*but were afraid to ask. It's real, it's out there, and we can help you get rid of it. Better yet: Don't fall for it. 

We've seen a couple of cases of a PC virus that causes the infected computer to visit selected sites, including porn sites. We've also heard of cases where the virus was present but the user was too embarrassed to request help, and the user's attempts to remove it only made things worse.

Prevention is the Best Medicine
This virus tricks the user into installing it: A pop-up alerts the user to a supposed virus threat on the machine, and tells the user to run Antivirus Pro (or some other made-up virus tool) to remove it. The "removal" process is actually a virus installation process.

How to tell the real from the fake?

• We install ESET antivirus software on Hampshire computers. If you see a message from anything other than ESET, it's bogus.
• Fake virus messages are often very garish. They may use a red background or red or flashing type, and write in all-caps. These are all clues that it's fake.

If you are presented with a message that you suspect is a fake virus message on your PC, then clicking anywhere in the message may cause the virus to be installed. Instead, force the browser to quit:

• Press CTRL-ALT-DELETE
• Select Task Manager
• Click on the "Applications" tab.
• Select the browser (Firefox or Internet Exploer) from the list and press "End Task" to exit out of the browser immediately. If you had more than one browser window open you will have to do this for each item in the list.

Removal
If you've fallen for one of these fake virus schemes and now have a virus on your computer (porn-related or other), please contact the help desk and we'll take care of removing it. It often takes several passes fully to remove a virus, and it sometimes requires either manual removal or a re-imaging of the infected computer.