Hi…I recently bought a new computer that “came with” a one yr sub to McAfee…I have used Avast free protection for years with zero problems…Yesterday, I received a pop-up telling me I had been infected with Zeus virus, and NOT to shut down computer, but to call a number for virus removal for a fee…My screen had frozen so I could not close any windows I had open…so I ran a scan that showed NO virus…So I restarted my computer, then wrote to McAfee to find out what was going on, and they didn’t even seem to understand my description of what happened…They said said virus removal was a separate fee and to go to their site for it…I chose to install Avast free and installed that, then uninstalled McAfee altogether…Sent computer company message to adjust my bill to remove cost of McAfee…We’ll see about that…Meantime…I would like to know what advantage I would have by purchasing a paid sub to Avast over the free version. And if it would prevent the scam virus from happening again…??? Any info will be appreciated.
Zeus is not a virus but a trojan.
You found a HTML:FakeAlert URL
Video samples
https://myonlinesecurity.co.uk/some-videos-of-typical-tech-support-scams/
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fake+virus+alert
Do you have the URL ?
No I don’t have the URL…It happened so suddenly, I wasn’t aware of what I had last opened…and don’t recall if the thing was called virus or trojan…Probably a video as I check lots of news videos from around the world…But I never had this happen when I was using Avast…
Will Avast not show me if I have a Trojan come in? I also use Spybot…no alerts there, and no alerts on free Avast thus far…
Remove Spybot and use MBam instead.
Spybot once was a good tool, but that is a long time ago.
As Pondus mentioned these are fake alerts which try to sucker you in to calling their help line, next time you receive one use task manager to close your browser then run CCleaner to clear your browsers cache and temp files.
As other have mentioned it is a fake popup. It is simply an annoying popup that you can not get rid of without killing the browser from the task manager or logging off and on or restart your computer.
If you call that number here is what would happen.
First, they would try to convince you to let them remotely connect to your computer. Out of all of the calls I get from my customers regarding the fake popup 95% call the number and 90% let them remotely connect into their computer.
Second, the guy on the other end of the phone will point to completely legit windows components and say it’s a virus.
Third, they will ask for money (Usually over $250+ to fix it)
While the message with the phone number is NOT a virus and just an annoying popup if you see it a lot it could be an indication of some adware on your system redirecting you to those types of pages.