Suspicious activity
By dragon54u
@dragon54u (31636)
United States
January 16, 2010 7:14am CST
When I logged onto my pc Thursday night it told me my Norton antivirus was expired. I had bought it for a year, back in April. I did an express renewal and it didn't want a credit card number or anything and said I was covered for 86 days. That was the
first strange thing that happened. I had to go out of town, was just checking the weather, so I didn't log back on till this morning.
Now, I go to my mailbox at mail.com and it tells me that the site has an invalid certificate and do I want to make an exception for this site. Norton tells me that legitimate stores and businesses will not have expired certificates. I don't know what to do. I want my mail. I logged into a remote service that gets your mail from anywhere and it could not access my mail account at that place.
Do you think I have a virus? Did I get hijacked by someone impersonating Norton? Why can't I get my mail and should I make an exception for my mail place whose certificate has supposedly expired? Thanks for any help you can give!
4 people like this
10 responses
@scheng1 (24650)
• Singapore
17 Jan 10
Hi Dragon, you should post this discussion in the forum of Norton!
since you have norton in your computer, it makes sense for you to post the problem in norton, and see what they say.
There are many IT experts to help you solve the computer problem. Unless you decide to delete Norton away, then you can search for free version of virus scan at download.com
1 person likes this
@dragon54u (31636)
• United States
17 Jan 10
Scheng, I never thought of that! I'll file it away in my head in case something like this happens again. I didn't even know they had a forum! Thanks so much. I did solve the problem--somehow my clock was reset to the year 2002!
@scheng1 (24650)
• Singapore
17 Jan 10
haha, that is at least one way to get younger!
That time when Associated Content set the publishing date of the articles to the year 1969, everyone complained so loudly!
I think someone playing afool with the date in AC. Maybe you have unwittedly play with some functions and now you are eight years younger!
@zed_k4 (17589)
• Singapore
16 Jan 10
That sounds suspicious to me too. It's weird that you could not get the mail.. perhaps it's a spam or a virus; none too sure about this. But since Norton has already told you that legitimate stores and businesses will not have expired certificates, it's best not to make an exception for that site then. Sounds fishy...let's see what others have to say. I see a variety of answers.
1 person likes this
@dragon54u (31636)
• United States
16 Jan 10
Silly me, I didn't notice till a couple hours after I posted this that my clock and dates were off. It thought it was 6:44AM on Jan 2, 2002! I don't know how that happened but resetting it seems to take care of the problem. I did all kinds of scans after that and found nothing! Thanks for chiming in. 
1 person likes this
@barehugs (8973)
• Canada
16 Jan 10
I have had nothing but trouble with Norton Antivirus. I find it extremely unfriendly and always in your face. When I had to replace my computer last summer I didn't open the Norton that came installed on the machine. I went back to the Store and bought McAfee antivirus and I love this program. It sits there, and does its work, and you hardly know its there. None of this annoying inyourface stuff that gets you upset and ruins your day.Norton is a terrible program!- God only knows how they get away with it!
1 person likes this
@dragon54u (31636)
• United States
16 Jan 10
Hi there, bearhugs. I marked best response quickly because the person went above and beyond anything anyone's ever done--actually went to check out the site for me. I usually wait quite awhile.
I tried the free stuff and got a virus. I've heard bad stuff about McAfee, too. I think pretty much all the commercial AV protection is suspect but I got a horrible PC-destroying virus with one of the best free ones. In the end, we do our best and pray--kinda like raising kids!
@p1kef1sh (45681)
•
16 Jan 10
I have Norton anti-spyware that expired about two years ago and still leaves me a message several times a day saying how much it misses me. I think that you should remove the software altogether and perhaps use a free anti-virus instead. Whilst you are at it, give your hard disk a good clean out, there are a number of good utilities for this - cc Cleaner is one: www.ccleaner.com Beyond that all that I can do is wish you good luck.
1 person likes this
@dragon54u (31636)
• United States
16 Jan 10
I have cc cleaner, I am just getting ready to use it! When I had free antivirus protection I got hit pretty bad and had to have my pc reloaded, it was expensive. At the time I had AVG, supposedly the best free anti-virus!
Thanks for the good wishes! I think you've suggested something very good because I was just at a site that looked very strange, like a bare-bones presentation of the real page. I think the cc cleaner will probably help.
@Tallygirl09 (1380)
• United States
17 Jan 10
When you renewed your Norton, it should have given you an authorization code, hopefully you saved that and can access it. I'd run a full pc scan system check. Sounds like you might have a number of issues, could be a virus or an new software might be conflicting with Norton or hijacked.
Tho it is very odd that you got the message on your pc about renewing when you knew you were good til April. Based on that you might have been hacked. Run the tests and see what comes up. Then consider removing Norton and reinstalling it with your valid auth code and see if that resolved it. Hopefully you have a back up on disc somewhere.
I love freeware but not when it comes to net security!
Good Luck!
@kaylachan (57710)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
17 Jan 10
First of all I'll tell it to you streight, Norton is crap. It doesn't really protect your PC worth a damn and giving you a faulse experation is a prime example of this. Also it seems to be sending faulse reports back to you. I would remove the program, restart your computer, try logging onto your mail again. If you can its norton doing this. (when I had it it did simular things). If not a virous escaped Norton and you should download and install new anti-virous software to clean out your system.
1 person likes this
@dragon54u (31636)
• United States
17 Jan 10
I may go for a free one when Norton expires, but that's what I had when my computer crashed last. I guess we're doomed if we have Norton and doomed if we don't. 
@janyphrose (8)
• Philippines
16 Jan 10
You could try try using the some free online scanner like housecall (http://housecall.trendmicro.com/) or use HiJackThis (http://free.antivirus.com/hijackthis/) and let the experts from Trend Micro check your log (http://community.trendmicro.com/).
I'm a frequent visitor there and see others posting their HiJackThis log and was able to resolve their problem. Cool no? Free service and you don't have to have Trend Micro installed before they help you. hehehe..try it out!
1 person likes this
@dragon54u (31636)
• United States
16 Jan 10
Housecall was my favorite way back in the 90's. I might give them a try again. It turns out my clock reset itself back to 2002! I may have a battery going low or something. My computer is 10 years old so perhaps it's time to just get another one, I'll shop around and see what the sales are and either buy one or limp along with this one till the price is right!
@janyphrose (8)
• Philippines
16 Jan 10
cool! i'm also planning to get a new desktop..hehe..core i7 i like :P
@flowerchilde (12529)
• United States
16 Jan 10
I've used my computers 'system restore" before with good results.. but whether it's good for such as this, I don't know.. Good Luck!!
1 person likes this
@dragon54u (31636)
• United States
16 Jan 10
Thanks, flowerchilde! It was due to my clock being messed up, although how that happened I haven't a clue.
@elitess (5070)
• Ipswich, England
16 Jan 10
It may have been hacked.
Perhaps you should try some other software before deciding on removing it or not.
A few wise choices (that i use) are "malwarebytes" from malwarebytes.org (just use the free version) and SD -Spybot Search and Destroy - this is free as well as the owners don't believe in paying for numbers.
Both are good tools and both find me from time to time some petty malware that may pas from my F-secure.
I don't really believe in those free antivirus versions, as they are often made in a hurry and are pretty poor in defense..
@dragon54u (31636)
• United States
16 Jan 10
I have Malwarebytes and plan to run it in a few minutes. I ran Spybot last week but will also run it and cc cleaner before I take drastic measures--thanks!
@syankee525 (6261)
• United States
16 Jan 10
this is one reason i wont use norton, but you can get avira virus scan for free and it works really good
1 person likes this
@dragon54u (31636)
• United States
16 Jan 10
Yes, Avira works very well but that was what I was using when I got a bunch of viruses last time I had to reload. It seems nothing will keep a computer clean these days. I don't even open attachments--even if they're from my family! 
@dragon54u (31636)
• United States
16 Jan 10
I don't think anything can be without problems with all the sickos spending their every waking hour finding ways to create viruses and trojans to make people miserable. I think I may have to reload the thing, what a pain!
