Removing The BankerFox.A Malware That Defines Itself As A Data Stealing Keylogger.
What’s worse than having malware carrying a potentially dangerous trojan or virus on your computer like the BankerFox.A? Ah, I know the answer to that one. Trying to find an easy to understand solution to how to eliminate the BankerFox.A malware. Here’s a good resource for malware, viruses and trojans
Is it so difficult to find an answer with a flesch score of between 80-90? Well maybe it is. This would mean that the answer is not filled with:
1. Nonsensical acronyms
2. Forum “helpers” replying, “me too LOL”
3. “Assistants” who are more impressed with the amount of syllables they can stuff in a word rather with actually helping someone
Malware Offering Up Fakey Trojan Virus Alerts
So I am happily setting up my new computer last night (Acer Story coming up after I cool off) and up pops a screen. The minute I see it, I know it’s one of those malware alerts screaming to the computer user that their system has been deeply affected by a trojan that is in the process, as they read it, of stealing all their information. This lovely little pop-up says (at least in one of the messages) that it is the BankerFox.A, a trojan, that’s infiltrating your system.
The first time I saw one of these, on my kid’s computer, I was scared to death. It wasn’t a , this was a different flavor malware. I can understand why people would click this pesky pop up to fix their problem. It’s believable, especially to the novice or someone whose had something like AVG on their systems (Free Version of AVG Here). Do I panic this time? No, no. Instead…
I stay calm. Take a deep breath. Brew up a really strong cup of coffee and begin the search for my “fix.”
The first 3-4 sites talk about how dangerous the BankerFox.A malware pop up and how I need to call the bank and every financial institution I have direct or even indirect ties to and have them freeze all of my accounts. They tell me I need to change all my passcodes and turn off my internet connection but not before I download (translates to “buy” if you want to actually remove the BankerFox.A pop-up malware from your computer). Thanks for the help. Not that you’re obligated to help in any way. I guess I should just say, “Thanks for wasting my time”
Fortunately I already have Spybot, Malwarebytes, and McAffee. AVG would have probably stopped this menace, these programs didn’t but I know they can help to get rid of it.
Why Some “Help” Forums Are Bad For Your Health
Then I head off to some “help” forums. What a treat. I’m amazed at the number of forums that have people guessing (although very authoritative-like) at what to do. By their answers, I know immediately that they haven’t got a clue as to what this fakey trojany BankerFox.A thing is.
As an aside. I’m not knocking all help forums. There are some excellent forums and forum members. I know that these members are probably not getting paid to do what they do. So to the ones that genuinely love helping people, thank you. To anyone who doesn’t hold this as their main reason as being in the forum, I’d thank you to not answer... me at least.
I read: “Download “this” and continue on with the prompts. Duh, you can’t download anything when you have this BankerFox.A Trojan Pop-up Alert
I read helpful little snippets like: “go to your task manager”. Uh, if I could go to my task manager, chances are I wouldn’t be here.
If they had this irritating fake BankerFox.A malware pop-up thing they’d know that every 2-3 minutes a new pop up comes up onto your screen and you could just scream. If they knew about this “thing” they’d know that you’re silently wishing the creater of this file would get chronic shingles and you’d rather them answer that they “don’t know” rather than give you a maze of links to click and downloads to documents and then request a hijack, whatever that is.
Every Coin Has 2 Sides
As much as I despise being given a “guess” answer, I will say this in defense of all people, even the ones that aren’t so helpful, who moderate tech forums… many people will ask questions in terms that almost assume the forum assistants have a crystal ball to “all things problematic.” I’ve not only seen, but also gotten myself, questions like the following. (this isn’t anyones question really… just similar)
“Hi, I can’t get my Dish receiver to work. I turn it on and nothing happens.” (sigh)
In computer forums I’ve seen questions such as: “I turn my computer on and my monitor works for a little while and then it doesn’t. Help.”
Or this (I mean, come on… how bad do you want help?)
In these cases, I can certainly understand if the answers may not be the correct answers. The questions are far too vague and assume the persons helping have psychic powers. They don’t. Ok, some might.
Did I Fix The BankerFox.A Trojan Pop-Up That Wasn’t A Trojan? Yes I did. Did I find the answer online? No I didn’t. Here’s what I did.
- I turned my computer off. I didn’t reboot the right way, I hit the switch.
- As the computer was booting up and the little Windows Vista globe appeared I hit the shift key. Yep, the shift key. And I just held it down until my desktop started loading up
- Before the taskbar finished loading everything, I decided I’d beat this trojan pop-up thing to the race and I did CTRL + ALT + Delete. (held down the Control Key with my left hand then with my right hand, the ALT Key and then the Delete Key.) So I was holding all 3 keys down at the same time and in that order.
- This brought up the Task Manager
- In task manager I went to Processes and I right clicked every process with my right mouse key and left mouse clicked “end process” to every one of the processes that would let me.
- Then I made sure my Spybot Search and Destroy was up to date. It was
- Then I made sure my McAffee AntiVirus Software was up to date. It was
- Then I made sure my Malewarebytes Software was up to date. It was
- Then I locked down my Firewall with McAffee
- Then I scanned and repaired with Spybot Search and Destroy
- Then I scanned for viruses with McAffee. There were none
- Then I scanned for Malware with Malwarebytes
- Then I rebooted and the BankerFox.A Trojan Pop-Up warning was gone!
- Then I did the obligatory search for all the files some of the forum “helpers” said to remove and there were none on my system. Of course, once the window popped up, I just kept clicking “no”. I never clicked to install anything.
Again, I’m not knocking people who have a genuine interest in helping people online. But, I find very little value in people who promote themselves as experts and when given a problem or issue, they “take a stab” at it instead of researching what the problem really is.
At least here, you all know I’m as far from “expert status” as you can get
Please don’t take trojans or viruses lightly! You should always have up to date virus and anti-malware software. Once you get these fakey trojan pop ups, you’ll know the next time, if there is a next time, that it is nothing to get alarmed about but it is a royal pain to get rid of.
