Expert: Keith Davis - 3/10/2009

Question
hi.
i don't know much about computers, so  i was hoping you could help me with this.
i have windows xp and i have defender pro for a security software. i keep getting a pop up that says system security firewall alert, and it it will also come up and say 38 infectiosn found. but when i run my defender pro it doesn't find any. it says, "fraudulant (something...can't remember exactly what it says, but it says it's not a virus, it's fraudulant ...something else) has been found, and treated, but cannot be disinfected. the false security thing that keeps popping up has a shield icon at the top right hand corner of the window that it pops us in and is also at the bottom of my computer screen, on the bottom right hand corner. the shield is black and yellow. we know it is fraudulant, and that it is not installed (because we checked and it is not installed). but how can i get rid of this thing altogether?  thank you, laura :)

Answer
Laura,
I'm not familiar with "defender pro" but I am familiar with the fake alert you are getting. If it the one I am thinking of it has the little green bar on the page that says it is scanning your computer. If what is popping up on your PC does not have this it is probably a variant of the same problem. The best anti-spyware program I have used is Spybot Search and Destroy. You can download it from here for free: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/

Download, install, and update. Run a scan with Spybot (check for problems). You will want to uncheck the "tea timer" part. After it runs the scan it will show all problems in red. Click the fix problems button if there are problems. If it does not detect any problems get back with me. Come to think of it, if you can copy and paste what problems it finds into a follow-up message to me.

Let me know how it goes.

Keith