My PC was infected by Trojan.FakeAlert.DKY. Do I get help to eliminate the threat from my PC?

Question

Dear all,

One of my laptops got infected, even if it has On Windows Virus & threat protection settings  on (it is activated the Real-time protection feature). More, I made a full scan of this laptop (it is a Dell and it has Windows 11 installed) using Microsoft Safety Scanner in Safe Mode and then directly in Windows, but unfortunately it was not able to detect and eliminate any threat. It seems that MS Defender is not enough for malware protection.

I decided to go with Bitdefender for a solution and as a first step I installed Bitdefender Antivirus free.

What is the threat doing? - I think it is a Trojan.

Running the PC in normal mode, there are Alert windows that open up on the screen every 20-30-60 seconds. I put them in two pictures below:

These windows are in Romanian language (you can easily translate them), having messages announcing threats (as can be seen messages like: it was found a Trojan in Win 32, activate antivirus protection, etc.) and asking to click the buttons with links on each window. I did not click on them. I just close them, but then the MS Edge opened some windows pages (pictures below).

I copied the addresses in the word file attached.

As mentioned above, the next step was to install Bitdefender Antivirus. The first good result was that the MS Edge pages were blocked by the Antivirus Bitdefender. I put below a picture.

From the Dashboard of Bitdefender antivirus I run a Full scan. The result was that 49 issues have been Resolved (I can send the Log files which is are html documents) and Notifications of Infected web pages detected.

It can be seen that a trojan was detected (Trojan.FakeAlert. DKY) and eliminated (I thought that are Resolved as the message out of running the Full Scan).

In the Protection Menu, Advance Theat Defense and Quarantine Items there was a list of items in quarantine that I Delete them, in order to eliminate the threat.

At this moment, I considered that the issue was solved and I made a Restart of the PC.

Unfortunately, the Alert windows continued to popup. By running again a full scan antivirus, there are 0 Resolved issues, meaning that the Antivirus is not anymore able to detect and eliminate the trojan virus previously detected (see picture below).

The only good thing is that the Bitdefender Antivirus is able to block the infected web page.

I send you this email for you because Bitdefender have the policy to collect, analyze and improve your antivirus capability.

Please support me with solving the issue mentioned above (hints, ideas, etc.), in order to eliminate the malware problem of my PC. If there is need for more info/details about the above trojan issue, you can contact me on WhatsApp (I have it on mobile phone, I can call you and I speak English and Romanian) and I can connect with you my laptop using AnyDesk or similar applications, in order to see and detect and work on the problem.

Thanks in advance,

Gheorghe

Alexandru_BD · Accepted Answer

Hi Gheorghe,

You did well to install the free version. The problem here is that those notifications come from your browser and they are fake infection alerts meant to lure you into clicking them and once you do that, you will be redirected to various malicious sites that steal your data, login credentials or banking information, or they will try to persuade you to call a number so the "tech support" there can help you get rid of the "infection". This is a classic scam and you can find out more about it here:

https://www.bitdefender.com/en-us/blog/hotforsecurity/fake-antivirus-pop-ups

Fake virus infection pop-ups are very common and a classic scam. They prey on urgency, so the user doesn't take enough time to think this through and they usually have to do with adware or various browser extensions that were bundled with other software or that you have unknowingly installed. Here's a detailed article on how to get rid of them:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/2574/

An antivirus will not detect these, because the notifications and pop-ups in this situation do not have anything malicious attached to them, but when you click on them, they will redirect to malicious sites that try to collect your data or install abusive or dangerous software. This is actually where the antivirus comes into play, blocking the threat.

Bitdefender cannot take any direct measures related to this type of notification, such as adware that you agreed on or something you enabled, like site setting, site notification, redirects in your browser or installed toolbars, extensions or applications.
 I recommend Ublock Origin to block ads, and I also recommend using the Bitdefender Anti tracker extension, to stop tracking cookies. And follow the steps from the article above to reset your browser and remove any unwanted extensions from it.

I hope this helps.

Gheorghe1568 · Accepted Answer

Hi Alexandru,

Thanks for effective and comprehensive support related to the solution for the above topic. What I did?

In MS Edge under Settings, I look for Notifications and I found under Allow to send notifications the status from the picture below:

For the last topic I under the three dots I chose to Remove it and voila, the Alert pop-ups have gone.

Thanks again to you and Bitdefender for support,

Gheorghe

Alexandru_BD · Accepted Answer

Yes, good one. This is usually where you need to look first, because if permissions to receive notifications from sites is enabled, this is how they "invite" themselves on your screen. Thanks for following up here.

And you are most welcome, as always.