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Laptop has a virus

6 replies

Ceriane · 07/08/2023 15:24

Not sure what to do as not tech savvy whatsoever. I mainly work from home, but go into the office on some days and I have a work laptop. Today I came to the end of my to do list (rarely happens) so went into my personal email inbox, separate from my work one. I receive emails from Pinterest and I clicked on an article that said “which zodiac sign has the worst personality” it came up with a message to say that this is an illegal site, so I took that to mean one I shouldn’t access on work laptop, didn’t worry about it and just got on with my day. Since then I have been getting loads of messages pop up from McAfee and other things to say that my laptop has a virus, my laptop is in danger etc etc. My first instinct was to ring IT as this is probably something that happens to a lot of people, but then I had a message pop up to say I have a virus, that hackers have accessed my laptop and now I have had one or two that say pornxadulte virus detection. Now I’m really worried, either that I have been hacked or that the article I clicked on on Pinterest was unbeknownst to me linked to a porn site. Now I’m terrified that they are going to think I have looked at porn on the work laptop, which I definitely have not. What should I do?

OP posts:
Robertplantgoddess · 07/08/2023 15:26

Its a,standard email scam. They will ask for bitcoins or cash or will 'expose' your porn use (which is zero).

Ceriane · 07/08/2023 15:43

Thank you 🙏 that’s really reassuring. I’ll get onto IT 😊

OP posts:
andymary · 07/08/2023 16:12

Where are you getting these popups/alerts/messages?
On your internet browser, through emails, elsewhere?

Ceriane · 07/08/2023 18:07

Right hand corner of the screen.

OP posts:
prh47bridge · 07/08/2023 20:56

I get messages popping up claiming to be from McAfee (and occasionally other antivirus suppliers) from time to time. They aren't. You will only get messages from McAfee if you have McAfee installed on your laptop. The same with other antivirus suppliers. The only messages that may be valid are any from the antivirus you actually have installed.

It is likely that these messages are trying to direct you to sites that will install malware or try to get your login details.

Ceriane · 08/08/2023 15:55

Thank you.

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