You are currently browsing comments. If you would like to return to the full story, you can read the full entry here: “Facebook forced me to download their anti-malware, and my own antivirus gets knocked out”.
You are currently browsing comments. If you would like to return to the full story, you can read the full entry here: “Facebook forced me to download their anti-malware, and my own antivirus gets knocked out”.
Debbie, I found mine at C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Temp\FBScanner_331840299. I understand from others that the number will change, but the scanner will be somewhere among the Temp folders.
Hi Jack, you say it all here! It really is so frustrating. The video says exactly what I dealt with too. My husband’s Facebook worked on the allegedly affected computer without any trouble & I was able to create a new account on that same computer. I wish I hadn’t downloaded the scanner – I haven’t found it to remove it yet. I will have a look in the temp folder & see. What annoyed me so much during the period of time that I was shut out from Facebook was that I’ve paid them to promote my page & promote my posts. Yet, when I needed help there is NO WAY to contact Facebook. They don’t reply to any method of communication. It’s made me seriously cut back on how much I use Facebook for my blog. Thanks for your comment over on my post! http://www.cuddlefairy.com/facebook-please-answer-me/
Hi Becky, like you I am a Facebook customer who has literally spent thousands. I do have the names of some Facebook reps but anything that is not routine, or shows their company to be lacking in some way, they disappear and refuse to take responsibility. I currently have a file open at the US Better Business Bureau on them on a privacy matter and one of these days, Facebook will have to answer for it all. It’s a pity that the tech press is so inactive and tends to publish only nice things about Facebook. What are they frightened of?
Since January I have cut back on Facebook use hugely. When I log in, it always bugs me with the “x years ago” post, probably to remind me how often I once used it. To me, we have passed peak Facebook and it’s only a site I now check into to manage work pages and groups.
I received the Kaspersky Malware Scanner warning when trying to log in to my Facebook – now I cannot get past that window to do anything with Facebook and it keeps telling me to download it. Like a fool I did it once and it started running? but when it wouldn’t stop I cancelled it. But nothing has changed and I cannot get into Facebook. Please help
Barb, a few months ago I would have suggested deleting your cookies, as this tended to fix it. In April, we began hearing that Facebook blocked this method. It may still be worth a shot. Otherwise the easiest solution is to wait it out for three to four days.
If you are running business pages, then do look at creating a back-up account and see if a co-admin can add you back. I am not sure what Facebook’s spyware actually does but it sits inside your computer and never appears in your programs’ list. What information it sends to Facebook is also a mystery.
I did not click the link.. MY story is here…. Can you contact me to netowrk onthis???? Thanks Larry
https://www.facebook.com/notes/lawrence-bee/really-i-could-not-make-this-shit-up-by-larry-alger-7-9-16/125716004527528
Hi Larry, a call could be tough given different countries and time zones, and my schedule is nuts right now. But what you went through mirrors my experience. What is surprising is that none of this has even hit the tech media. They are all reporting as though it’s business as usual at Facebook. But what I see are dying databases, daily spambots and bugs on a regular basis. Planting software on people’s computers is really low, yet that’s what they are doing to thousands.
Hi, in FB suspicious malware hell for over 6 hours. Had norton tech guy clean BOTH of my computers incuding temp files, suspicious programs, everything. but no luck logging back in to FB. Won’t accept my password to the point not sure what the right one is anymore
ANY IDEAS? I am desperate and nobody to call at FB! thank you!
Jack I have brought up a new web site in the last week at GoJNN.com here is the link to my latest story as I am really fighting with Facebook… Found a support phone for FB Tech in Bangalore They run on US time Not sure if it will work where you are but here it is 866-535-1162 They laughed at me when I told them I was a news reporter in Los Angeles and I would make it my mission to get on every TV station to tell the truth about them…. Funny Right? In Solidarity….
I’m ALMOST as Pissed about THIS as I am Hillary stealing the election!
http://www.justicenewsnetwork.com/omg-big-brother-is-watching-us-and-he-is-facebook-by-larry-alger-7-20-16/
Hey I have a USA toll free for FB Support In Bangalore no less…
Good Luck ask for Steve RIGHT… Steve
866-535-1162 In Solidarity
Pat Ro Start a new account. PM your important friends after a new friend request. Good Luck
Quite frankly, I believe facebook is blocking people who post conservative news or info. My problem started when I tried to share a youtube video of a former cia agent who gave a presentation on how the muslim brotherhood is infiltrating our government. I tried to share directly from youtube, that’s when I got blocked. Mark Zuckerberg is a globalist and it’s in his best interest to keep America in the dark. This will get worse as the Saudis and GEORGE continue to throw money into CAIR and our politicians pockets. I’m reporting to our Attorney General. Hopefully he is still on American people’s side.
As you’ve seen above, some people on the opposite side of the political spectrum feel they are the victims, so I don’t believe politics to be the reason. But what is happening is certainly troubling, invasive and highly unethical.
Maybe thats another facebook imitation site. Be careful on those suspicious sites as they are collecting information from you. Install a firewall and an antivirus that would keeps you alerted when you are browsing suspicious sites. Try ESET Antivirus.
Ashwaq, it is Facebook. They have even bragged about it. Everyone here has an antivirus program, even anti-malware programs.
I’m not installing ANYTHING from FB on my local PC. They can’t be trusted. These guys at FB are idiots.. honestly. I don’t have any Malware. I just ran Malware Bytes and did a full virus scan.
There’s two possibilities:
1) They get a commission for FORCING people to install unnecessary software
2) They’re trying to spy on people by getting access to their local PC
FB knows exactly what they’re doing, and I don’t need their stupid malware scan and I don’t trust them one bit.
I have the same problem in France, except it’s not Kaspersky for me, it’s F-secure.
I use Kaspersky as antivirus on my computer already, so is it detecting what you have installed to “offer” some other solution ?
I didn’t download it but didn’t regain control of my account on my computer after more than a week.
This is not Facebook. someone is using your account in a bad way. I did the following and after the last bit….finally worked.
(1) reset password…. did not still remove the kaprensky thing (it is fake by the way)
(2) go to command prompt and do a dns flush…. > ipconfig/dnsflush
dont know if that helped but if Facebook gets weird this move sorts it out.
(3) Run your anti hacking software…mine is AVG. that was ok.
(4) Run free version of malwarebytes……that was ok.
(5) CHANGE YOUR IP ADDRESS. I have a motorola. there is a tiny pin hole in the back. unplug it…wait… then plug back in and put a pen in that hole to reset your ip address…….
(6) Run Ccleaner
(7) Open your browser you love and get rid of all histories “since the beginning of time” cache cookies passwords…etc.
(8) restart computer…….
(9) Open Facebook and log in with new password….all should be good.
This only took me 3 hours or so in between other things….but really do not download things. It is NOT Facebook doing this…… it is the bad guys…..
Good luck… hope this helps someone else.
It is Facebook, Ryan. They have bragged about it, and what is on their page is exactly what everyone here has been through.
Looks like Facebook is offering a solution. I think their data found me doing too many DM’s for likes and since it was so out of the norm for me they (or their system rather) thought something was suspicious in a sort of raise a single eyebrow type of stance. They want us to protect our computer. I did…… and something I did made it work. Would I download something unusual from a social media site? No way Jose. i just don’t do everything I’m told. —–since I was 3 my Mom says….
I installed virtual machine to download and install Facebook forced malware since I could not login into my account. After installation on the virtual machine I found this malware on my actual computer so their malware/warm/virus can actually sneak through right into your computer!
Since then my computer was starting by itself (despite sleep/hibernation mode) and was running, manual sleep commands would work for one minute and then the malware would turn computer on..
I manually deleted this FB malware from ../temp folder and uninstalled the virtual machine (since it did no job) but my computer keeps starting on its own.
Looking for a solution, would be grateful if anyone has any advice.
Firefox
Tools > Options > Remove Individual Cookies
Search for Facebook.
Delete all
Based on the reports above, that used to work, till April 2016 when Facebook reprogrammed its malware to circumvent cookie deletion. It’s how I got out of Facebook’s malware. When did you try this method, Mike?
I put the brakes on short of installing when it hit me that it sounds so fishy and its frustrating. FB wants to be involved in everything we do just like google. Unfortunately they have most of us at their mercy. I was getting the same messages after switching to other machines that were clean. it seems that it was my account. But i only started getting these messages after clicking on a mysterious message on facebook about a video of me. soon as i clicked on that message friends started asking me what that was i sent them. i did not send them anything. it is pbly using me since i have very close to 5000 friends most of who i use for promoting my business. I am so exhausted with these big internet entities trying to control everything that we do on the internet. if they dont like you or if you dont play by their rules they black ball you.
So what’s the solution? How do we avoid FB malware? It is imposing again, it ran on my computer and I deleted it manually. Now it comes back again.
Please help!
I ahve multiple computers in my household, including smart phones and tablets. FB ‘malware’ warning was seem ONLY on a Windows XP PC (same FB a/c was just fine on tablet and smartphone), so I took their word for it and decided to update the old XP PC. Turned out it’s too old for anything except XP so I put that back on (with new, bigger, hard drive). I installed Avast, CoMoDo, MalwareBytes, WinPatrol. Re-insalled Firefox + uBlock, NoSscript etc. and guess what ? FB malware warning !!
Plainly lies, so what’s the problem ? Well when I relaunched Firefox in Diag. mode (= addons disabled), FB works just fine !
My conclusion is that FB sees Ad Blockers / scrip blockers as malware …
Interesting, Steve, though in my case I have never used an ad blocker—my theory still remains that the databases are getting too old and dying. They have been buggy for years, but instead of taking responsibility, Facebook has created this BS to blame us, so it can preserve its share price. I hope sooner, rather than later, the databases crash in a far more major way—then the jig will be up and we’ll realize they have been lying to the public for a long, long time.
I wish I knew a solid solution, Rus, since you’ve had it twice in a month. I wound up creating a new account and made that the admin of all my pages and groups. It was the best I could do so I could still maintain control of some of my work stuff. As to my personal stuff, I use Facebook less and less now, thanks to its regular bugs and its plethora of bots and spammers (which they seldom delete). Eventually, in my case, the malware went away, and that seems to be the wisdom right now: wait it out and the site comes right. But it could take days, maybe longer.
You were a lot smarter than me, Melissa, in stopping short of installing it. What I still cannot get is why the tech press has not seized upon how fake these warnings are.
whenever i try to log into my facebook account it says”we think your computer is infected with malware” and tells me to install some malware scanner.
but actually its just my account that i cant open on my laptop.other facebook accounts can be opened with absolutely no problem.(i tried it with my friends).
also i can log into my account through other devices.
i just cant log into MY account through MY device//
please help
i tried changing my password but still the same problem occours//
and also i found it posted other malicious links on most of my friends timeline and in personal messages
help me
Thanks for this. I just got this message this morning. I’ll take your final option of waiting a few days and hoping it will resolve itself. I don’t want any additional programs installed on my computer. Fortunately I can still access Facebook on my iPad and phone.
I installed a previous Facebook malware scanner last month (it wasn’t Kaspersky, that I know, but unfortunately I can’t remember the name). Stupid I know but 10mins later I was in. Everything was fine until today when I went to check Facebook and once AGAIN I apparently have malware. Um, nope. I did a scan and was fine. This time they were instructing me to install Kaspersky but I thought it looked dodgy so I googled it and stumbled upon your article. Now I’m extremely glad I looked before I leaped! Like some others noted, it’s just my laptop (and others I’ve tried, including my university computers) that’s affected, not my iPhone. Hopefully Facebook buck up and sort everything out soon, it looks like they’re making a right mess of things. I’m not a particularly tech-savvy person so my best bet is probably to just wait it out, but does anyone have any idea how long it will be before they give up trying to get me to download dodgy software and let me access my account on a computer again?
Hi Alicia, I’ve been hearing roughly three days for Facebook to get over its database issues as it is becoming very obvious that the errors are entirely theirs and nothing to do with your computer. However, you might be able to get on to the mobile version on a desktop by accessing m.facebook.com (it’s a different site, so it behaves differently to the main one).
Just had this problem this morning. I can browse FB in Explorer, or Firefox, but Chrome (the one I always use), nope. Ive deleted cookies etc. but so far no luck. My initial experience sounded similar to Melissa in post 28. My account was used to post out stuff to people (video link spam) and then I was blocked by FB. As I said, if I use another browser, it’s no problem. So far….
Well…I just came across this problem today…luckily like a few of you I didn’t download anything…but still..the m.facebook.com option isn’t working for me. I also tried to change the password..and still not working (could do that luckily through my mobile. But that is also experiencing problems..metioning opengraphs…
If this continues..than I think facebook will have a problem..and people will start looking for other options!
Cheers and thanks!
Suzette
I am a social media manager so when I got this message today my heart sank. I did not click through and instead did my own trusted checks. All is ok with my (VERY NEW) pro and I am at a loss as to what to do. Unemployment on the way!
Amanda May, what I wound up doing was making a new account and ensuring that that new account was admin on all the pages and groups I manage. I guess that’s how Facebook can make claims about ever-growing user numbers: they block existing users! Pretty soon their numbers will double. You could try using a Linux or Mac to get in, see if you have any luck, or get a co-admin to make you admin. As to personal use, I’m no longer on Facebook, it’s too dodgy and unreliable.
I’m getting the same issue, but with another product, F-Secure Online Scanner, mentioned in comment 20 above. I”m in the US. I can log-in with another account on the same computer and still have access on my phone. Thankfully I didn’t download the program, but I can’t seem to gain access to the account.
I’m getting the same issue, now with another product “To help you remove malware, we’ve partnered with ESET Online Scanner, which has a free antivirus product. It will check your computer and remove any malware.” This issue has not self-corrected over the course of weeks.
Same problem here now; got that same bogus message about being infected > blablabla > while on my smartphone I got noticed that I’m blocked for 24h due to “open graph actions”. I run a personal page and two business pages but there are no links with a website > what You need the “open graph action” for; the funny part is that when I open FB through Firefox all works fine! also no problem via smartphone…while it was there that I got the message of restriction. Clearly a problem from their side but I don’t think they will ever admit this.
Hi – same problem – in Chrome – all up to date, running top of the line malware and AV … but I was attempting to upgrade my facebook app platform as instructed BY FB ffs and then I got the dreaded ‘you have malware’ BS warning and was locked out of my account. When I did a search, I found this page and instantly opened firefox and had no issues logging into my fb account, where a little notification informed me that my account was ‘restricted’ for a certain time due to ‘open graph action’… and yet, when I clicked on the link to appeal, there was NO information regarding my supposed breach.
I’ve never had this happen before when upgrading an app, so it’s a mystery to me.
I think I’ll stay with firefox for a bit LOL
I think its a complete SHAM! I got it when logging into my account.. but if I log into my business or my hubbys account ON THE SAME computer.. it allows me.. so for them to say my computer is infected is a bunch of BS…
This just happened to me today. Did not fall for the “install our scanner”. I scanned with Malware Bytes and all was good. Still can’t log on BUT I can log onto my husband’s account from my “infected device”. Oh well, guess I’ll be using my iPad for a bit until I get it figured out.
Update…So, I refused to download their scanners, on the third day, after multiple days of log in attempts, it let me sign back on. Glad that I found this thread and waited, although I never had any intention in installing their suggested scan software to my computer.
Thanks everyone!
Thank you, Karen, for reporting on your experiences. It does seem this is related to Facebook’s databases faltering—my experience of this was in 2014: jackyan.com/blog/2014/06/my-forced-facebook-sabbatical/. Except back then they didn’t do fake malware scans. It appears the wisdom now is to wait three to five days.