OT: Be careful surfing RealGM (viruses/malware)

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Re: OT: Be careful surfing RealGM (viruses/malware) 

Post#21 » by ranger001 » Wed Jan 20, 2010 4:54 pm

If you have IE your best bet to block ads is to change your hosts file. What this does is that it stops the request to a bunch of known spyware and adware sites. Get the hosts file from here:-
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
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Re: OT: Be careful surfing RealGM (viruses/malware) 

Post#22 » by mastertang » Wed Jan 20, 2010 5:02 pm

I use Firefox at home and it's fine... however I was checking RealGM on my friend's computer once and it got a nasty virus. He hasn't been able to use his computer since lol. I feel pretty bad.
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Re: OT: Be careful surfing RealGM (viruses/malware) 

Post#23 » by Komodo » Wed Jan 20, 2010 5:06 pm

I got a nasty trojan from RealGM over the summer AT WORK. Things could definitely improve around here.
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Re: OT: Be careful surfing RealGM (viruses/malware) 

Post#24 » by Kevin Willis » Wed Jan 20, 2010 5:08 pm

uniballer wrote:yeah got the antivirus live ... was a pain in the ass to get rid of! that and my wife thought I was surfing for pron!


2 x's because of my addiction to real gm!


Wait you weren't searching for pron?!?! :D

OK that explains it because one of my PCs always get it and I only use it for a couple of things (not pron). Antivirus Pro was a freakin' epic battle. It shut down my CA antivirus - shut it down completely. Then I have a few free malware and virus programs and tried to run them and it shut them down. Only one survived and it was able to get rid of it. Then I released the hounds and all four of my antivirus programs finally cleaned it up. But it screwed up my internet settings and connections so I had to redo that.

I blamed it on the online anime I watch sometimes but now that I think of it, it only happens when I surf realgm from that PC. Thanks so much OP for this, it answers a ton of questions.

p.s. CA Antivirus sucks. It's cheap for a reason.
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Re: OT: Be careful surfing RealGM (viruses/malware) 

Post#25 » by YogiStewart » Wed Jan 20, 2010 5:08 pm

lostradamus wrote:
Exar Kun wrote:
YogiStewart wrote:
you literally cannot get rid of AntiVirus Pro. reformatting doesn't always get rid of it (in my case, it did not). any attempt to remove it on your own with other software may seriously rape your computer system.

Chrome, from what i understand, has its own security issues.


If you formatted your computer and it didn't get rid of Antivirus Pro, you did it wrong.


+1000

I almost fell over laughing when I read that


laugh it up, fat boy. :)
first, i didn't reformat. IT dudes do it. work computer.
second, my suspision is that AntiVirus Pro embedded itself in my work software that was reinstalled, causing a reinfection. i am pretty sure they reinstalled software after copying it to a tertiary hard drive.

or....i picked up the virus a 2nd time from RGM.
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Re: OT: Be careful surfing RealGM (viruses/malware) 

Post#26 » by Brinbe » Wed Jan 20, 2010 5:09 pm

Ad-block plus FTW
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Re: OT: Be careful surfing RealGM (viruses/malware) 

Post#27 » by MrBojangelz71 » Wed Jan 20, 2010 5:11 pm

I had my PC at work infect 3 times with the Antivirus Pro virus. totally hijacked my PC. Lucky for me I am the Supervisor for our I.T. department and can easily re image my PC back to it's original state. Starting using FireFox and haven't had a problem since.

The Anitvirus pro virus was able to get through ESafe and Symantec. Windows just recently released a patch to address it:


http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=5096&tag=nl.e589
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Re: OT: Be careful surfing RealGM (viruses/malware) 

Post#28 » by Candide » Wed Jan 20, 2010 5:11 pm

on a side note, which anti-virus program do you guys recommend? i use kaspersky (russian version) on one computer, but my other computer is naked and devoid of virus scanners. i used to have a campus-issued Norton Antivirus program but i noticed that it slowed everything done and required 5 minutes to load every time i turned on the computer. suggestions?
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Re: OT: Be careful surfing RealGM (viruses/malware) 

Post#29 » by tecumseh18 » Wed Jan 20, 2010 5:19 pm

I had a scary incident two days ago instantly after calling up RealGM. It was probably Antivirus Pro that popped up on the screen.

I was using IE 8, with an updated version of Vista and McAfee. I simply exited from IE immediately via task manager and restarted the computer. A full McAfee scan showed nothing, and I haven't had any problems since.
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Re: OT: Be careful surfing RealGM (viruses/malware) 

Post#30 » by YogiStewart » Wed Jan 20, 2010 5:42 pm

Exar Kun wrote:
YogiStewart wrote:while i cannot suggest that you turn all ads off (RGM needs ad revenue to operate), i strongly suggest MalwareBytes' anti-malware combined with Kaspersky.
those both stop everything dead in its tracks.
i can't use Firefox at work, and lo and behold, my computer was infected via (likely) RGM.

the best was when http://www.porn.com and http://www.viagra.com start popping up along with the fake virus scans along with every .exe being crippled by AntiViru Pro (the malware). so much fun when your computer is completely disabled. yay.


Does RealGM get paid by just having the ads in place? or they get paid when people click on the ads? Because whether I have the ads showing or not, I have absolutely no intention of ever clicking on any of them.


as you probably know, mods have zero vested interest in the businessside of RGM. i would assume that RGM gets paid per clicks, but that is a guess.
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Re: OT: Be careful surfing RealGM (viruses/malware) 

Post#31 » by SpaceJam » Wed Jan 20, 2010 5:45 pm

Damn...this happened to me as well a while ago. Thanks for the heads up.
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Re: OT: Be careful surfing RealGM (viruses/malware) 

Post#32 » by lobosloboslobos » Wed Jan 20, 2010 5:48 pm

YogiStewart wrote:as you probably know, mods have zero vested interest in the businessside of RGM. i would assume that RGM gets paid per clicks, but that is a guess.


Understood. I'm sure nobody lays this on the mods. BUT you guys have connections to the overlords of RealGM that we do not. This is a really big issue and it should not happen. What do you recommend can be done to fix it?
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Re: OT: Be careful surfing RealGM (viruses/malware) 

Post#33 » by YogiStewart » Wed Jan 20, 2010 5:48 pm

Candide wrote:on a side note, which anti-virus program do you guys recommend? i use kaspersky (russian version) on one computer, but my other computer is naked and devoid of virus scanners. i used to have a campus-issued Norton Antivirus program but i noticed that it slowed everything done and required 5 minutes to load every time i turned on the computer. suggestions?


Kaspersky is one of the best.
Futureshop.ca was selling a year's subscription for $15 a few weeks ago. bloody cheap.
it also will slow everything down unless you create exceptions/exemptions. Norton AV ain't so hot.
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Re: OT: Be careful surfing RealGM (viruses/malware) 

Post#34 » by YogiStewart » Wed Jan 20, 2010 5:50 pm

tecumseh18 wrote:I had a scary incident two days ago instantly after calling up RealGM. It was probably Antivirus Pro that popped up on the screen.

I was using IE 8, with an updated version of Vista and McAfee. I simply exited from IE immediately via task manager and restarted the computer. A full McAfee scan showed nothing, and I haven't had any problems since.


i wouldn't be surprised if it comes back. don't mean to scare you, but the virus scanning softwares out there don't always detect AntiVirus Pro. its one of the more frustrating versions of malware out there.,
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Re: OT: Be careful surfing RealGM (viruses/malware) 

Post#35 » by YogiStewart » Wed Jan 20, 2010 5:54 pm

lobosloboslobos wrote:
YogiStewart wrote:as you probably know, mods have zero vested interest in the businessside of RGM. i would assume that RGM gets paid per clicks, but that is a guess.


Understood. I'm sure nobody lays this on the mods. BUT you guys have connections to the overlords of RealGM that we do not. This is a really big issue and it should not happen. What do you recommend can be done to fix it?


i personally have been posting this on the moderator board for the past 3-4 months.
it started with a "guys, not sure where its coming from, but it may be RGM" to "i get this 5 min after going on RGM" to "my antivirus and antimalware software shows that its RGM and here is the url that proves it."

my concerns started as being ignored, then "looked into" and, when others complained and i repeatedly complained, they were addressed.
i think.
because things were quiet for a week or so here and then, on Monday, i noticed that Malwarebytes detected trouble. it could always be a user's avatar or sig, or it could be an ad. i didn't look into it.

its incredibly frustrating. i almost stopped coming to the site. but that's like going cold turkey on crack cocaine, man.
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Re: OT: Be careful surfing RealGM (viruses/malware) 

Post#36 » by DG88 » Wed Jan 20, 2010 5:56 pm

This happened to my dads computer he lost everything
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Re: OT: Be careful surfing RealGM (viruses/malware) 

Post#37 » by hoop_head » Wed Jan 20, 2010 5:59 pm

Few things to mention here.

1. This site is not safe to surf with IE anymore when IE privacy is set to medium-high. If you must surf with IE, at least change your cookie settings under Tools - Internet Options - Privacy to High.

2. Mozilla Firefox 3.5 with Ad Block Plus is the way to go, you can avoid the unwanted & dangerous ads + security is very good (I have experienced zero problems with Firefox).

3. You know what your security software looks like. While using IE last week at work to surf RealGM, the computer went crazy and a strange window popped up saying I had 300+ infections, and to click a provided button to fix the problem. It looked real enough, but I knew it couldn't be real. I simply went to my Norton Internet Security Suite, and ran a full check while the bogus security window was still up. Norton found nothing, so I simply closed all open windows. When I did, Norton then alerted me to the blocked attack. Had I clicked on the bogus "click here to fix" option, my computer would have been infected & trashed no doubt.

4. With IE, you can go to Tools - Internet Options - Privacy and click on the Sites button. You can block ANY site from downloading cookies to you computer. Before I started using Firefox, I would check the scan results from Norton and manually block each site that had put a tracking cookie on my computer. Sad to say, RealGM is not innocent here (Norton always found a RealGM tracking cookie before I blocked the site).

Cheers.
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Re: OT: Be careful surfing RealGM (viruses/malware) 

Post#38 » by Kevin Willis » Wed Jan 20, 2010 6:06 pm

YogiStewart is right, Kapersky is good. CA is crap. Plus that freakin' thing prevents anti-virus from working. I had Malware, Kapersky, CA and another one on my PC and only Kapersky worked.

It's like a game too because if you don't know better you click on it to scan your pc and it takes over your firewall which can let other virus through. It was an orgy of destruction. Thank goodness for Kapersky.

Norton is alright but not quick on new viruses. I have Bell anti-virus on one of my PCs and that thing is a freakin' vault but it slows the computer down to nothing. I keep sensitive data there. And yeah I also think some viruses may be embedded in avatars - not the movie.

I feel for everyone who lost a PC to this virus.
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Re: OT: Be careful surfing RealGM (viruses/malware) 

Post#39 » by I hate pod 6 » Wed Jan 20, 2010 6:07 pm

This happened to my computer at work, I thought it might have came from this website but wasn't sure. Luckly I know my way around computers and was able to delete it myself rather than having IT people ask me how i got it. On another note anyone else have wonder how some people get IT jobs because I often know more than them and I'm in accounting?
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Re: OT: Be careful surfing RealGM (viruses/malware) 

Post#40 » by Kevin Willis » Wed Jan 20, 2010 6:07 pm

hoop_head wrote:Few things to mention here.

1. This site is not safe to surf with IE anymore when IE privacy is set to medium-high. If you must surf with IE, at least change your cookie settings under Tools - Internet Options - Privacy to High.

2. Mozilla Firefox 3.5 with Ad Block Plus is the way to go, you can avoid the unwanted & dangerous ads + security is very good (I have experienced zero problems with Firefox).

3. You know what your security software looks like. While using IE last week at work to surf RealGM, the computer went crazy and a strange window popped up saying I had 300+ infections, and to click a provided button to fix the problem. It looked real enough, but I knew it could be real. I simply went to my Norton Internet Security Suite, and ran a full check while the bogus security window was still up. Norton found nothing, so I simply closed all open windows. When I did, Norton then alerted me to the blocked attack. Had I clicked on the bogus "click here to fix" option, my computer would have been infected & trashed no doubt.

4. With IE, you can go to Tools - Internet Options - Privacy and click on the Sites button. You can block ANY site from downloading cookies to you computer. Before I started using Firefox, I would check the scan results from Norton and manually block each site that had put a tracking cookie on my computer. Sad to say, RealGM is not innocent here (Norton always found a RealGM tracking cookie before I blocked the site).

Cheers.


How about Opera or Maxthon? Opera has never given me a virus and Maxthon as well. What are ppl's thoughts on that?
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