Pop-ups on the Forum

[Hertsblue]

Am I seeing things, or do certain words in posts show up blue and underlined? When you roll over them they pop up with ads for various items. The funny thing is that if you move away from them and then come back, they disappear. What's going on? 

[Blaxkleric]

Have the same thing... and something called 'Iminent search the web' keeps coming up too 

Norton's not telling me I have a virus or anything though...

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Not had that yet...

Basic question - is your Pop-up Blocker on ?

It's under the Tools icon or menue item...

IanS

[sebigboss79]

What browser do you use and what pop up blocker (if any).

I don't experience this. Not sure if I get what you mean. Some underlined stuff leads to popups as soon as you move your coursor over it? It disappears when you move away?

[i_am_win]

I'm not seeing anything odd. Check your pop up  blocker or change your browser to see if it helps.

[Techno]

Nothing noticed here Ray.
Cheers - Phil

[Genom]

I use firefox and have NoScript installed, I'm not seeing them either, but it shows the following scripts blocked on the page.

shpr.co
smartsuggestor.net
superfish.com

I know i've barred these from elsewhere, because if it finds a picture for instance, it'll try and show you "other products like this!" kind of thing.

[Leon]

This is an odd one, I've never seen anything like it at my end?  I'd check your browser/computer first, and give us a shout if it's still happening?

[sulphur]

I have it happening, really annoying.

[nikharwood]

Nothing for me on any machines - laptop [IE, Chrome], netbook [Chrome, Firefox], Android tablet [Chrome], Macbook Pro [Safari]

[GrumpyOldMan]

Hi

Nothing for me -  laptop with Firefox or desktop Firefox with noscript

Cheers

GrumpyOldMan

[Hertsblue]

OK, I've learned a bit more about this. It's advertising malware called "Playtopus" from a company called Impressions. It's acquired by downloading free programs - in my case a free file-reader. There are several sites on the web that offer removal procedures (just Google "playtopus") However a) they all seem to belong to the same company (they list the same group of viruses in the same order and run the same ads), b) they all require the user to download free "removal tools", and c) they all offer "if you can't fix it we will do it for you - at a cost".

Since my paranoia has now reached critical mass I keep wondering if downloading anything is a good idea. Do these people put out these viruses just so they can offer a cleanup? For the record, I got the original download through Microsoft's download page.

Anyone had any experience of this? I know it's not strictly speaking a Pendraken matter, but I would be grateful for any pointers.     

[Dazza]

OK, I've learned a bit more about this. It's advertising malware called "Playtopus" from a company called Impressions. It's acquired by downloading free programs - in my case a free file-reader. There are several sites on the web that offer removal procedures (just Google "playtopus") However a) they all seem to belong to the same company (they list the same group of viruses in the same order and run the same ads), b) they all require the user to download free "removal tools", and c) they all offer "if you can't fix it we will do it for you - at a cost".

Since my paranoia has now reached critical mass I keep wondering if downloading anything is a good idea. Do these people put out these viruses just so they can offer a cleanup? For the record, I got the original download through Microsoft's download page.

Anyone had any experience of this? I know it's not strictly speaking a Pendraken matter, but I would be grateful for any pointers.     

http://blog.teesupport.com/complete-guideline-to-remove-playtopus-how-to-get-rid-of-playtopus-completely/


have fun

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

You could try a system restore back to before you downloaded whatever it was....

Works one in 2 ?

IanS

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

DAMMIT! It's started on my 'putor now, in Chrome!  

Right, my one was called 'Browse to save', found info on it lurking at the bottom of it's pop-up window.
Here's how to get rid of it:
http://malwaretips.com/blogs/browse-to-save-ads/

So far so good!