Many of you may have already come across a pop up that warns that "your computer is infected and you should click to perform a scan."  These so called FAKE ALERTS ARE actually A REAL VIRUS THEMSELVES. If you click on one of them, you will become infected with one of the worst viruses on the net.

This virus/trojan is everywhere. I just read that it had planted itself on one of the pages at the New York Times website, and that even the Google homepage had been infected. I have seen it pop up on all types of sites, and it looks like a real windows or antivirus program alert. In has many different names, such as Personal Antivirus and Antivirus 2009. In fact Panda Security reports that they have found over 7,000 variants of the virus. This virus steals your personal information, makes your true antivirus software useless, and finally destroys your computer.

It is very very difficult to remove once it sets up on your computer. In some cases the infection is so severe that the only option is to do a complete reinstall of your operating system. This means you lose everything you have saved since you got the computer. That is why it is very important that you make backups of any important files on a regular basis. Once you are infected it may be to late.  Also make sure you have the reinstallation disk for your operating system. If you did not get one with your computer, call the computer manufactorer and get a copy now.

If you see one of these pop ups, Do Not Click Anywhere on it. Not even the X to close it out! Shut down your computer and disconnect from the internet and then restart your computer and do a virus scan with your True virus software (The software you were using before the alert). If it finds a virus, follow the instructions on screen. If it is unable to remove the infection, do not reconnect to the internet.  Turn your computer off and go on line with another computer and search for a solution. If that does not work, take it to a computer repair store, or be prepared to do a reinstall of your operating system.

If no infection is found do a disk clean up with your virus software or by left clicking on my computer and then right clicking on your hard drive (usually the C drive). Then left click properties and under the general tab you should see a disk cleanup button. Click it and let it remove temp files from your computer. Then if you use Internet Explorer, open it and click the tools button and click internet options and under general, click delete browsing history and make sure you click to delete temporary internet files. Then shut down your computer and restart and reconnect to the internet.

Please tell everyone you know about this very Real Virus Epidemic. I say it is a Epidemic because I have seen and  "treated" more cases of this virus in the past couple of months than any other virus or spyware infection in the past 10 years. Television News and News Papers are not getting the word out like they should, as this is Real Bad News! If you have any connections to any News reporters, please get them to help get the word out. There have been many virus scares over the past few years, but they didn't amount to much. This one is a real and present threat that must be taken seriously.

Foot note: While this virus was originally targeting Microsoft enviroments, I hear it is now starting to spread to Apple, as well as to other browsers. Also if your antivirus software shows your computer as clean after receiving one of these alerts and your computer is still running slow, use windows live one care safety scanner or kasperky's free online scanner to double check. The virus can alter your antivirus software to show as false clean report.