious files on my hard drive. Thank goodness for Windows XP and its great security. I hit Ok to remove the files and then I was directed to a website that asked for $49 to download the program required to get rid of the spyware.
Duh! I thought, and closed the browser. How naïve am I? Then another window opened, and then another. I attempted to close them, but new ones opened faster than I could close them down. I had to shut down the system with the power button as the entire system froze up. What a nightmare. I had visions of my entire hard drive being erased by the virus as I booted up a second time. I prayed to the computer gods to please, please, please let it boot back up.
What I did not realize was that I had lost the battle the moment the first popup appeared. The spyware bot was already installed and infecting my PC. When I chose to scan the hard drive, I gave it the ok to install itself on my system.
When I booted back up, it was gone, but only for a little while. Where was it you may ask? It was gathering information from my hard drive, sending it back to the software developer and when it was all done, it hijacked my system yet once again.
I paid the $49 to make it go away, but I knew that it was still on my hard drive, lurking around, stealing my information. It allowed me to browse the internet uninterrupted so it could lie in wait and track my every move.
What I should have done was purchased Paretologic’s XoftspySE in the first place. XoftspySE provides my system with a titanium level defense against these types of threats. I knew it was a legitimate program as over 20 million users have downloaded it to date. The reviews were very positive throughout the web. When I installed the program, it squashed hundreds of spyware files like little cockroaches.
Related posts:
