Pendraken Miniatures Forum

Pendraken News & Info! => General Pendraken => Topic started by: Hertsblue on 01 December 2012, 10:52:19 AM

Title: Pop-ups on the Forum
Post by: Hertsblue on 01 December 2012, 10:52:19 AM
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?  :o
Title: Re: Pop-ups on the Forum
Post by: Blaxkleric on 01 December 2012, 11:58:42 AM
Have the same thing... and something called 'Iminent search the web' keeps coming up too  :o

Norton's not telling me I have a virus or anything though...
Title: Re: Pop-ups on the Forum
Post by: Lord Kermit of Birkenhead on 01 December 2012, 12:16:03 PM
Not had that yet...

Basic question - is your Pop-up Blocker on ?

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

IanS
Title: Re: Pop-ups on the Forum
Post by: sebigboss79 on 01 December 2012, 12:21:05 PM
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?
Title: Re: Pop-ups on the Forum
Post by: i_am_win on 01 December 2012, 02:39:54 PM
I'm not seeing anything odd. Check your pop up  blocker or change your browser to see if it helps.
Title: Re: Pop-ups on the Forum
Post by: Techno on 01 December 2012, 08:50:22 PM
Nothing noticed here Ray. :-\
Cheers - Phil
Title: Re: Pop-ups on the Forum
Post by: Genom on 02 December 2012, 08:19:43 AM
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.
Title: Re: Pop-ups on the Forum
Post by: Leon on 02 December 2012, 07:55:12 PM
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?
Title: Re: Pop-ups on the Forum
Post by: sulphur on 03 December 2012, 04:50:50 AM
I have it happening, really annoying.
Title: Re: Pop-ups on the Forum
Post by: nikharwood on 03 December 2012, 11:51:07 PM
Nothing for me on any machines - laptop [IE, Chrome], netbook [Chrome, Firefox], Android tablet [Chrome], Macbook Pro [Safari]
Title: Re: Pop-ups on the Forum
Post by: GrumpyOldMan on 04 December 2012, 12:28:58 AM
Hi

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

Cheers

GrumpyOldMan
Title: Re: Pop-ups on the Forum
Post by: Hertsblue on 04 December 2012, 09:45:00 AM
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.  ~X( :-SS   
Title: Re: Pop-ups on the Forum
Post by: Dazza on 04 December 2012, 10:46:00 AM
Quote from: Hertsblue on 04 December 2012, 09:45:00 AM
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.  ~X( :-SS   

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


have fun

Title: Re: Pop-ups on the Forum
Post by: Lord Kermit of Birkenhead on 04 December 2012, 12:07:18 PM
You could try a system restore back to before you downloaded whatever it was....

Works one in 2 ?

IanS
Title: Re: Pop-ups on the Forum
Post by: Duke Speedy of Leighton on 12 January 2013, 01:40:51 AM
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/ (http://malwaretips.com/blogs/browse-to-save-ads/)

So far so good!

Title: Re: Pop-ups on the Forum
Post by: Hertsblue on 12 January 2013, 10:03:32 AM
Lemmey,

This appears to be a different program from the one I had, although it works in much the same way. I followed the uninstall procedures outlined on the various help sites and got nowhere. I downloaded three different malware removal suites (at a price), none of which touched it. Finally, in desperation I went to a specialist virus removal company in the States and they winkled it out in about 20 minutes. Cost me about £75. I don't download anything freebie from the web any more, especially from Microsoft.  >:( >:( >:(