D
DaffyDuckKangaroo
Guest
Hello,
A trusted friend inadvertently sent me a virus in an email link. The second I pressed the link it downloaded, which, I know, is not supposed to happen, and it also did not "ask" for an anti-virus scan. I watched my screen carefully, and a few minutes later it slowed down tremendously, and then I saw that the URL of my Google browser, after I had pressed Google, changed from www.Google.com to www.BGoogle.com, which, of course, meant that the hackers wanted to direct my searches to their own sites.
I immediately did a full factory restore -- everything -- on my Windows 10 operating system twice, and then changed all my passwords, and then ran Windows Defender along with Malwarebytes. Here's the problem: my friend refuses to clean her own laptop and iPhone -- she sent all her friends the link from her phone -- because she thinks the link, which was of a video made especially for her, came from a reputable institution and because her iPhone was NOT affected. The video was of her own performance in a well-known neighborhood playhouse, so, perhaps, I'm thinking, she doesn't want to antagonize the senders by reporting a virus and having to ask for another video.
I implored her to do a factory restore on her laptop and reset her phone, or at least to "clean" the link itself -- with anti-virus software. She refused, again, to do anything. So here's my question: is it dangerous for her to keep her AOL email on her phone, which carries that viral link, even if she doesn't send it out anymore, and is it dangerous for me to exchange any emails with her -- again, she almost always uses her iPhone, never her own laptop, which is an Apple, too.
Are there any other dangers involved in her keeping that link? I'd like to persuade her to do something -- anything -- about it, but I don't have the knowledge to convince her. I'm also confused as to why her iPhone was not affected, and when I first opened the link in a text on my Android phone, it too was not affected, at least not that I could see. I'm chalking that up to the virus being designed for emails, not texts, and for computer operating systems, not their mobile counterparts, but I don't really know.
Thank you,
Daffy D
More...
A trusted friend inadvertently sent me a virus in an email link. The second I pressed the link it downloaded, which, I know, is not supposed to happen, and it also did not "ask" for an anti-virus scan. I watched my screen carefully, and a few minutes later it slowed down tremendously, and then I saw that the URL of my Google browser, after I had pressed Google, changed from www.Google.com to www.BGoogle.com, which, of course, meant that the hackers wanted to direct my searches to their own sites.
I immediately did a full factory restore -- everything -- on my Windows 10 operating system twice, and then changed all my passwords, and then ran Windows Defender along with Malwarebytes. Here's the problem: my friend refuses to clean her own laptop and iPhone -- she sent all her friends the link from her phone -- because she thinks the link, which was of a video made especially for her, came from a reputable institution and because her iPhone was NOT affected. The video was of her own performance in a well-known neighborhood playhouse, so, perhaps, I'm thinking, she doesn't want to antagonize the senders by reporting a virus and having to ask for another video.
I implored her to do a factory restore on her laptop and reset her phone, or at least to "clean" the link itself -- with anti-virus software. She refused, again, to do anything. So here's my question: is it dangerous for her to keep her AOL email on her phone, which carries that viral link, even if she doesn't send it out anymore, and is it dangerous for me to exchange any emails with her -- again, she almost always uses her iPhone, never her own laptop, which is an Apple, too.
Are there any other dangers involved in her keeping that link? I'd like to persuade her to do something -- anything -- about it, but I don't have the knowledge to convince her. I'm also confused as to why her iPhone was not affected, and when I first opened the link in a text on my Android phone, it too was not affected, at least not that I could see. I'm chalking that up to the virus being designed for emails, not texts, and for computer operating systems, not their mobile counterparts, but I don't really know.
Thank you,
Daffy D
More...