Railpictures.com warning ...


I

ianacole

Well-Known Member
I hope this isn't out of line, please remove if it is...


From a recent thread here, referencing railpictures.net (not .com):
Riverrat said:
Those are looking good, especially for your first go-around. And they can only get better from here.

Her could be a little inspiration from a proto-railroad. Not around here, by any means, but still the right colors for her.

[URL="http://www.railpictures.oops[/URL]
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Folks,

I'm not one to cry wolf, but this has now happened to me twice on two different computers and two different operating systems. Visiting the site, I get the pop-up block warning, all well and good, but then my browser shuts down and restarting brings up the XP/VISTA/WIN 7 Antivirus 2012 (pick your O/S) "screen" which requires you to "activate" their software as it's found all sorts of infections. Make no mistake, this is malware of the highest, and most difficult order. It adds registry keys to all your .exe entries to redirect all programs to its compiler, effectively locking down your computer. The expectation is that you enter your credit card number to purchase their software...

I don't know if it's one of their ads as I block their pop-ups, or if one of the pop-ups has the ability to run in the background, but like I said, this has happened twice now. Too be fair, I have been to their site a lot of other times with no issue whatsoever, I just feel fair warning is in order. I will not be visiting their site again...
 
Hi Ian, I'm not sure of what happened to you. I checked it out (kind of stupid I know) and all I got was the basic popup which was blocked and a photo of a some what dainty painted pair of pink railcars.
Whatever it was must have been cleaned up by Railpictures or I have a hell of a lot more protection than you have.
But I agree CAUTION is to be advised, Thanks for posting the warning.
Cheers
Willis
 
If you mean railpictures.net, I have read several complaints about that site, and for that reason. However, I have never had any troubles, and go there several times each year to look for proto photos for weathering guides.

I use plain jane Windows 7 with Norton 360, and I back up Norton with the pro edition of superantispyware. Oddly, the only problem I have had was with an update of Norton's. It crashed my Windows Live Mail. I had to uninstall and re-install it about three months ago. Grrrrrrrrrrr........!
 
The purpose of that type of virus isn't to get you to buy the software, it's to get you to enter your credit card info. Once you do the symptoms disappear making you think all's well. Next thing you know your credit card is maxed out after they go on a spending spree.
Never enter your credit card info for something that you didn't originate.
 
I call that bullsh*t "Extortion ware". These &%$#@*'s download a virus to your computer and then have the stones to tell you that you have to buy THEIR "product" (snake oil) to remove it. It's extortion plain and simple and I REFUSE to visit that snobbish site for all of the advertising pop-ups and crap and the fact that they are an elitist bunch of stuck up foamers who think they're better than everyone else.

No great loss with that site. The fact that it has downloaded a virus though sucks. Download hijackthis, it's a good program for getting rid of crap like extortionware.
 
Thanks for the heads up. I go to that site quite frequently.

Is there a way to notify them of this nasty virus?

btw, I have at least 3 spyware and antivirus apps on all my systems. Spybot Search & Destroy, Antivir, and Super Antispyware. These are All free. And the included Win 7 security essentials.
 
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cct70 said:
that snobbish site for all of the advertising pop-ups and crap and the fact that they are an elitist bunch of stuck up foamers who think they're better than everyone else.
QUOTE]

Couldnt have described that site any better then that. You are 110% accurate with that observation!
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So you guys are talking about their community forums? I didn't even know they had forums over there.

I was just using it for research and photos.
 
Just to be clear, I have visited that site numerous times with no issues, so I think it's one random ad. The first time it happened I had a lot of tabs open, so didn't feel comfortable pointing a finger. This time however, I only had MRRForums open, and clicked on the picture link in the pink railcars thread. It was after I closed the opened railpictures.net window that problems occurred.

And, just to reinforce my concern, I run two IT Service Desks and an NOC, and have owned a couple of my own small business IT support companies and still do website design on the side. I'm very aware of my internet presence and very cautious about what sites I visit and my security posture. This particularly bugs me as it's tagged me twice in the past 3 months, and I haven't had any issues with viruses or malware in roughly 10 years.
 
I am not a fan of that site. Don't even bother to load a page with a photo on it that someone posts. They are the biggest bunch of high almighty stuck up snobs. Sorry, had to get that off my chest and I usually don't bash anyone or any site. I have never posted there but have seen good photos get turned away for stupid reasons. I hate to hear that happened to ya and hopefully no real harm was done to your computers.
 
i get those stupid things all the time on youtube...i just delete them. I almost never visit RP's forums as it get's annoying seing the same topics come up. I have like 20 pics I think on there. It is kinda crazy there standards to get a pic up.
 
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I forgot to add, in my earlier reply, that when I close out of that site, after finding what I am looking for (only ever photos of a prototype, and never any other facilities offered there), I do have to close out a pop-down ad, but it's no biggie to me. It happens at snopes.com as well. It's the price you pay for what you otherwise get for nothing.

Sorry for the experience you had.
 
I know what you mean about their standards, I have 3 or 4 pictures accepted by them. As for pop-ups on the site, I've turned down my blocker a little bit for a game I play on occasion, so I get them all the time. Usually I'm not to scared of anything too serious, as I always close ANYTHING that I didn't ask for.

Usually when I do happen to catch something in the computer, I am usually in need of some sort of an upgrade or another, and take my computer to my uncle or a buddy and just wipe it and start over. But that's just me.
 
i am currently cleaning up my laptop which got infected with that sme virus. Mine came from Al Mayo's web site. Some of you may know him as Monster Railroad. I am sure he does not even know it is on his site but as soon as I clicked on his web page The trouble started. Since I had no other pages open I have to think it came thru there.
Anyway, A program called Malware bites or Mbam is the antidote to clean it up according to several sites that deal with this type of crap. I currently have it running on my machine. FYI I tried superantispyware and it did not get it
 
Well I did end up with some sort of problem, but I have no idea of whether it was railpictures or not. Seems the new installation of SpyBot shut out my AV prog and made a mess of things.
Deleted Spy Bot, did a boot scan with Avast and viola! Java was infected. All's well now and comp. is running about 3 to 4 times faster.
Where did the infection come from? Who knows, it could have been Railpictures, but in any case SpyBot let it in.

Cheers
Willis
 
Funny this topic comes up, I just recently went to order Sign Creator and The Advertiser programs from Evans Designs. I bought and downloaded them from their links and this excat program (virus) infected my computer.

After getting my computer fixed I wrote to them and they said they would check into it and they would send me a disc copy of the software. Got the Sign Creator disk today and well it's blank, guess I'll be writing to them again. looks like this virus is hitting us in the Model Railroad community.
 
hamltnblue said:
The purpose of that type of virus isn't to get you to buy the software, it's to get you to enter your credit card info. Once you do the symptoms disappear making you think all's well. Next thing you know your credit card is maxed out after they go on a spending spree.
Never enter your credit card info for something that you didn't originate.
Click to expand...


Say Hamilton,

That's a very good point about them being after your credit card info. In fact never give out the three digit access code on the back of your card unless your actually making a purchase from a reputable company and those kind of individuals are far from it!
 
I run into those from time to time. My browser (Firefox) has a add-on that allows me to block things like that. My AVG antivirus detected the infected file and stomped it out existence.
 
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I visit the Railpictures.net sight all the time and never have had a problem like this. At least every few days at least. I will for sure get one pop up at first and close it then nothing the rest of the time I am on the sight. Well, maybe once in a while a popup may happen again after so many photos I open. I really enjoy the photos people put up on there.
 
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