Could I have a keylogger virus?

Recently my credit card number with the four didgit security code was stolen and used. I have no idea how it could have been stolen.

I ran the Avast scanner and came up clean.

I don't download anything. How likely is it I could have a keylogger virus?

I read that keyloggers can be difficult to detect. I fould this keylogger detection program, but have no idea if it is a keylogger program itself. Does anyone know of a good keylogger detection program?

http://dewasoft.com/privacy/kldetector.htm

 

Keyloggers can be very sneaky.. I would just format/reinstall windows completely to make sure its out of the system.. Aint nothing worse than those damned things.

 

Don't think about it again, wipe and reinstall. Keyloggers are one of the worst viruses you can get.

 

Wow...when we simply suggest wipe out your system to every concern, that's pretty frightening.

Before I would even think of that I would be more interested in how you know it was stolen. What clued you in? What was bought? Where was it bought?

Credit card info is more often stolen when you hand your card to a sales clerk than online. I'm not saying its not been stolen, I am saying that to assume its a keylogger only ignores the other more likely causes.

 

I suppose you can try running KIS (30 days free trial, fully functional), and malwarebytes (free) - it should give you temporary peace of mind.
However that doesn't mean your system is clean - there could be something on it.
If you need it for banking and online shopping - I suppose a clean install or recovery is the only way to make sure its clean.

 

if it was me id wipe the system. use it as an excuse to upgrade your hard drive =P just buy a bigger drive and reinstall.

 

Or a SSD

To OP:
Good point - if you can afford it, by all means do this

 

Avast is a good free anti-virus solution, however, MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials) and Avira 9 are better.
They have a higher detection rate, and should be lighter on system resources.

What I would recommend, is that you install MSE or Avira for example ... update their virus definitions, restart computer into Safe Mode and scan from there.
Running an up to date Anti-spyware prog such as Spybot in Safe mode would also do the trick in combination with the a/v.

In standard mode, it may be difficult for your protection software to detect some viruses and deleting them.
Using those in Safe Mode would probably be better, and if you find anything, and of course remove it, then you should be fine.

I hardly think that a re-format is needed.

In regards to your credit card and all ... well, consult with your bank on the security measures they are implementing and request details of that particular transaction.

It's possible someone saw your credit card number and the security code which would allow them to do this.
This may have not been necessarily a computer related issue.

 

Figuring out where it came from would be more useful than nuking your entire install.

You could reinstall to get hit by it again the next day.

 

A lot of credit card and bank info is actually stolen server side and sold to fraudsters and scammers by the lot.

So if your systems come up clean, it might not be your fault. Was any other one of your accounts hacked or tampered with?

 

come on now.. he does not have to format his system.. these can be removed. imo the best way to tell if you have one is to use a activity monitor to monitor your data sent and received. if the keylogger is sending data to a remote location you will be able to see the activity this way. then if so there are ways to remove them and many if not all av's do miss keyloggers so you need other tools to scan for them, mbam is great, prevx, dr web cure it sometimes works great to scan for things in safe mode, best thing you can possibly do is create a bootable disc to boot the computer to and scan from that, see here :

http://remove-malware.com/

his site tells you how to make it and how to use it. as flip said you may not even have one. and i do agree if it was only one account i do not think it is a keylogger responsible

 

Hi Kevinla,

I would NOT visit that site again or use any "Freeware" from it ... it is a BAD site and distributes Malware.

G!

 

You are absolutely right. The WOT firefox add-on gives that site a horrible rating.