Now that I have "escaped" from the fake BSOD a few times, I received a "system" warning about dangers to my PC from not being protected. Obviously this is true if both MWB and Windows Security Essentials are not catching this. See attached SS
This is not Microsoft Security Essentials.
Your system is compromised. It would be the best for you if you format the HDD and start afresh.
Thanks for your response, Arc. Yes, I agree, this is not MS Security Essentials, it is a fake. The question is, where is it getting in if both MWB and MS SE are not catching it? In my opinion, reformatting, which would certainly get rid of the problem, is not the first step that I want to take. It is like someone who has a shoulder pain and elects radical surgery before trying physical therapy first. Surely there is a special tool that can be recommended to scan for this type of malware and remove it. I will download Defender Offline first and see what comes of that.
This is something more than just a malware or adware. It is an attempt to hack your system. Removal of the particular item/items will not be the best thing there, IMHO.
I have requested Cottonball to have a look.
The interesting thing is that whoever it is has put up this fake BSOD and is now making a *timely* offering of software to fix the problem, all under the ruse of being MS. This appears to be a well thought out campaign to sell their product and I'm surprised this isn't more widely reported on the internet.
FYI, I googled the number in the ad and came up with a number of articles on fake pop ups and scams, including this one by MWB https://blog.malwarebytes.org/tech-support-scams/ In the article MWB says to run a full scan to get rid of these but that doesn't seem to be working on my PC. Chalk one up for the scammers.
Also, googling "pc-techies", the name in the URL, comes up with all sorts of stories about them being a scammer operation...yet, no word on how to block them.
It probably came in on something you downloaded and installed recently. If the code is not performing unusual tasks, it probably won't be caught by any malware scanner. And simply displaying text is not an unusual task. The damage will be done when you let them into your system. Check to see if you can identify the program that is running in Task Manager when the screen appears. If you can find it, delete the program file.
The fact that it reappears suggest that it may be a two-part problem aided by the software you installed. It may have generated a Scheduled Task, a Start Up task or something is running all the time to issue the display.
Forgot to ask: Are you using Gadgets?
Also, Go to Programs and Features, sort the list by clicking on the "Installed on" column header then post a snip of it.
I'd try Malware Bytes' Junkware Removal Tool, and, AdwCleaner....
You might also consider Comodo's AutoRuns, or SysInternal's AutoRuns, which might let you track down the source of who/what is initiating the popup/fake warning, so that you might be able to delete it.
If no one minds me putting in two cents worth I think a run with a rescue disk is worth a try there are two I would recommend
Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10 or How to create a Bitdefender Rescue CD
I personally find the Kaspersky the easiest to run but the choice if you want it try - got nothing to lose and it will not require Windows to boot at all
There is also a ton of security stuff in here too only they have reorganised it because the rescue disks were in a section of their own Free Windows Desktop Software Security List - Entire List | Gizmo's Freeware
" The system have found 35....."
It's a good thing most scam tards can't compose a simple sentence correctly!
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