Popup on Chrome says virus??

[clueless404]

Hi guys,

I recently had a pop-up from chrome that told me to call a phone number, and that my computer had a virus. I know it was fake and likely a trap.

A few hours later I finished editing a video and attempted to upload it to YouTube. I saw the computer was having trouble connecting to the internet, and after disconnecting and reconnecting, I restarted the machine. It bluescreened when it tried to POST again, so I held down the reset key and haven't had any issues. I use Avast! Free Antivirus. I ran a full scan and it said there was nothing wrong, except for files it couldn't scan. I assumed those were unhealthy for the machine but have no way to delete them.

Was that pop-up real, and is my computer safe?

Thank you so much for the help. I appreciate it very much!!

 

[fil1p]

Hey,

Run a full scan using Avast, make sure it is fully updated. Have you installed anything recently or changed any hardware? I wouldn't worry too much about the popup unless it keeps recurring, however I would do a full system scan nonetheless.

Hope this helps!

 

[clueless404]

Hey,

Run a full scan using Avast, make sure it is fully updated. Have you installed anything recently or changed any hardware? I wouldn't worry too much about the popup unless it keeps recurring, however I would do a full system scan nonetheless.

Hope this helps!

Thank you! I'm currently running a full scan of my machine. Avast is totally up-to-date, as are (I believe) all my other programs. I'll use Avast to check that also when it's finished. I've seen similar pop-ups before, but they seem to pop-up at certain times/sites, i.e. one website I visit for royalty-free music has many ads. Generally I get a pop-up, but this one contained audio and just startled me. It contained an "800" number to call, which I assume is a scam.

 

[fil1p]

Hey,

Run a full scan using Avast, make sure it is fully updated. Have you installed anything recently or changed any hardware? I wouldn't worry too much about the popup unless it keeps recurring, however I would do a full system scan nonetheless.

Hope this helps!

Thank you! I'm currently running a full scan of my machine. Avast is totally up-to-date, as are (I believe) all my other programs. I'll use Avast to check that also when it's finished. I've seen similar pop-ups before, but they seem to pop-up at certain times/sites, i.e. one website I visit for royalty-free music has many ads. Generally I get a pop-up, but this one contained audio and just startled me. It contained an "800" number to call, which I assume is a scam.

I agree, the number is CERTAINLY some sort of scam. If it just appears on a specific website then its likely that website. If it appears on all pages then its possibly something on your machine that is injecting popups into legitimate sites.

 

[clueless404]

Thank you very much. I assume it is only that website, as I don't see it on other webpages. I ran a system scan that came up with nothing. Am I correct in thinking that since it is a pop-up, the only harm it can do is annoy me?

 

[Drakeblade]

It definitely was fake, my recommendation is to either run an Avast "Boot-time scan" or Download Malwarebytes free edition and run that.

I've had better luck with the Boot-time scan, however this works by restarting your computer and running before windows has started running. This also takes a while, depending on the computer. If it finds anything I would select the option (options are 1-9 I believe) that says "Move all to Chest" (Might be move to Quarantine). That way if their are any false positives you can easily restore them.

 

[fil1p]

Thank you very much. I assume it is only that website, as I don't see it on other webpages. I ran a system scan that came up with nothing. Am I correct in thinking that since it is a pop-up, the only harm it can do is annoy me?

Glad to help, since nothing showed up on the scan I wouldn't worry about it unless you see some other strange behavior while using your system. If you are using Chrome or Firefox you can download an extension like Webutation to make your browsing experience a bit safer as it tells if a website is potentially unsafe.

 

[Drakeblade]

I personally always like to run a separate scan other then the one that potentially missed it.

However as fil1p said. Since it came back with nothing and you're not seeing it on other site you "should" be fine.

 

[clueless404]

I just completed an Avast boot-time scan, and a few files were "moved to chest". Thank you so much for helping fil1p and Drakeblade!! I've learned how to properly handle this in the future and feel much safer about the situation with the bluescreen and popup earlier.

I appreciate it very much. Have a great day!