Virus and Malware Alert!

Hello everyone –

I can’t think of many things that upset me more than people taking advantage of other people for the sake of profit. And, this week I’ve seen more than my fair share of customers who’ve come into my Lenexa store with some nasty malware on their computers. If your computer has this pop up…. you have likely been a victim.

First few steps….

1) DO NOT PANIC

2) DO NOT CALL THEM

3) Call Mission Repair

While this may seem self serving… I can assure you if you read on you will understand that a moderately priced malware/virus removal service from Mission Repair or any local, trusted shop will save you hundreds of dollars. Not to mention, an education in what NOT TO DO and what NOT to download or click on!

While his face may look friendly, he’s a con artist, and scammer of the worst kind. These things happen typically when you install “free” software, and leading you to believe that they can make your computer 300% faster! Wrong… they are injecting malware that takes over your browser and will lock you out of your own computer. They have you hooked… and unfortunately, if you call them it can cost you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars over time. In reality they may have you on the hook every six months for a very, very long time.

The good news, is I’m happy to talk about this with anyone that will listen. While Mission Repair does charge a nominal fee for our malware and virus removal services, it’s literally less than 10% of what I’ve heard these scammers will charge you. The major difference is we will clean 100% of their programs and nasty malware from your computer vs just hiding it for a later date. We were able to successfully clean this computer (screenshot above) today by removing a nasty little program called “Shoppytool”. I won’t get super technical here but know that it took several hours to track down this specific malware issue and remove.

In the meantime, be safe online, and as the old saying goes… “if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is”.

Have a great day!

Jeff

It almost looks like he’s smiling!

Hello friends-

I’ve been out of the office for a few days in St. Louis working with NAPWDA and their amazing group of K9 work dogs…there were bomb, accelerant, cadaver, search/rescue and other types of dogs. Melanie (my webmaster) and I volunteered to be decoys at the “area search” station and with the help of Master Trainer Mike Perkins, we landed the job of “decoys”.

This meant that we needed to “hide” in the woods, while each handler took their respective dog through the paces and sent them off looking for us. Since these dogs are also protection dogs (and are used in law enforcement to find suspects), we either needed to put on a bite suit or crawl up a ladder into a tree stand quietly and wait for the dog to find us. Once they did – it was “game on” as the dogs would bark and intimidate while we waited for the handlers to come secure and reward them. Remember, this is training and these men and women need to keep their animals in top shape!

So, this cute pup was my first “lesson” for the day. You’ll notice that I took this picture from about 12 feet up in the air, and had I been any closer to the ground he might have ripped my boots off. It almost looks a little like he’s smiling, but make no mistake- he was all business and could smell my fear.

I like taking a little time out of my busy life to give back to the law enforcement and other agency groups when I can because they actually do lead thankless careers- it’s obvious that their dedication and devotion to protect us civilians just comes from within…so thank you to all of you that provide safety and security to the rest of us that don’t realize it enough. You’re our heroes.

Lastly – it was a fun day and I didn’t get bitten by any K9 dogs- only mosquitoes. They we out to get me!

Have a great afternoon and I’ll be back with some awesome Mission Repair news soon.

Best, Ryan

Time for some Spring Cleaning!

Hello friends- the weather has been a bit fickle out here in Kansas City. I’m not sure if mother nature has decided if it’s motorcycle riding weather nor not yet!

It was a beautiful day outside yesterday (even though it did snow earlier in the week) and it gave the gardeners a chance to get some much needed planting done in our front garden beds. It’s a nice Spring clean up that our new Mission Repair building needed and I think it’s going to look great when things start to grow!

Before yesterday, these areas in front of our windows were full of “junk” bushes that just looked terrible. I know that it’s probably not that important to you, but it gives us here at Mission Repair a little bit of pride and self worth coming into work each day 😉

Since we’re on the subject, it’s time to do a little Spring Cleaning of your own – on your computer! Did you know that we offer virus removal and electronics cleaning? I just had a customer tell us that he dropped a margarita on his new MacBook (which still worked by the way) but the keys were sticky. Yikes. Like really sticky. Units like this are handled in two ways:

1. We can clean the sticky mess out of the unit for a small labor fee.
2. We can replace the keyboard and any other components that might need to be replaced to get the unit functioning correctly again.

Apple laptop and *most* Windows laptop repairs are what I’m talking about. If you have a machine that’s running slow, having virus issues or if you have a sticky situation – you can have us at Mission Repair do a little Spring Cleaning for you. Give us a call 866-638-8402 if you have any questions! Thanks!

Take care, Ryan

What’s a virus? My Mac seems fine.

Hello friends-

I’ve been working with Mac desktops and laptops for many years now. In fact, my first Mac was a Mac SE (I actually had 4 of them to test floppy disk drives if you can imagine that) and have just fallen in love with the Macintosh line of computers ever since. I’ve owned just about every type of Mac system imaginable but I’ll admit that there were some lemons in there.

I currently use a 27″ iMac on my desk at my office and I carry a 13″ MacBook Air at home or when I travel.

I’m happy to report that in the 20 + years that I’ve been working with Macs- I’ve never gotten a virus in my software. Well, not one that I’ve ever noticed anyway.

I periodically read an informative blog (Macvirus) to see what others say about the security of the Mac, it’s operating system and what potential “holes” there are in the system…but there’s no denying that with all of the surfing on the internet that I’ve done, had I owned a Windows machine I would have most certainly had to upgrade my spyware/bloatware/antivirus/malware/whateverware software to keep me protected.

Now don’t get me wrong…I’m not bashing on Windows or any of the versions of Microsoft software. We use them everyday here at my business (Fedex systems for example); but the security and lack of possible viruses on the Mac operating system is enjoyable. We get computers in for virus removals every day here at Mission Repair – but the are NEVER Macs.

So without too much more discussion, you might want to take a look at a Mac for your home computer if you’re living with a clunky Windows system that can never seem to beat the virus. Take it from me, this is not a fantasy world that I’m living in, it’s reality. I just thought that I’d talk about it for a minute because I take the fact for granted- that I don’t have to think about virus issues on my systems.

If you’ve got a Mac virus, I’d like to hear about it…comment below!

Take care, Ryan

Spyware / Malware / Virus Removal Service now launched at Mission Repair!

Hi there, do you have a PC / Windows laptop? Are you running Windows Vista, Windows 7 or even Windows XP? Unless you’re actively scanning and removing spyware, malware and viruses from your computer then you’re more than likely plagued with these items lurking within your system. When you’re running a Windows PC clogged with “junk”, it can make your system run slowly, crash, or even not boot up! This is NOT how you want to work on a daily basis, and we CONSTANTLY hear about Windows users with “slow” or “crashing” machines. It’s nothing new to our techs –

ALL FOR ONLY $79! CLICK HERE FOR VIRUS REMOVAL SERVICE.

You’ll find a ton of companies offering virus removal, and many installable programs that offer it was well. Mission Repair is happy to be of assistance and we are now offering to cleanse your computer’s hard drive of all VIRUSES, SPYWARE and MALWARE. The process will take 24 hours, and our expert technicians are standing by. Don’t continue to live under the lurking madness, let Mission Repair give your system a tune up and get that “junk” out of there!

Hey, we’re having a party here at the office after work today. . .it’s kind of like a pre-Christmas party (because it’s in December!). . .actually it’s just a good day to have a little fun at Mission Repair. Are you in the area? Stop on by!

Talk to you soon, Ryan