Well for the past few months we’ve seen a major increase in nasty viruses and malware. Here are some tips.

First, If you receive a message or popup on your screen indicating you’re infected and all you need to do is purchase this little program to clean your computer you’re probably already infected with malware.

These scammers infect your computer with a hijacker and blackmail you into purchasing their software so they can remove it. But wait! That’s not the worst of it! When you purchase the software that remove the virus they put on your computer they now have your credit card information.  That’s what they really want.

We’ve seen it too many times. If in doubt, your best bet is to call a professional and verify the software is legitimate. If you’ve already been scammed we recommend calling your credit card company and notifying them of the transaction.

The best preventative action you can take is to ensure your anti-virus software is up to date and active on your computer. Your AV software should update daily and scan your computer a minimum of once a week. Using the auto protect option may be overkill in some cases, but if you’re a high risk user you should use auto protect.

What’s a high risk user?

If you download files and programs from the Internet, open emails and attachments from senders you do not know and/or leave our computer powered on 24 hour a day you’re a high risk user. That’s just about everyone.

Be careful, be selective and when in doubt call us with all your questions.