cbrookhart Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 What's the deal with the virus/spyware alert messages that are coming up when I mistype a web address? I recently tried to go to androidcentral.com and must have mistyped part of the address. What came up was a norton anti-virus page with a popup that would not go away no matter how many times I clicked the X. There was also a recorded message saying to call this number as soon as possible. I had to completely close Chrome in order to get the message to go away. Another similar situation happened a while back. A website I was going to had a dash in the address and I forgot to put it in. A loud siren type noise played through the speakers while a virus/spyware alert page was open in a tab. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rippleman Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 What's the deal with the virus/spyware alert messages that are coming up when I mistype a web address? I recently tried to go to androidcentral.com and must have mistyped part of the address. What came up was a norton anti-virus page with a popup that would not go away no matter how many times I clicked the X. There was also a recorded message saying to call this number as soon as possible. I had to completely close Chrome in order to get the message to go away. Another similar situation happened a while back. A website I was going to had a dash in the address and I forgot to put it in. A loud siren type noise played through the speakers while a virus/spyware alert page was open in a tab. It's not actual norton, its just a page using popular AV names pretending to be the actual companies. They are trying to trick you into downloading their program which is malware where you could/will have advertising, popups, keystroke recording and/or ransomware where you will be locked out of your computer and to get it back you will have to pay an online ransom. goretsky 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zhangm Supervisor Posted March 23, 2015 Supervisor Share Posted March 23, 2015 It's common for malware authors to set pages on unclaimed typos of high-traffic domain names, expecting typos alone to drive a decent amount of traffic. You could get a pretty good sampling of how pervasive this is by trying typos of Microsoft.com or Hotmail.com. One of them is a "You must update Flash" page (hint: that installer isn't going to install Flash). goretsky 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockmilk Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 Here are some browser cleanup tools that you can run. Adware Cleaner http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php Junkware Removal To... http://thisisudax.org/ Adware Removal Tool. http://www.techsupportall.com/adware-removal-tool/ Zhp Cleaner http://www.nicolascoolman.fr/download/zhpcleaner-2/ Bitdefender Adware Tool http://www.bitdefender.com/solutions/adware-removal-tool-for-pc.html Avast Browser Clean http://www.techspot.com/downloads/downloadnow/5810/?evp=889daefe83afc42bb4f2208c3a3a2fbc&file=1 Black Sheep Anti Rougeware http://tazzy.org/ Ohshi Unhooker http://www.oshiunhooker.com/ Software Removal Tool Google-Beta https://www.google.com/chrome/srt/index.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbrookhart Posted March 24, 2015 Author Share Posted March 24, 2015 I get that these are fake pages setup to trick someone into downloading a fake program setup with a real name (I.e. Norton). Why though are these pages essentially holding the browser hostage to the point that I can't simply close the tab and instead have to close the whole browser? This makes chrome think it crashed, so it offers to reopen the 'crashed' tabs, but I can't do that otherwise I'll be right back on the same offending tab. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rippleman Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 I get that these are fake pages setup to trick someone into downloading a fake program setup with a real name (I.e. Norton). Why though are these pages essentially holding the browser hostage to the point that I can't simply close the tab and instead have to close the whole browser? This makes chrome think it crashed, so it offers to reopen the 'crashed' tabs, but I can't do that otherwise I'll be right back on the same offending tab. if you wanted to force someone to download your crap, you would make it that way too Anibal P and goretsky 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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