And people wonder why I only had 1....

[Roll farms]

Parents of teenagers know why animals eat their young.

Soooo....my 17 yr old decides to hop on *my* computer Saturday while I'm at work. She tells her father, "I just want to get a couple guitar tabs, it will only take a minute." because she KNOWS I don't want her anywhere near my machine....based on past experience w/ her....losing files, etc. She has a computer in her room for homework but no internet because...well, I don't think she needs it in her room.

When she has to do homework research or the like, I let her use mine...but she can only go to 'safe' sites.

Keep in mind, this isn't just my toy, I run my business with it.

Next thing you know, the two of them are watching videos on YouTube and....windows start popping up saying my computer is infected w/ malware and if you click on this it will remove it.

Her: "Don't worry, I can fix it..."

42 windows pop up before my husband panics and shuts the machine down.

I come home from work (luckily for her she had plans to go to a friends for the night....) and he tells me what happened.

I turn it on and....Yup, pop up windows like mad. I try running my virus / spyware programs and this bug shut them DOWN, toot-sweet.

I tried a system restore...the virus wouldn't let that happen.

NOTHING I tried would run / operate, and the more I tried to fight it, the more rampant the pop ups and windows opening became.

(I'm not kidding) 42 windows of porn and malware sites pop up before I give up and call our computer guy...who is out of town....*sigh*

All of these windows say, "Click here to remove this malicious virus"...

My husband can't figure why it's all porn popping up...I explained that the average little old church lady and married man w/ a suspicious wife are more likely to "click here to remove" and pay the very company that infected them.

(I think the virus / malware / whatever it was is called "AntiWare2010"...
do not open any windows or even click on it, if you see that name pop up, run a scan ASAP!!!!)

I turn it back off and read up a little, best thing I can think to do is a system recovery....which says, "No data will be lost"....I thought that meant all my pics, music, etc. would still be available.

(I had no idea there was a 'safe mode' at the time I did all this, before you computer experts beat me up too bad...)

After the system recovery........I have a brand new computer....no documents, pics, nada. All my favorites are lost, all my spreadsheets and website pics and address book.......*poof*

My mom, dad, best friend, and father-in-law have all passed away in the last 2 years and I lost ALL their pics.

AAAAAAAAACK!

A more computer savvy friend then suggested I get "Recover My Files" and....for a cool 69.99 I was able to do just that.

I lost 2 days of my life and 70$, but I do have everything back that I needed....Now I just have to remember all the awesome website links I had and put them back in my favorites....*sigh*

My kid survived, but if she ever comes near this machine again.....

 

[ksalvagno]

Sounds like fun was had by all!

Thank goodness you were able to recover everything. I understand because all my business stuff is on my computer.

 

[SDGsoap&dairy]

Oh no! Glad to hear all your stuff was recovered, especially the pics. I gotta say, that's one reason I love our Mac. I'm sure it's not immune, but we've NEVER had an issue with viruses. My laptop PC on the other hand... All I have to say is good thing my bro is a programmer.

Again, glad you recovered those pics.

 

[lupinfarm]

Sounds like my brother. Sigh...

My dad is a computer specialist lol, network analyst, programmer, all that jazz. He gave me his old desktop, I remember picking this thing up years ago and its a great computer. Well the first thing that goes wrong is that the video card isn't good enough for my Sims game, fair enough.. whatever. Next I ask him to install Linux Mint because I like the look of it better, it works great for a while and my mobile highspeed stick works great but then one day it just won't recognize my mobile highspeed stick!

So dad comes home to fix it, and he ends up breaking it more LOL so now it's getting wiped and going back to his apartment to become a server. Sigghhhhh. I told him rather than a new computer, I'll just use my laptop and could he put that money for my computer toward my round pen.


My dad is great with computers, and works wonders normally... just not this time hahaha.

Losing photos is awful, especially when you can't get anymore of them! I went to Paris when I was your daughters age and I had hundreds of photos from Paris and London and I had them loaded onto my brothers computer because my laptop was dead (I was going to move them once my laptop was charged) and I came home from school to find my dad was wiping my brothers computer. Hundreds of one of a kind photos were lost. HUNDREDS.

 

[Kindred farm]

I had the same problem with the Malware scam thing just yesterday. It is so frustrating--though I dont have a teenager to blame--it was all me. I thought it was an authentic Microsoft product. I only realized my error when it asked for money. I was able to remove it by downloading instructions online--but my computer still isn't perfect. Glad you were able to recover your pictures.

 

[luvmycritters42]

My 17 year old infected my mom's computer with a virus one weekend when we were staying with her. Although.......he INSISTS he did NOT do it. Yeah right, "eye roll"( I love opportunities to do the "eye roll" to him, since I get it so much From him ). No one else was using the computer and surfing the web.
Teenagers.............gotta love 'em.