Someone successfully sent me a virus? (not tech savvy) peeeez help!

[AmberFellows]

I tried to do a search for something related before posting this. I have windows XP, Avast as my antivirus program (um, the free one), and malwarebites as a back-up.

Someone, or something, tried to send a virus to my computer and this is the first time that I have experienced this. The only time I've encountered viruses is from accidentally clicking on a link, but this came out of nowhere.

A few days ago, while typing an e-mail, Avast popped up telling me that a virus has been detected from a site that I was not logged onto, and have not been to at all for over a month. Of course I aborted connection, as the Avast prompt recommended I do, ...but...I never connected my computer anywhere near the site to begin with. I delete all history when I exit Firefox.  So, that has me confused. I should have taken a screen shot of the prompt before doing so, but it was saying that the url source was a thread I created on the forum website that have not been to since July.

So, I wanted to see if I could contact the admin of that particular forum website and tried to log onto their home page, but I got another Avast pop-up stating that a virus was coming at me from the site's home url.

I have been house sitting and using another computer since this incident. Today, while trying to get back on to my own computer, windows woudl not boot--black screen and blinking cursor.

Today the site's admin contacted me stating that they were sending the info to their techs, and that they have never seen anything like it before.

what I am seeking to understand is the nature of this type of attack (was it specifically directed to me???), and prevent them from getting in (again?)the best I can...if I can get windows back up and running, which I am getting help with on geekstogo, I hope.

If I can get back in, what will I need to show you folks???

[scythe944]

Hi Amber, welcome to the forums.

I can say that no, you probably weren't specifically targeted for this. Avast is alerting you, not because YOU are trying to access that website, but something got on your computer and is doing the accessing itself.

If it's going to a website that avast is alerting you about, then I highly doubt that sending a message to them is going to do anything, as they are probably the people that created the malware in the first place, and they're trying to get it to send info back to them.

Since you cannot log into your system, it will be difficult to troubleshoot.  Can you try booting in safe mode (hit F8 on your keyboard right before windows tries to load, then select Safe Mode with the arrow keys on your keyboard, and hit enter)?

If you can get into safe mode (preferably safe mode with networking), you can fire up malwarebytes, update it, then do a full scan.  Let us know if it finds anything.

If you can't get into safe mode, well, it might take quite a bit more to fix.  Hopefully you back up your files regularly (not to scare you or anything, but you should do this anyway).

[AmberFellows]

Thanks for replying. All of my (non program) files are backed up on an external hard drive. I am able now to get in using safe mode, and am about to run all sorts of tests to see what's going on. Before this happened, though, I did run a full malwarebytes scan and nothing came up.

Admin for the site replied back just now, communicating this from their techs: "She/ He has got a bug from somewhere,, not from here.
Could be in their FireFox profile,,,if thats the case,, the virus could pop up at any time. Best she/he does a virus sweep on their computer"

I will update.

[scythe944]

Ok, sounds good.

[AmberFellows]

Mmmkay, while attempting to get into safe mode I was able to, after several unsuccessful attempts, get in. I am not in safe mode, though. ...kept pressing F8....

I updated Malwarebytes, ran a scan--nothing found.

I ran Avast scan--nothing found.

I can log onto the internet and everything....

Wow, I am confused. Going back... "Avast is alerting you, not because YOU are trying to access that website, but something got on your computer and is doing the accessing itself."

Well, I knew that I was not trying to access anything, but saw it as something was coming at me from that site, judging by the Avast prompt that I should have taken a screen shot of.

So, something's on my computer...trying to automatically log me onto the site (?)...but it cannot be found?

(scratches head)

I am also not understanding the nature of the Avast prompts, I guess because I've never seen them before.

[scythe944]

So, something's on my computer...trying to automatically log me onto the site (?)...but it cannot be found?

Well, there's a possibility that it's already been removed.

Have you checked the virus chest in avast to see if there's anything in it?

Is avast still giving you the pop ups?