Odd Symptoms, Need Advice for Friend

  • Thread starter Thread starter Heather
  • Start date Start date
H

Heather

Hi All......

This is coming to me 3rd hand from England, so probably a lot lost in the
translation.

Friend's son reports that when he clicked on an email, his computer shut
down (XP I believe). Now his mouse won't work on startup. He does have
Norton with the firewall. But I bet it is not up to date. He says that
Norton has shut down on him in the past. Don't know if this collection of
comments make any sense.

My friend thinks maybe it could be his HD.......but the son doesn't back up
the valuable business info he has on there..........I could smack him,
frankly. Expects Dad to pull rabbits out of a hat. Dad says that he has
had some security thing on his own XP laptop shut him down......don't know
about that feature.

So I am flying blind. Dad thought it might be Webber virus...I checked that
and it is from last July and doesn't mention shutdown. I really don't think
it is a virus.......could it be the start of a HD crash?

I have seen mention of a mouse not working either here or on the MS ng's.
Often it just means change the mouse or its software.

Can anyone think of what this kid (mid 20's) might have on there? My guess
is that Norton is not up to date at all......and that he clicks on
everything. Not computer literate at all!! Oh......and he refuses to
download Zone Alarm. (smack!!)

He *thought* he saw Citibank in the subject line, which led to the Webber
worm. But don't think he really knows what all he clicked on. The problem
is that there is a lot of really important things on the computer and he
doesn't do backups. I am tearing out my hair from over here, so can imagine
that Dad has none left.

Thanks for anything you can suggest. I told him to get him to back the
stuff up.....but sometimes experience is the best teacher. My daughter's HD
suddenly crashed on her Mac and she lost a lot of artwork (graphic
designer).....but had the majority of it backed up. And more on the
computer at the college she works at......so got back most of it. She now
backs up regularly.

Cheers.....Heather
 
On that special day, Heather, ([email protected]) said...
He *thought* he saw Citibank in the subject line, which led to the Webber
worm. But don't think he really knows what all he clicked on.
Click to expand...

The Citibank subject might as well have been a scam meant to harvest
account data. There are more and more fraudulent spams of the "your
(name fairly important company) account has expired / probably been
hacked; please enter our site, fill in the webform, to renew the account
(link in the mail leads to a spoof site that imitates the original, but
collects the data, so the collector can use the account data and
buy/sell stuff in the name of another person, and on his/her expense)"

Maybe he was even so silly and clicked on the link, and the system went
poof (site either removed, or massively buggy).

The mouse is probably a driver problem. He should enter the system -
device manager in Safe Mode, and delete all mouse entries, reboot, and
have the system detect and install the mouse.

If he can't get into "system properties" without a mouse, he can use the
shortcut keys "windows" plus "pause". This is an undocumented shortcut,
that someone told me, when I had an infrared mouse that would stop
reacting every now and then (probably required too much power from the
old PS/2 port). I had to remove it and redetect the hardware, to have it
come back to life.


Gabriele Neukam

(e-mail address removed)
 
On that special day, Heather, ([email protected]) said...


The Citibank subject might as well have been a scam meant to harvest
account data. There are more and more fraudulent spams of the "your
(name fairly important company) account has expired / probably been
hacked; please enter our site, fill in the webform, to renew the account
(link in the mail leads to a spoof site that imitates the original, but
collects the data, so the collector can use the account data and
buy/sell stuff in the name of another person, and on his/her expense)"

Maybe he was even so silly and clicked on the link, and the system went
poof (site either removed, or massively buggy).

The mouse is probably a driver problem. He should enter the system -
device manager in Safe Mode, and delete all mouse entries, reboot, and
have the system detect and install the mouse.

If he can't get into "system properties" without a mouse, he can use the
shortcut keys "windows" plus "pause". This is an undocumented shortcut,
that someone told me, when I had an infrared mouse that would stop
reacting every now and then (probably required too much power from the
old PS/2 port). I had to remove it and redetect the hardware, to have it
come back to life.


Gabriele Neukam

(e-mail address removed)
Click to expand...
Nope, the Fake Citibank site doesn't do anything to PC's they just want
your data. I got that e-mail & just wanted to see their site compared to
the real Citibank's site. So I did it on another PC that I was working
on, & nothing much happened, I wanted to type in account number of f%ck
0ff, but decided to leave those fields alone.

I am amazed that Citibank hasn't spent everything & then some or hired
mercenaries to off those people though. And I wonder if that theft is
covered by Citibanks fraud protection. Hmmm
 
Gabriele Neukam said:
On that special day, Heather, ([email protected]) said...


The Citibank subject might as well have been a scam meant to harvest
account data. There are more and more fraudulent spams of the "your
(name fairly important company) account has expired / probably been
hacked; please enter our site, fill in the webform, to renew the account
(link in the mail leads to a spoof site that imitates the original, but
collects the data, so the collector can use the account data and
buy/sell stuff in the name of another person, and on his/her expense)"

Maybe he was even so silly and clicked on the link, and the system went
Click to expand...
poof (site either removed, or massively buggy).

Thanks, Gabby (which is a French Canadian short form for your name, not a
reflection on your verbal habits.....VBG). I was at a loss for information
from him because I was getting it from his father. Seems he is rather
careless and stubborn......but has had one hell of a scare now.

I posted it on my WinME group and one of my English MVP friends wrote me and
said for the son to phone him. So hopefully he will. He will be able to
sort him out. And put the fear of God into him as well, I trust. Seems he
thinks that he 'walks on water' and doesn't use a firewall and is
click-happy. I doubt it was the Citibank one.

I also figured it might just be a coincidence with the mouse and told him
via the father to try another one.......or uninstall the software and use a
different kind. I hope he listens. It could be his HD going as well. So
he may just learn a very valuable lesson because he doesn't back up his
important data......or use safe hex.....or anything else......but he does
have Norton (ptui)...didn't help him, did it. Wonder how far out of date it
was.

Cheers.....Figgs in Canada.
 
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