Don't Be Fooled By The XP Anti-Spyware 2011 Virus

© Copyright 2011 Patrice Walker All rights reserved

My XP Anti-Spyware 2011 Nightmare Before Mother’s Day

The evening before Mother’s Day, I was sitting at my desk, minding my own business as I searched around on the Internet. I have to admit, I was on a site that I probably shouldn’t have been on (trying to find some free movies to watch) so I should not have been surprised when, all of a sudden, I lost my Internet connection and a slew of security warnings started popping up on my desktop. Little did I know that my laptop had just been infected with the XP Anti Spyware 2011 virus.

The first security warning told me my computer had been infected with viruses, and a very authentic-looking Mircrosoft security window opened up that looked like it was scanning my computer and finding all of these viruses. When it was done, I get another pop up telling me that my computer was now infected with 30 viruses and that I should get them removed immediately.

You can imagine how freaked out I was. I cannot tell you how authentic these messages appeared, so I click the button that says something like, “Remove viruses now,” only to get another message that said I had to pay for the full version of the software in order to get the viruses removed.

Thank goodness I’m a cheapskate because there was no way I was going to pay extra money for something my anti-virus software should already be doing. Mind you, I’d forgotten that I didn’t have the Windows Security anti-virus program operating on my computer, but was using another one in its place. That goes to show you just how rattled I was.

So when I got the request to pay up first, I called on my computer-savvy daughter, Adrienne, to help me figure out what was going on. A quick Internet searched revealed the true nature of what was happening to my computer.

Here’s an example of the kind of FAKE warning I got:

“Privacy Threat!

Spyware intrusion detected. Your system is infected. System integrity is at risk. Private data can be stolen by third parties, including credit card details and passwords. Click here to perform a security repair.”

Source of Quote: http://www.spywareremove.com/removeXPAntispyware2011.html

I have seen something similar to the FAKE virus scan before when surfing the ‘net. Instead of the window I was browsing in shutting down and getting FAKE pop-up alerts, a new window would open up with the FAKE virus scan. When it happened, I simply closed the window. That should have given me a clue that something fishy was up, but the state of panic I was in seemed to have completely short-circuited my ability to think clearly.

A little additional research on my part after I got the virus removed (more on that later) revealed that the XP Anti-Spyware 2011 Virus is a FAKE virus-removal program that looks extremely authentic and that attempts to fool you into thinking that your computer has been infected with viruses by simulating a FAKE virus scan and issuing FAKE alerts warning that you need to take quick action (i.e., pay for a FAKE product) before it’s too late.

Have I made it exceedingly clear that this XP Anti-Spyware 2011 is FAKE?

This malware is known under a host of names, including:

• XP Home Security
• XP Home Security 2011
• XP Anti Spyware
• XP Total Security
• XP Total Security 2011
• XP Internet Security 2011
• XP Security 2011.

There are even versions for Vista and Windows 7, and it seems that whoever has been creating this junk has been at it for a while because I have seen 2008, 2009, and 2010 versions as well.

An Internet search will reveal a lot of guides and tutorials that explain how to remove this virus from your computer. And it’s exactly what my daughter tried to do. However, the instructions she found would have had her making changes to the registry key, and she simply wasn’t comfortable doing that.

Therefore, I ended up paying money after all to have a brick-and-mortar computer service remove the virus for me, not to mention the fact that I was without my computer for three whole days (that’s another story that I really don’t want to think about) and had to use my daughter's computer with its incredibly frustrating touch pad (although I'm extremely grateful that I had access to a computer while mine was being cleaned).

But I did find the following video after the fact that provides what appears to be fairly simple instructions on how to remove the XP Anti-Spyware 2011 virus from a computer.

This video explains the removal process in one step. It is extremely clear, and the narrator takes his time explaining what to do.

If you’re like me and are afraid to mess with your computer beyond what your limited end-user knowledge is capable of, then you can always avail yourself of professional help. One service that I recommend is VirusFixed. Ralph Walker (no relation) is an experienced computer expert, his prices are reasonable, and the service can be performed remotely.

It goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that you need to make sure your anti-virus software is automatically updating virus definitions. I think my computer was attacked because I didn’t have this function turned on, and I wasn’t manually updating the virus definitions either.

Also, there are a lot of very good free anti-virus programs that you can find on the Internet like AVAST, ClamWin, and Avira, as well as software like Malwarebytes that is specifically designed to prevent infection from malicious software like XP Anti-Spyware 2011.

Finally, do some research to find the one(s) that are going to serve your computer security needs the best.

Thanks to mdaniels7 for the photo of the FAKE pop-up alerts.