Enjoy Eternity in the 4th Circle of Hell!

We are on Summer Vacation after graduating from preschool yesterday (YEAH!) I should be in a happy cheerful mood today, but instead I am LIVID.

This morning I was quickly trying to find a fun local activity for us to do and must have clicked on the wrong site or a link on a site without paying attention. I vaguely remember seeing something about updating Java and clicked on it muttering something like "Ok, ok, do your thing, just let me finish."

WHAM! Next thing I see is my webcam snap a picture and then this popped up:

Only my picture was where the handcuffs and keyboard are and all of my information was in the black box. I knew it was a scam immediately but, I initially thought it was just an annoying pop up. It would NOT go away. I could not close it, escape, get to task manager or anything! I won't tell you what I typed in the MoneyPak Voucher No/PIN box - I am trying to keep this blog G-Rated. Needless to say what I suggested is probably not physically possible by even the most adept contortionist.

I am not a stupid surfer. I worked for a computer manufacturer for goodness sakes. I have virus protection and it is updated and activated. I will concede to being a distracted surfer. I could be pissed at the maker of my virus software for not stopping it.

The FBI Virus has been around for a few months now. And it is morphing and escalating. It is a Trojan Worm (remember the story of the Trojan horse, the people of Troy saw this cool horse statue and let it in and it turned out to be full of enemy soldiers). I probably let it in from that Java update window I clicked. It gets in and takes over your computer, makes you think the government has caught you doing something wrong and then tries to scam you out of money. And then you still have to remove the darn thing. Early reports had the fine at $100, mine was up to $300. Guesses are that soon (if not already) it will also download a program that will monitor your keystrokes (i.e. passowrds!). I am guessing the virus protection folks are doing their best, but the sleazeballs are a step ahead of them.

BUT, let's not blame the victim or the doctors here. Some extra slimy greedy cyberthief created this. He (or she) isn't getting a dime off of me, but is probably netting a bunch from unsuspecting users.

I had to waste my time figuring out what to do and potentially pay someone to remove it. Luckily, I have two admin accounts on my computer. I ran two virus scans from two different companies from the second account. It was still a problem so I opted to do a system restore. So far so good. If you don't hear from me for awhile that means my fix didn't work and I have to find someone to exorcize the demons my computer.

Based on past history they will never catch these guys. They will make millions by scaring people. That pisses me off, but I know there is a special place for them depending on which of Dante's visions of the 4th Circle of Hell you prefer.

• Inferno - greedy people are boiled alive in molten gold for eternity.
• Divine Comedy -  pummel each other constantly with huge bags of money while wailing and gnashing their teeth.

Personally I am leaning towards the boiling in molten gold unless I get to do some of the pummeling. Cybercrime wasn't even a remote dream for Dante back in the 1300's. I'd like to think he'd have a little something extra for these cybercriminals. I think "hacking" should be involved.

And a quick warning to the Apple Zombies out there: before you comment with your inane "this wouldn't have happened if you bought a Mac",:

And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. And the idols shall utterly pass away. (Isaiah 2:17-18)

I promise a kinder and gentler blog next time. The triple chocolate chip cookies I just pulled out of the oven should help.