Clicking suspicious Email Link

Hey ATS.

I kinda messed up with this one , in a moment of weakness i clicked this link.

It baited me into believing one of my relatives tagged me in a news message.

Realised it the second i clicked the link , closed it down.

But then the paranoia kicked in , eventually i decided to reinstall windows 10.

Changing all my passwords after , all my accounts use 2 stage authenticator with mobile phone.

So i am curious if there is a chance any spyware has been left on after a fresh install i need to worry about ?

You would need to re-format your drive with a burner sofware before you re-installed Windows 10.

a reply to: TheGreazel

a reply to: TheGreazel

I dont know enough about PCs to say if you have taken enough precautions but I find if you follow this advice, all should be well

originally posted by: TheGreazel
Hey ATS.

I kinda messed up with this one , in a moment of weakness i clicked this link.

It baited me into believing one of my relatives tagged me in a news message.

Realised it the second i clicked the link , closed it down.

But then the paranoia kicked in , eventually i decided to reinstall windows 10.

Changing all my passwords after , all my accounts use 2 stage authenticator with mobile phone.

So i am curious if there is a chance any spyware has been left on after a fresh install i need to worry about ?

The only sure way is to delete the partition , recreate it , and start again .
But , that is a drastic last ditch effort .
Malwarebytes (free) scan (disconnect from the network first) .

Did you have Defender up and running ?
Fairly good anti-virus , firewall , and tamper protection .

If this is a phone , not sure about those steps . But they may give ideas.

a reply to: TheGreazel
You are never safe so long as you are connected. That aside your measures sound sufficient for most infections if by chance a virus was introduced to your PC. If they got to the firmware or bios level you would literally have to buy a new computer and thats pretty much the only step you didnt take.

a reply to: TheGreazel

I believe it all depends on the type of spam.

If it is a phishing attempt then you should be ok if you didn't enter any kind of login credentials in whatever site opened after clicking the link.

However, you will surely notice increased spam on that email account. Clicking any link in spam mail confirms to the spammers that the account is active.

I think you took enough precautions to be safe, but I'd try doing a search for the email scam you received to see if it could harbour a more dangerous payload. I normally search for what is in the email subject line or anything peculiar in the email body/text.

Stay safe!

a reply to: Gothmog

yea defender up and running all the time , upon clicking the link i did not get a warning from Defender , and the link didnt work , there was also a file attached to the email wich i did not open.

Could be the link was broken but better safe then sorry i geuss

Thanks for the replies everyone , think i will fragment my C disk tommorow and do a fresh install with a windows ISO from a external storage device.

a reply to: TheGreazel

Just do a full reinstall including a full reformat of the drive. As stated above to be extra safe, delete and then recreate the partition as part of that process.

After that change your passwords. At least those for your Microsoft account, the email that you received the message in and all financial accounts ( bank, Paypal, Venmo, ISP, cell phone, utilities etc ).

Drewlander was the only one here that gave you solid advice on your problem

Security is an illusion, sir.

originally posted by: TheGreazel
Hey ATS.

I kinda messed up with this one , in a moment of weakness i clicked this link.

It baited me into believing one of my relatives tagged me in a news message.

Realised it the second i clicked the link , closed it down.

But then the paranoia kicked in , eventually i decided to reinstall windows 10.

Changing all my passwords after , all my accounts use 2 stage authenticator with mobile phone.

So i am curious if there is a chance any spyware has been left on after a fresh install i need to worry about ?

Based solely on what you describe, that was likely total overkill and a waste of time and effort.

But, that depends on a number of things...

Was Windows up to date? What security software do you use? What browser do you use (does it automatically block JS)?

I've been using ESET (the business/enterprise version) for 15 years or so (since it was NOD32 v1) for a small business (50-75 users over the last 22+years), it's never let me/us down (knock on virtual wood), highly recommended.

One thing that I do for convenience and added security at home (in addition to using 2-factor auth where supported) is to install the free Hyper-V hypervisor, then run your Windows 10 and/or Linux OS's as VMs (I use both, Windows for normal, and a separate linux VM dedicated solely for accessing any and all financial sites/services, never save/store those passwords, and use 2-factor auth where supported).

This way you can simply roll-back to a previous snapshot anytime you want (as opposed to a wipe and restore like you just had to do).

It is more complicated than just installing Windows 10, but an easier alternative is you could just install Windows 10, then install and use Virtualbox to create one or more VM for your normal use and accomplish the same thing, but I prefer a bare-metal (low-level) hypervisor.

Also, you need more resources (CPU power and the more RAM the better, at least 32GB, but 64GB is better).

Few days / weeks have gone by , seems like everything is alright , thats everyone for the imput.