Do I Have A Virus?

Several times recently when using IE11 browser, some strange things have popped up on screen. They seem to be saying my system is outdated or problems with firewall. Also say that files will be deleted/destroyed. A couple even had a countdown timer on them. Seem to remember that the address bar at top left of screen on one of them said something like Wink or Winx.

Are the warnings on screen genuinely from my desktop, or is there something malicious going on? After the previous one, I ran the full Avast scan and it found a PUP which it removed. Not sure what that was. Below are screen shots of the one that appeared today.

Hi Paul. Thanks for your quick reply. I seem to remember I had problems with Malwarebytes and my pc. I have Superantispyware. Will this be just as good?

Hi Woodbine,

thats a scam, certainly NOT an MS pop-up,

would also suggest you run ESET on-line, dissable any other AV whilst your running it.


Roy

Paul Black said:

Hi woodbine,



It wouldn't hurt running it and trying it!

Thanks, Paul.

I ran a full SAS scan, and it found 283 tracking cookies. Removed them. I'm guessing they weren't the cause of my problems?

torchwood said:

Hi Woodbine,

thats a scam, certainly NOT an MS pop-up,

would also suggest you run ESET on-line, dissable any other AV whilst your running it.


Roy

Hi Torchwood

Presuming I can use the free one time scan from ESET? I have free Avast and free Superantispyware. Would it be just the Avast that I need to disable?

Many thanks.

Hi Woodbine,

dissable BOTH.

Roy

Nothing to worry about, at all.

What you're seeing are normal, malicious popups intended to trick you into thinking your computer is infected and only that program will save you, while in fact what you have in front is a a random webpage asking you to install a virus in your computer in disguise.

If you look closely at the screenshot, you'll see many clues that the message is not geniune:
- The message is entirely contained in a browser windo, it's not on its on on the desktop.
- The gigantic "system warning" window uses a Windows 8 Metro style. The rest of your system uses Windows 7 Aero Glass.
- The small message in front of it is titled "Message from webpage".
- The message in itself makes no sense. A firewall cannot "define" a system as damaged, much less as "irrelevant".
- If your system files were deleted, you wouldn't be taking screen captures and posting here, your computer would be bricked.
- "Please follo the instructions to fix the problem immediately" is a typical plea to create fear in you and blindly click where they want you to. The whole thing makes zero sense and there is no objetive reason to follow that "advice".

A real warning won't show up without reasonable explanation and won't be that urgent in nature, Windows is simply not that intrusive, and in many way it hasn't the means to detect such problems even when they're real. Fancy messages like this appear on the web all the time, it's called Phishing and should always be ignored and closed away. They by no means indicate an infection or any compromise on your computer, but often are sign of malicious advetising networks being exploited.

TL;DR; Just close the window and move on, you're safe.

woodbine said:

and it found 283 tracking cookies. Removed them. I'm guessing they weren't the cause of my problems?

They might have something to do with the popups, but in any case, a cookie is at most a privacy problem, not a security one. Cookies are often used by tracking advertising networks and partner websites (Google and Facebook being the main offenders) but other than trying to spy on you they won't compromise the security in any way. You can always delete cookies without any negative consequences, but they aren't the root cause of malicious popups, although malicious popups could have dropped cookies.