Then, you get a program on your desktop, or actually pop up called “Windows Repair”.  Windows Repair seems to run through your computer and as these things do, it tells you you have a million problems.  Or fourteen, or whatever.

You run the program, and later find your desktop icons have disappeared.

Then you look at your start menu, and all your program files have disappeared.

You look on your C-drive, and your program files folder is gone!

No…. they aren’t gone.

What’s happened is that all your important icons, files and folders have been rendered invisible by Windows Repair.

It’s a really painful process to put everything back right.  Very difficult to remove, but not impossible.

Hopefully the antivirus programs will update quickly to be able to deal with this.

I installed the latest version of ICQ to communicate with people on a particular project, then uninstalled it when the project was over.  ICQ when installed, hijacked my search provider, and “enhanced” it with it’s own “ICQ search”.  Even after uninstalling the product, it left it’s hijacked version of my browser, and no matter how many times I delete it from my search providers, ICQ Search keeps coming back again.

I reinstalled the product to see if there was anywhere I allowed it to hijack my search provider.  Turned out that there is a link during the installation to “advanced settings” where you are informed that your search provider will be hijacked unless you uncheck the appropriate box.  That option should be wide out in the open during installation, and the fact that it wasn’t leads me to believe that ICQ 7 has been taken over by scammers at best.  The fact that you can’t remove it’s product establishes for me even further ICQs malicious intent.

Because ICQ has been around for so long, its likely that the virus scanners have not yet added it to their lists of malware to be protected against.  But the latest version of ICQ, ICQ 7, is definitely malware in my book leaving behind a trojan that keeps reinstalling the hijacked search tool.

Here’s a Google search for ICQ clones.

Don’t use ICQ – you’ll never get rid of it.

Imagine getting hundreds or thousands of calls on your home, business, or cell phone, tying up the lines. And when you answer, you hear anything from dead air to recorded messages, advertisements, or even phone sex menus.
It’s annoying, no doubt. But it could be more than that—it could be a sign that you’re being victimized by the latest scam making the rounds. This ”telephone denial-of-service attack“ could be the precursor to a crime targeting your bank accounts.
Denial-of-service attacks, by themselves, are nothing new—computer hackers use them to take down websites by flooding them with large amounts of traffic.
In a recent twist, criminals have transferred this activity to telephones, using automated dialing programs and multiple accounts to overwhelm the phone lines of unsuspecting citizens.
share.gifWhy are they doing it? Turns out the calls are simply a diversionary tactic: while the lines are tied up, the criminals—masquerading as the victims themselves—are raiding the victims’ bank accounts and online trading or other money management accounts.
Here, in a nutshell, is how the whole thing works:
*      Weeks or months before the phone calls start, a criminal uses social engineering tactics or malware to elicit personal information from a victim that this person’s bank or financial institution would have—like account numbers and passwords. Perhaps the victim responded to a bogus e-mail phishing for information, inadvertently gave out sensitive information during a phone call, or put too much personal information on social networking sites that are trolled by criminals.
*      Using technology, the criminal ties up the victim’s various phone lines.
*      Then, the criminal either contacts the financial institution pretending to be the victim…or pilfers the victim’s online bank accounts using fraudulent transactions. Normally, the institution calls to verify the transactions, but of course they can’t get through to the victim over the phone.
*      If the transactions aren’t made, the criminals sometimes re-contact the financial institution as the victim and ask for it to be done. Or they add their own phone number to victims’ accounts and just wait for the bank to call.
By the time the victim or the financial institution realizes what happens, it’s too late.
Law enforcement and industry response
While the lines are tied up, the criminals are raiding victims’ accounts.
The FBI first learned about this emerging scheme through one of its private industry partners, which told us how a Florida dentist lost $400,000 from his retirement account after a denial-of-service attack on his phones.
And as of April of this year, there has definitely been a noticeable surge in telephone denial-of-service attacks, with numerous incidents having been reported in several Eastern states.
To help fight these schemes, the FBI has teamed up with the Communication Fraud Control Association—comprised of security professionals from communication providers—to analyze the patterns and trends of telephone denial-of-service attacks, educate the public, and identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
Ultimately, though, it’s individual consumers and small- and medium-sized businesses on the front line of this battle. So take precautions: never give out personal information to an unsolicited phone caller or via e-mail; change online banking and automated telephone system passwords frequently; check your account balances often; and protect your computers with the latest virus protection and security software.
And if you think you may have been targeted by a telephone denial-of-service attack, contact your financial institution and your telephone provider, and file a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.