A Facebook friend’s account just got hacked, and I’m getting numerous messages from her account sending me a video link. Since my name begins with A, I get lots of video spam messages sent to me, and I know not to open them. I told her, “What is happening is someone somehow hacked into your system. Don’t worry about how they did it, that will drive you crazy. Just get it fixed and say a lil prayer.”
She’s been talking to a Jeff Harrison in Ghana. She thinks he’s been scamming her and she reported him to Facebook. His profile is still up. She has been changing her password every day but he can still access her account. She thinks he has friended her under different names. She has reported them all. My computer dude said he could have created a mirror site to hers or all manner of nonsense, and the best thing to do is for her to create another Facebook account. It is a Facebook problem, not a computer problem, he says.
I told her I use AVG Free virus software you can get free online at www.avgfree.com. It’s a Free Antivirus and Antispyware for Windows 7, Vista and XP. I run it every time I close my computer down after being online. It captures any threats and takes care of them so they don’t get in.
I also use CCleaner which is a free program that removes all your temporary files and cookies (and passwords unless you tell it not to) out of the computer. These are the files that pile up and make your computer run slow. I run it every time I close my computer down.
I am online all the time. I don’t download from people I don’t know. If it’s a name I know but I don’t know what they’re sending, I don’t open it, period. Like I don’t download games or free backgrounds or things like that. I have been using this system for several years now and have had no problems with viruses or system slowing down or anything.
This is the order I do it in. When I’m finished with the computer for the day:
I run Ccleaner first. It takes like 1 minute.
Then I run AVG Free 9.0, which for my system can take 90 minutes.
I close the computer down.
Every time you turn your computer off and back on, it kind of resets itself and fixes problems you may have been having with it. So when in doubt, always shut it off for 60 seconds and then back on.
That solves lots of problems. And I’m all about solving problems.