Story:
Your Skype does not support extended icons. Please download the extension here: http://skypemoticonsinstall.asia/index.php?skype=1
Analysis:
These are the messages and pop ups that many Skype users repeatedly received from their friends without their consent. The message states that the user’s account does not support extended Skype icons and asks them to download the extension from the link mentioned. They are NOT genuine or official Skype emoticons. The installing software is basically a virus that spreads malware and also displays advertisements.
How the Virus Works
The Skype users who went on to download the extended Skype emoticons have had various issues with their computers. Once downloaded, the software displays some advertisements in the background of browsers along with some unwarranted extensions. Without their notice, the Skype users were in fact sending out these messages to the people on their friends list as well. The users who realized that it is a malware and tried to delete it could not be successful. Even the standard anti-virus programs did not detect this virus. Online Link Scan of the website URL suggests that the site may not be Safe. This extended emoticons software in the name of Skypemoticons is very similar to the dangerous Adware SkypEmoticons reported earlier.
Adware is software that automatically displays or downloads advertising material such as banners or pop-ups when a user is online. The main motive of the Adware SkypEmoticons is to promote lot of illegal advertisements and show fake pop-ups on your system screen. Such adware can sneak into your system through peer to peer file sharing, Spam email attachment, download freeware or shareware from malicious links and while visiting some infected websites. The adware can even gather your personal information, the objective of which is solely to extract money from the unwary user. Adware.SkypEmoticons is reported to be capable of infecting all Windows based PCs.
How to Remove it
When your system is affected by this Extended Skype Emoticons Virus:
The first thing to do is to terminate (end) its process from Task Manager. Press Control, Alt and Delete buttons all at once, right click on the malicious process (of the form of SE.exe) and end it.
Open the Control Panel, go to Add or Remove Programs and remove all the suspicious and unknown programs that have been installed illegitimately without your knowledge.
And then open the Windows Registry Editor by typing in “regedit” in the Run box. From there, you need to delete all the related malicious and corrupt registry entries that have been generated by Skypemoticons. You can find clear instructions of how to do it from here.
Once you are done deleting all the related files and folders, you can restart your system and then Skype to make it function normally. Remember to check the authenticity of a software before downloading and installing it.
Hoax or Fact:
Hoax and Virus.
References:
Skype emoticons virus?
Skype Smileys, Browser Extensions and You
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