What is going on? Is there a conspiracy of silence or is just me? I too have the same popup message saying I am infected recommending a download to fix it. This occurred after being redirected to a pornography site. What I do not understand is that I am being redirected to other sites every time I use Google to search for information (not pornography sites). To avoid this in most cases I just keep clicking on the link until it stops trying to divert me. What is really anoying is sometimes I get diverted and the back button will not take me back no matter how many times I click it. I then Have the touble of having to use the down arrow by the back button to get back to the search. Why is Google not doing anything about this problem? Why is there what seems to me a wall of silence about this? In particular why are pornography sites allowed to get away with this when children can be abused in this way?
Posted by: Ron Barker at August 11, 2007 2:37 AM
"Why is Google not doing anything about this problem? "
Have you informed Google of the problem? If no one tells Google there is a problem, how do they know about the problem.
Copy the address of the site causing the problem and do a screen capture of the page if possible (MWSnap is good for this). Go to Google home page and find the contact customer support. Send them the information you collected and see what happens.
Posted by: Ken Crook at August 11, 2007 11:47 PM
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
It's also possible that what you're experiencing has nothing at all to do with
Google. If you were to visit the sites in question without involving Google at
all, you may very well get the same results.
Also, some of what you describe could also be the result of a malware/spyware
infestation on your own machine. Again, nothing Google can do about it.
Google defintely *tries* to do the right thing, but there are so many sites and
so many places where this kind of crap happens, they can't keep up. And
ultimately, it's our own responsibility to keep our machines safe.
Posted by: Leo A. Notenboom at August 12, 2007 9:19 AM
I too get these little yellow pop ups on some sites that warn me of virus, spyware. I never click on them. However sometimes I can't use the back button or the down arrow. I have to use Cont,Alt Del to get out of the mess.That means restarting the browser. This only happens on some sites I'm looking at.
Posted by: Gene at January 13, 2009 8:31 AM
when ever i use google to search for information it redirects me everytime i use a link but when i go back and press the link again it works. me thinking this is down to a malware infestation i recently bought norton 360 to solve the issue but when ever i do a scan to try and find anything the scan wont start or do anything i left my laptop on for three days trying to scan while i was on holiday when i got back the scan was still on zero items can you shed any light on this and if possible a solution?
Posted by: kev at June 17, 2009 3:39 PM
I have had the same messages popping up that I am infected and its from the links i select from the search results. Nats.org was one that kept doing and others as well. I have kaspersky internet security and found nothing on my system. But it does sound like a website has been jacked but when it repeatedly opens this window for infection it seems that the virus is being transfered to my computer.
This has happened on a good dozen or so links.
thank you,
southern belle
Posted by: Southern Belle at August 11, 2009 12:51 PM
I get a message to say my pc is infected, but only when I am on Facebook. It is very difficult to get rid of it, and it logs me off Facebook.
Posted by: Mike Peart at February 17, 2010 1:42 AM
To put this as simply as possible, absolutely not! Usually when you receive a pop-up that your computer is infected, the message itself is actually 'malware'. If you click 'yes' to buy their product, they will steal your credit card info and you'll download a really nasty virus. What most people don't know is that if you click 'no' or click the 'x' to turn off the pop-up you will still download the same virus.
The only 'safe' solution is to do nothing! Reboot your computer, letting Windows close the pop-up. When you re-open your browser, immediately close the page ('tab') you were on before it can fully load and don't ever go back to it.
No legitimate security software manufacturer would ever send you a pop-up like this. I've had several of my customers click 'no' and end up with a virus so bad that the only solution is to re-install the operating system (Windows).
Posted by: Dave Markley at August 10, 2010 10:43 AM
I've had to clean more than one of these fake anti-virus programs off of others computers. I've developed my own procedure, that works most of the time, :-)
The last one I removed (on a Vista laptop)I had to use system restore to do it.
Posted by: Terry Hollett at August 10, 2010 2:52 PM
DON'T click anywhere on it - it's malware. Alt+ F4 might close it, or use Task Manager to close the browser. Update your (own) antimalware, and scan. Providing that you didn't click, you're probably OK.
Comments
Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
Subscribe to the RSS Feed for comments on this article.
What is going on? Is there a conspiracy of silence or is just me? I too have the same popup message saying I am infected recommending a download to fix it. This occurred after being redirected to a pornography site. What I do not understand is that I am being redirected to other sites every time I use Google to search for information (not pornography sites). To avoid this in most cases I just keep clicking on the link until it stops trying to divert me. What is really anoying is sometimes I get diverted and the back button will not take me back no matter how many times I click it. I then Have the touble of having to use the down arrow by the back button to get back to the search. Why is Google not doing anything about this problem? Why is there what seems to me a wall of silence about this? In particular why are pornography sites allowed to get away with this when children can be abused in this way?
Posted by: Ron Barker at August 11, 2007 2:37 AM"Why is Google not doing anything about this problem? "
Have you informed Google of the problem? If no one tells Google there is a problem, how do they know about the problem.
Copy the address of the site causing the problem and do a screen capture of the page if possible (MWSnap is good for this). Go to Google home page and find the contact customer support. Send them the information you collected and see what happens.
Posted by: Ken Crook at August 11, 2007 11:47 PM-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
It's also possible that what you're experiencing has nothing at all to do with
Google. If you were to visit the sites in question without involving Google at
all, you may very well get the same results.
Also, some of what you describe could also be the result of a malware/spyware
infestation on your own machine. Again, nothing Google can do about it.
Google defintely *tries* to do the right thing, but there are so many sites and
so many places where this kind of crap happens, they can't keep up. And
ultimately, it's our own responsibility to keep our machines safe.
Leo
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (MingW32)
iD8DBQFGvzM0CMEe9B/8oqERAs4FAJ9CN3gMD2s8yrxx4EXgBiZhnNybOgCfcafW
Posted by: Leo A. Notenboom at August 12, 2007 9:19 AM/cS+Y2egENOcDt6B2fzonjc=
=vhC+
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
I too get these little yellow pop ups on some sites that warn me of virus, spyware. I never click on them. However sometimes I can't use the back button or the down arrow. I have to use Cont,Alt Del to get out of the mess.That means restarting the browser. This only happens on some sites I'm looking at.
Posted by: Gene at January 13, 2009 8:31 AMwhen ever i use google to search for information it redirects me everytime i use a link but when i go back and press the link again it works. me thinking this is down to a malware infestation i recently bought norton 360 to solve the issue but when ever i do a scan to try and find anything the scan wont start or do anything i left my laptop on for three days trying to scan while i was on holiday when i got back the scan was still on zero items can you shed any light on this and if possible a solution?
Posted by: kev at June 17, 2009 3:39 PMI have had the same messages popping up that I am infected and its from the links i select from the search results. Nats.org was one that kept doing and others as well. I have kaspersky internet security and found nothing on my system. But it does sound like a website has been jacked but when it repeatedly opens this window for infection it seems that the virus is being transfered to my computer.
This has happened on a good dozen or so links.
thank you,
Posted by: Southern Belle at August 11, 2009 12:51 PMsouthern belle
I get a message to say my pc is infected, but only when I am on Facebook. It is very difficult to get rid of it, and it logs me off Facebook.
Posted by: Mike Peart at February 17, 2010 1:42 AMTo put this as simply as possible, absolutely not! Usually when you receive a pop-up that your computer is infected, the message itself is actually 'malware'. If you click 'yes' to buy their product, they will steal your credit card info and you'll download a really nasty virus. What most people don't know is that if you click 'no' or click the 'x' to turn off the pop-up you will still download the same virus.
The only 'safe' solution is to do nothing! Reboot your computer, letting Windows close the pop-up. When you re-open your browser, immediately close the page ('tab') you were on before it can fully load and don't ever go back to it.
No legitimate security software manufacturer would ever send you a pop-up like this. I've had several of my customers click 'no' and end up with a virus so bad that the only solution is to re-install the operating system (Windows).
Posted by: Dave Markley at August 10, 2010 10:43 AMI've had to clean more than one of these fake anti-virus programs off of others computers. I've developed my own procedure, that works most of the time, :-)
The last one I removed (on a Vista laptop)I had to use system restore to do it.
http://hitanykey.webs.com/removefake.htm
Posted by: Terry Hollett at August 10, 2010 2:52 PMDON'T click anywhere on it - it's malware. Alt+ F4 might close it, or use Task Manager to close the browser. Update your (own) antimalware, and scan. Providing that you didn't click, you're probably OK.
Posted by: peter nixon at August 10, 2010 4:07 PMTo post a comment on "I've received a popup telling me I'm infected and recommending a download to fix it. Should I?", please return to that article's main page.