MalwareAlarm Thread poster: Oliver Walter
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Oliver Walter 
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:34
German to English
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Do you have experience or useful knowledge about this? I am asking in Proz because this has only happened to me while I was at the Proz Web site, and I wonder whether it is somehow "infected" with this software.
I would particularly like to know, if anybody can inform me:
how do the window and message box become active?
what is actually happening while they are there?
In the past month, I have two or three times experienced a pop-up window (web page) that an... See more Do you have experience or useful knowledge about this? I am asking in Proz because this has only happened to me while I was at the Proz Web site, and I wonder whether it is somehow "infected" with this software.
I would particularly like to know, if anybody can inform me:
how do the window and message box become active?
what is actually happening while they are there?
In the past month, I have two or three times experienced a pop-up window (web page) that announced itself as MalwareAlarm. A small message box popped up in the middle of this window at the same time, saying that malware (spyware? don't remember exactly) had been detected on my computer and I should click OK to download and install MalwareAlarm to detect and remove it.
I clicked on "Cancel" but it continued as if I had clicked OK. I don't remember exactly what the texts were or what I tried initially (because I wanted to get rid of it quickly in case it was downloading something while I was wondering what to do), but I was certain that I did not want whatever it was offering.
It happened again a few minutes ago and I could not make it go away by clicking on the [X] box in the top right of the message box, nor by doing the same in the web page. In the end I used the task manager (in Windows 98, CtrlAltDel) to force the browser (FireFox in my case) to exit. I then ran an AVG virus check and my C: drive was "clean".
I have searched for web pages about "malwarealarm" and found lots of them, mostly saying it is something you should avoid and many of them offering ways to remove it.
I have now modified my FireFox options. If you're interested (and remember I don't yet know whether this will solve the problem) I have turned OFF all the ticks (they were all ON) in Options > Content > Javascript Advanced (such as "Allow scripts to Move or resize existing windows").
Oliver ▲ Collapse
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Sonja Tomaskovic (X)
Germany
Local time: 11:34
English to German
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The popup window you see may be some sort of spyware. When I worked on Windows, I used two applications to make sure I had no spyware on my computer - my virus scanner itself was not capable of doing so.
I can't remember the name of one of the applications, but the other one was Spybot (see http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html)
You may wa... See more The popup window you see may be some sort of spyware. When I worked on Windows, I used two applications to make sure I had no spyware on my computer - my virus scanner itself was not capable of doing so.
I can't remember the name of one of the applications, but the other one was Spybot (see http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html)
You may want to have a look at this and see if it can detect anything on your PC.
Good luck,
Sonja ▲ Collapse
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Vito Smolej
Germany
Local time: 11:34
Member (2004)
English to Slovenian
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SITE LOCALIZER | IGNORE IT.... | Nov 23, 2007 |
In the past month, I have two or three times experienced a pop-up window (web page) that announced itself as MalwareAlarm. A small message box popped up in the middle of this window at the same time, saying ...
Once you click on them, you're done, because THEY are the Troian horse delivery systems.
I avoid this kind of trouble by using Firefox and a mail service, that catches them, before they get to me.
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Oliver Walter
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:34
German to English
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TOPIC STARTER | That was my suspicion | Nov 24, 2007 |
Vito Smolej wrote:
Once you click on them, you're done, because THEY are the Troian horse delivery systems.
When I clicked on the "Cancel" button the first time this happened, but the pseudo-warning did not go away, it was clear that the button either activated something undesirable or perhaps did nothing. That's why I wanted to stop the program activity as quickly as possible. My FireFox options include "Block popup windows" and "Warn me when web sites try to install extensions or themes".
After Sonja's suggestion, I ran Spybot Search & Destroy (after updating it, as I already had a version). It only found 3 tracking cookies (for Internet Explorer, which I don't usually use) and a log file for MainPean, which was over a year old. All of these are probably harmless.
Result: I think my PC is not infected with anything harmful, and I still don't know what was happening during these events.
Oliver
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Damian Harrison (X)
Germany
Local time: 11:34
German to English
| Malware Alarm is a trojan | Nov 24, 2007 |
I had a similar problem recently. You should also notify proz admin that the site may have been infected.
This info is from: http://hubpages.com/hub/Malware_Alarm
Malware Alarm is a class of spyware known as "rogue antispyware." Malware Alarm is installed on your computer through trojans and computer exploits. Simply put, Malware Alarm invades your computer without you eve... See more I had a similar problem recently. You should also notify proz admin that the site may have been infected.
This info is from: http://hubpages.com/hub/Malware_Alarm
Malware Alarm is a class of spyware known as "rogue antispyware." Malware Alarm is installed on your computer through trojans and computer exploits. Simply put, Malware Alarm invades your computer without you even knowing it. Malware Alarm displays fake security alerts to trick you into buying their so called "antispyware software" when in fact they are spyware.
Malware Alarm symptoms include:
1. Icons that give you fake warnings about spyware being on your computer.
2. They will try to convince you to download and buy their full version of Malware Alarm to remove the "spyware" they detect on your computer.
3. When you click on the message box Malware Alarm will open their website and may try to install the full software program on your computer without your consent.
4. Your Internet Explorer default settings may be changed so you are redirected to their website at Malware Alarm.com
5. Malware Alarm may try to download other spyware onto your computer without your knowledge.
I don't recommend manually removing Malware Alarm because you will not be able to remove all the files associated with it. And if you remove the wrong files it may damage your computer.
Malware Alarm imbeds itself in your computer so well that many antispyware software can't remove it. If the experts can't remove it with their software and trained techs I don't recommend the average computer user attempt to remove it manually.
How to remove your Malware Alarm spyware infection...
I recommend getting a high quality legitimate antispyware software to remove your Malware Alarm infection. Here are the features I look for when rating antispyware software:
100% removal: Independent testing by leading sources like PC World magazine confirms that no antispyware software can remove all your spyware on the first scan. That's why it's important to choose antispyware software that provides you with a free custom update to remove all your spyware if it wasn't removed on the first scan. Make sure this service happens within a guaranteed amount of time. Do you really want to wait a week to get your spyware removed?
[Edited at 2007-11-24 10:02] ▲ Collapse
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Haiyang Ai (X)
United States
Local time: 04:34
English to Chinese
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Popup windows saying that your computer is infected by viruses or malware are usually malware themselves. Their interface are misleading, and often not what're looks like what they are.
If you're using Internet Explorer 7.0, then those popups are prevented by default. You can enable it or add it to trust sites if you do want to show some other useful popup windows.
Some Antivirus software are also capable to preventing this unpleasant things. I would recommend Kaspersk... See more Popup windows saying that your computer is infected by viruses or malware are usually malware themselves. Their interface are misleading, and often not what're looks like what they are.
If you're using Internet Explorer 7.0, then those popups are prevented by default. You can enable it or add it to trust sites if you do want to show some other useful popup windows.
Some Antivirus software are also capable to preventing this unpleasant things. I would recommend Kaspersky.
Kind regards,
Haiyang ▲ Collapse
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Oliver Walter
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:34
German to English
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TOPIC STARTER | Useful warning | Nov 24, 2007 |
Haiyang Ai wrote:
Popup windows saying that your computer is infected by viruses or malware are usually malware themselves. Their interface are misleading
I've added the emphasis because this is an important message, for those who don't realise this. I already knew that, which is why I tried to stop the process quickly.
If you're using Internet Explorer 7.0, then those popups are prevented by default. You can enable it or add it to trust sites if you do want to show some other useful popup windows.
I was using FireFox 1.5, with popups already disabled, so I am not sure whether this was a pop-up in the sense recognised by these browsers. As I mentioned in my first post, I have now turned off more permissions in my browser; all of them are what Javascript is allowed to do:- Move or resize existing windows;
- Raise or lower windows;
- Displace or replace context menus;
- Hide the status bar;
- Change status bar text.
The first two of these might possibly relate to the MalwareAlarm situation, and the others probably not. With protections and permissions on the Internet, a wise approach is probably: turn off all permissions, disable everything, until you know that you need it. Even then consider whether you should turn it off again after you've enabled it and used it because of a specific situation.
Greetings from Oliver
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