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Rant: A customer told me their old laptop was 'just slow' but it was packed with malware
I was fixing a 2018 Dell Inspiron for a regular last week, and they said it just needed a 'speed up'. Opened it up and found 17 different PUPs and a crypto miner running in the background. It got me thinking about our job. On one side, you have the 'full disclosure' crowd who says we should explain EVERY threat we find, which can scare people. On the other, some techs just quietly clean it and say 'all done' to avoid the panic. I lean toward explaining, but it can add 20 minutes to a simple job. What's your standard approach for a case like this?
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dakota_rivera2mo ago
Full disclosure" sounds good, but is a crypto miner from 2018 even a real threat now? Most of that old junk is just annoying, not dangerous.
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ryan_carr591mo ago
How long do you usually spend explaining this stuff before the customer's eyes glaze over? I had a similar thing with a regular's laptop last year, same deal with the hidden miner and toolbar crap. I showed him the scan log, explained what each thing does in plain English, and he just nodded like a bobblehead. Next week he brought in his wife's computer with the same junk, said "do your thing" and didn't ask a single question. So now I just show them the big red flags, point at the miner, say "this is using your computer to make someone else money," and leave it at that. Most people just want it fixed, not a lecture. They trust you to handle it, so handle it and move on.
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