[Jazzer]

If you come across this, the link also has instructions on how to deal with this.

http://thundercloud....fixer/index.htm

Quote

SCUMWARE SCAM ALERT

"WinFixer" (AKA "ErrorSafe") Should Be Called "WinTrixer"
All Versions of Windows - All Versions of Internet Explorer

We've recently (and unfortunately) stumbled upon another Internet scam, this one called "WinFixer". Rarely have we encounter such a misleading advertisement or a more persistent attempt at installing software without meaningful user consent. Below are some screen caps taken during our encounter with "WinFixer" and if you encounter these you'll have a hard time stopping this cycle of events which, if you are not careful, could leave you infected, with changes made to your system that you do not want and which maybe hard to reverse.

[QueenTiye]

This sounds like a problem I've recently seen - of messages showing up through the windows messaging system. There's a way to turn that OFF - to prevent this kind of attack.

QT

[Jazzer]

I haven't personally run into the "WinFixer" thing. I have Windows messenger disabled on my computer, but in spite of that, a few times I've run into something on a few websites that seemed a bit similar to the "WinFixer" pop-up. Right after I clicked the url link to certain websites, upon opening the website, a pop-up came up offering to download some kind of software called "Cresendo". When it popped up, it was showing a "Terms of Service" agreement window, and if I recall, the options it presented was to "Accept" or "Decline". I was leery of even clicking "Decline" in case the "decline" button was "rigged" to do something other than what it was labeled. It did have an "X" in the upper right corner so it could be closed, but I finally decided instead just to use the "control-alt-delete" option and use the task manager to close it, just to be on the safe side.

But I have run into the "Cresendo" pop-up on a few different websites. Since all that pops up is the Cresendo "Terms of Service" agreement window, I couldn't readily find any explanation as to the purpose of the software, which made me very suspicious. Anyway, I avoided going back to those websites. Actually, I've came across the websites in clicking a few url's that were posted on this message board and on another message board where someone had pasted a link to something funny, and once in clicking on the url of a search result.

At the time, where I clicked on a link in a post, I didn't think to post a reply mentioning the "Cresendo" pop-up when clicking the links, to see if anyone else had experienced the "Cresendo" pop-up. Guess I should have. Now that I think about it, I just wonder if maybe the websites themselves, or maybe more accurately the computer(s) hosting the websites, were "infected" (so to speak) with spyware or something that causes the pop-up, and if whoever owned the websites was maybe unaware of the "Cresendo" pop-up. I'm just speculating.

[Christopher]

Looks pretty nasty. Fortunately I don't use IE, and I have that Service Pack 2 thingy installed, so I'm probably okay.