Popup Posing? As From Ms Antispyware

[thesidekickcat]

I found this by cabdad over at G4, I think it is important to warn everyone of it.

cabdad's warning on G4

Here is a quote of part of his long detailed article about this thing.

Quote:

" Only my Xoft Spyware/Adware scanner came up with..........Microsoft Office.hta........and listed it as a trojan/spware. None of my other programs, Spybot, Spyware Blaster, Ad-Aware, Spyware Guard Sygate or Avast as well as a few other offline scanners even hinted at a problem from this nor catch it.

This file is not a task manager process, it is a startup program that has permission rights from Microsoft by them not blocking it.

I remember this file because it was last Friday when I gave permission to this file to be loaded to my computer. What upset me was that it came from a Microsoft pop up menu telling me that I needed this file or some of my files and programs would not work. What upset me even more is that the notice came from Microsofts own Antispyware program.".....Unquote.

This next part is part of my post to him on G4 for what it's worth:

So is this really from the Microsoft's Antispyware Program? Or a phisher type pretender?

I would be really really upset with Microsoft if it came from their Antispyware program. I am glad I did not get it now.

I would be suspicious of any antispyware program telling me I needed somthing to fix my office or other Microsoft stuff, whether it was one of theirs or some other outfit.

I get Microsoft updates from going to Microsoft Updates.....period.

Now if someone starts giving me popups or emails pretending to be them or another part of their stuff is doing it, not one that normally does it, then I would x out of the popup and delete the email.

Because I have learned to be suspicious of such things from all the good teaching and warnings on the boards.

Always something to be on the alert for.

Stay safe folks.

God bless everyone.

[tg1911]

Thanks for the heads-up, sidekickcat.

Will definitely, pass this on.

[robroy]

Yeah Thank you, appreciate the warning

JD

[thesidekickcat]

You are welcome folks.

I am still curious as to what and where this thing really came from. I haven't been over to G4 to check on cabdad's thread yet. I sure hope we can get some more information about it. So is anyone seeing anything about this on the various security boards?

If this is a new type phishing scam, then it is really going to be hard to tell what is real and what isn't on any update or scan and fix. Sounds like things have been pushed to a new level of scary stuff to figure out how to protect our computers from.

I thought I was already as paranoid as I could get, and that was several warnings and alerts back. Now it looks like we are fighting aliens coming at us from every angle to destroy our use of our computers, and the perceived safety and enjoyment of the internet that we have had with the protection we thought would be able to keep us safe.

God bless everyone.