Virus Warning for Fly Fisher People

[Whitewolf]

My friend was givien a Bottom Line Fishing Buddy 2255 fish finder but no manual. When he tried to find one on internet...his computer broke down. I was not aware of this and he asked me to find him one.

In a search for the exact name I show in the first sentence....I selected one of the reasonable looking links and clicked on it....and wallah! I saw a virus pop up. It is the one that says "your computer is infected...click HERE to fix it. Shows about 6 Trojans in a window......Then it messes up your computer and you have to pay them I think to get computer back up!

I knew about this virus and immediately did a control/alt/delete and "end program". Powered down computer, powered back up and ran an antivirus scan on it. Computer worked for a week and I thought all is well. Then it quit. Won't power up and says Windows Explorer has an error and will shut down. Computer shop has tried every thing he knows....and says hard drive is bad. Think virus did this as I have a 12 year old computer I used to used every day and the hard drive still good. Don't think my 4 year old laptop hard drive just wore out.

Anyway here is a good link to said manual. http://www.gps-info.com.ua/wp-conten...al_fb_2255.pdf (kindly provided to me by a fellow FAOL'er. I will post his name and give him credit....for the moment I don't remember his exact handle.) But I thank him for it. Just went and looked him up. It was flyfisherjoe who provided the GOOD link for the manual. I hope he does not mind me telling the world about his actions and handle....but I wish to give him credit for the help and thank him a lot....publicly. In light of the problems incurred....very very good of him to step out there and give us a good link. Thank you mucho Mr. flyfisherjoe. Very very good of you to go to the trouble to help other FAOL'ers....on a risky issue....in my opinion.

CAUTION....BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL IN SEARCHING THE NET FOR FISHFINDER MANUALS. YOU WILL GET THE VIRUS IF YOU CLICK ON THE WRONG LINK.....and sorry....due to the mess I do not remember which link I clicked on that did me in. And BTW....."NOW" I find out that this is what happened to my friend! He had to take his computer to 5 different people to get his fixed. I don't think he realized where he got the virus that ruined his or he would have warned me.

Bottom Line...pun intended....I would recommend you do not search for electronic fish finders on the net. Better to post on FAOL and ask for help.

Apologize for length of msg.

(never ten words or less....unless talking to my wife....and cannot do that anymore till I get to heaven)

[texfly]

I stepped in that same mud hole last year. Took forever to get my computer cleaned out. Who comes up with this crap? Whats to gain?

[Silver Creek]

Get WebRoot Secure Anywhere software. They are ranked #1.

http://www.webroot.com/En_US/index.html

[teachmarkey]

I have had AVG anti-virus on my computer for quite a while. Before that, I had the same issue, and it's a HUGE pain in the butt to get rid of it.

This program is free, effective, and one that many of my friends use. The site may "suggest" a more advanced (paid) version, but even my computer-geek buddies don't use anything more elaborate. Here's the link: http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage

Good luck!
Hugh

[Silver Creek]

Another good reason to have backups.

[jszymczyk]

the manufacturer's website should have manuals- make sure you go through the manufacturer's site not some other BS site.

As for 4 years on your hard drive, I've seen HDDs fail way sooner than that.

[DaleW]

In a search for the exact name I show in the first sentence....I selected one of the reasonable looking links and clicked on it....and wallah! I saw a virus pop up. It is the one that says "your computer is infected...click HERE to fix it. Shows about 6 Trojans in a window......Then it messes up your computer and you have to pay them I think to get computer back up!


(never ten words or less....unless talking to my wife....and cannot do that anymore till I get to heaven)

Those creeps hang out at different parts of the internet. And if you did agree to have their "fix it", you would pay them and pay them and it would never be "fixed" - you would be an endless money supply for them until you tired of it and bought a new computer! I fell into one of those traps, too, but lucky for me I had a friend who knew just how to sweep it clean. These are the type of people who need to be in prison.

[Fishin' Jimmy]

A simular thing happened to me. Now i have a mac. Fishin' jimmy

[Silver Creek]

A simular thing happened to me. Now i have a mac. Fishin' jimmy

Make sure you have Software Update in your System Preferences (under the Apple Menu to the far left of the task bar), set to check daily for updates. That way you will have the latest security updates to your OS.

[PanFisher]

I had AVG on my system and got that same virus any way. Had to go into the BIOS to boot up on a NORTON Anti Virus boot disk to run the scanner. Still locked up half way through. I then rebooted normally and the virus was gone. !??!

I then installed Norton and haven't had any problems since. I recommend the death penalty for Virus writers!! (and politically/morally I am against that!!)