Blocked

So, funny story: Recently, I inadvertently infected my computer with a virus (or two, I'm still not sure). It was what we call a Trojan because, like the Trojan's horse of ancient fame, it arrived posing as a good thing. In this case, it claimed that it was an antivirus-scanning software that had detected several viruses on my computer and wanted to run a scan to see if there were more. I'd encountered it once before and thought, at that earlier encounter, that it was fishy, so I had the sense to ignore it. This time, however, I was genuinely concerned, so I clicked and let it scan.

Mistake.

Because, after it scanned, of course it had found a ton of stuff, and the next step was, logically, to buy its software to safely remove all those dreadful viruses and safe my helpless computer from a certain death. As if I have money right now to spend on computer protection! So I ignored this warning and tried to go about my merry way. My first order of business was, of course, the Internet, which is pretty much where all of my business is these days. But, lo and behold! when I try to go to Facebook, I get a big red screen that reads "This site may cause harm to your computer," and it gave me two options: to proceed unprotected or the buy this antivirus software. I click "proceed unprotected." Fail. And I get to another red screen that reads "This site may cause harm to you computer."

This went on all weekend. After about two days, I realized that my computer needed help, or I was going to kill it faster than the virus would. Fortunately, I have friends who know what to do, and they gave me a few Internet links to try--links to recommended, safe, REAL antivirus software that will clean up my act. Only, guess what? When I tried to enter these URLs, I got this big red screen that read "This site may cause harm to your computer."

See, this malicious adware was trying to block me not only from everything, but from the very things that might have fixed my problem. Of course they would want to do that!

But this is not just a scheme employed by computer viruses; our enemy, Satan, uses the same tactics. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that he invented the art. So, beware of his malicious adware, because it's tricky and may even pose as a good thing. (Those are the really scary ones!) As for breaking free from the "website block"--I'll get back to you on that, and I hope you don't think any worse of my for leaving you without any answers. But I don't want to throw answers at you on this, because it's serious. So, I'll leave you to mull over the potential viruses in your lives, because identification is the first step to correction.