The subject of this particular apple phishing email reads “Account Info Change,” the phishing email appears to look like it comes from APPLE, but the email address shows it came from do not reply@itunes.comvia smtp.com,”. This means this email did not really come from apple and instead came from a fraudulent third party email service provider. (Real APPLE emails will show “id.apple.com” as the address. If you are unsure if the email you receive is real or bogus then it’s a good idea to call your network administrator of a qualified computer consultant to look at the email for you.

The fake emails look identical to real emails from APPLE which makes it dangerous for unsuspecting victims of fraud.

The bogus email informs email recipients that their Apple ID was “updated” and includes a link users can click on “to review and update their APPLE account security settings”. The fake link tricks users into believing the link goes to the real apple website but in fact the link takes users to a fake webpage that is cloned to look like the real apple web page.

The bogus APPLE page asks for users to log in with their APPLE ID and password, which of course ais sent to cyber criminals which then take your user name and password and access your real APPLE account and steal your credit card information along with your home or business address, your phone numbers and this quickly turns you into a victim of identity theft.

This kind of cyber crime is blooming up all over the internet and is very popular in Orlando Florida.

It is also important for APPLE users to understand that APPLE laptops, computers, iPhones and Ipads, which are thought to be safer and more secure then Microsoft computing platforms are not immune from online cyber crime and cyber attacks. A long list of new malware and computer viruses have recently emerged targeting and crippling APPLE computers – Macs. Rather than hoping your Apple product will be safe it is best for users to install commercial quality anti-virus software and better yet to use a high quality firewall designed to filter malware and computer viruses.

Of course, there is no substitute for knowledge and common sense. No antivirus software, firewall or reputation.com review can completely protect you from cyber crime like this. If you ever receive an unsolicited email like this, pick up the phone and call your network administrator and computer consultant and have him or her look at the email and whatever you do not click on any links in the email as this can open up a serious threat to your computer and your network. A good Managed Services Provider will proactively monitor your computer and network safety and will filter content so you do not have to worry about doing so but it is not always possible to detect and block these kinds of emails because of the never ending trends of technology and trickery.

AV7 or Anti virus 7 is a misleading computer program that is designed to make you believe your computer is infected with Trojans, spy ware, adware, malware and other malicious software.
This program is a virus although there are a few people that will argue and say its not a computer virus and say it’s just a rogue.

Call it whatever you want to call it.
It causes serious damage to computers and there are more then hundreds of variations of this program all over the internet.

In short this is a nasty computer virus and is very difficult for get rid of once you are infected.
There are all kinds of removal instructions out on the internet and we learned it can be much more time consuming to figure out exactly which variation of this virus you have and there are hundreds or more different variations of this virus all over the internet and one set of removal instructions may or may not work. Additionally we learned that Symantec anti virus software does not recognize this malicious program as a computer virus and in fact the virus usually cripples the Symantec anti virus program. There are other companies out there that advertise they have the cure for this virus and from researching we found some of these companies are affiliated with websites that in fact host these computer viruses.

How do users get infected with this computer virus?
Very easily, when this virus is embedded in a website which by the way is no accident. The website visitor sees a pop up message on their internet browser window that displays a message that may say one of many things such as Warning! New virus detected or many other messages designed to make you believe your computer has a virus. Usually the computer user will click the download or yes to scan button on the website believing this is going to fix their problem when in fact the only problem is the website is attempting to trick the user into downloading the malicious program.

Here are two images of this computer virus displaying messages on a computer screen.
Notice how these images could mislead many people.

What happens next is the program installs itself on the victim’s computer and displays all kinds of pop up messages. A few examples are shown below and there are hundreds if not more different variations of this computer virus so not every infection or message will be the same every time.
We have seen many variations of this computer virus and they all stem from the AV7 Virus which has also been modified many times by internet criminals or internet gangs.

If you believe you are infected with this  computer virus and do not know what to do.
Shut the computer off and call an Orlando computer consultant.

Completely removing this computer virus is not an easy task and in fact can lead into an all day project depending on the variation of the virus and the severity of the damage it may have caused.
There are some tools available that can remove this virus but again there is always that WHAT IF factor.
WHAT IF the tool does not completely remove the virus?
WHAT IF the tool says the virus is gone but it’s not?
There is always this chance and we feel its best to not take that chance with a client or a customer that demands the absolute best computer service in Orlando Florida.

The only true and safe way to know if the virus is gone is to backup your data and reinstall your operating system, software, drivers and start from scratch. Sure there may be websites out there that claim they have the special program to elevate these computer viruses but this is a security risk especially on a production computer network. What if the program you download does not completely get rid of the computer virus? What if the process of manually attempting to hunt down every single infected file, registry entree, dll files take all day or longer to do? What if you perform all this tedious work and the virus comes back?

We have learned the best way to stop this virus is to prevent it from infecting computer in the first place. We already know Symantec and other major anti virus software vendors have not been successful at preventing or stopping this virus from infecting computers.  There are two different ways we prevent this virus from affecting computers. One is we use a commercial content filter from barracuda networks on our network in addition to locking down computer user profiles so no programs can be installed on computer unless done so by our network administrator. This prevents the virus from entering the network through the internet and prevents users from accidentally installing this virus or any unwanted software on the managed computers.

Ok so what if you don’t have a competent computer consultant?
Ask around and spend some time on google and question whomever you are considering to help you.