Chamblee54

PG got up Tuesday April 6, at 630 am. This is highly unusual for him these days, but he had a good reason. Him and Uzi were going to the beach.
Eating breakfast and looking at the internet, PG noticed strange things happening. It seemed like a window, with a MS like emblem at the top, was warning of a security breach. PG figured it was a fraud, but did not have time to do a virus scan. He closed the window when it opened every five minutes, and decided to fix the problem when he got home. Of course, it was on his mind the entire time.
It was late thursday night, April 8, before PG was home. He plugged the phone line back into the modem, turned the devil’s machine on, and went to the car to get another armful of stuff. When he was back, the security breach warning was blaring. So much for the problem fixing itself.
A few minutes later, a window from the “virus protection service”, MF, came up. It said that it had captured a “trojan horse”, which sounded a lot like the original agent of harm. The security breach warnings stopped, and PG felt better. He was going to run a virus scan when he went to bed.
When it was time to run the virus scan, the MF window would not open. The email window would not open. The browser window would not open. PG suspected the problem was not solved. He got a phone number for MF, but their office was closed.
Friday, April 9, arrived, and PG turned the computer back on. He had thought through the night that maybe system restore could be used, to return the computer back to a pre disaster state. He quickly learned that system restore, like the other programs, would not open.
Technically, there was a way to open stuff. You clicked on the appropriate icon, and a window popped up, asking you what program you wanted to use to open this device. This worked ok for email and the internet browser. For MF, it was a mysterious file, one of two hundred thousand files with funny names. PG found an icon for MF, hit right click-properties, and found the name and location of the enabling file.
Once MF was opened, a virus scan was started. While breakfast was cooking, 30 “infected files” were found, and either quarantined or repaired. The programs started to open again.
PG called the MF office, and talked to a man ( after yelling “agent” at a few menus).PG explained that he had security service with ATT, and that MF had bought the account. The MF man offered to help, for a fee. PG was outraged, at paying MF to fix a problem they allowed to happen. A link to a “technician chat” service was received, and may be tried someday.
In the meantime, PG is keeping things backed up. Welcome back.