chrome Virus/Spyware Alert Messages

[cbrookhart]

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.

[Rippleman]

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. 

[zhangm Supervisor]

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).

[Rockmilk]

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

[cbrookhart]

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.

[Rippleman]

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