Virus trying to attach to my computer when I am on TDP

[ddt0725]

Yesterday and today, when I have gone to a few pages on TDP, a box has opened up stating "Viruses have been found on your computer" telling me to run this scanning attachment. My daughter told me to close TDP tab immediately when this comes up because it is a virus. I only get this when I am on various pages on TDP and it doesn't happen every time I go to that page. Yesterday it was when I went to "News" and now again this morning when I went to "Reviews".

Anyone else experiencing this? Is it my computer? Is it my internet or is it the site? I have run a scan of my computer (not the one it told me to of course) and no viruses are detected.

[HDNitehawk]

Most likely Denice you already have some malware / adware bug that triggers the pop up on certain sites.

[Steph]

Can you identify the application that pops up the "Viruses have been found..." dialog?
If it's related to your anti-virus, it might be something that's already there but gets activated somehow and detected.
If it's not, then I think it might be an adware that tries to get you click on the scan button to get you somewhere; a page where you can buy an antivirus for example.

In any case, a full scan seems required. If you can get rid of it a painful format/install might be required

The message "this scanning attachment" doesn't sound right to me and I'd be surprised that an anti-virus outputs a message like this.

[shutterdown]

Anyone else experiencing this?

Yes. It's happening to me, too. This exact phenomenon. When I am browsing the TDP. Time for me to investigate, as well.

[Bryan Carnathan]

Hi everyone - thanks for reporting this disturbing news. I too have seen the infrequent fake malware infection screen and have been working on the issue.

Interesting is that I am seeing this happen on other websites as well.

I have tested the site on several malware/virus scanners including those from McAfee, AVG, Comodo, Sucuri and Google. The site shows as being 100% clean in all of them.

Most likely this issue is coming from the Google ads running on the site. The manual third party ads that can ride over the Google ads have been removed - and did not appear to be the problem.

Not long ago, I turned off all of Google's own third party ad networks (600 or so of them). Please let me know if you see any more fake malware infection screens so I can insure that the problem has been eliminated.

Thanks for the help!

Bryan

[ddt0725]

Can you identify the application that pops up the "Viruses have been found..." dialog?
If it's related to your anti-virus, it might be something that's already there but gets activated somehow and detected.
If it's not, then I think it might be an adware that tries to get you click on the scan button to get you somewhere; a page where you can buy an antivirus for example.

In any case, a full scan seems required. If you can get rid of it a painful format/install might be required

The message "this scanning attachment" doesn't sound right to me and I'd be surprised that an anti-virus outputs a message like this.

I don't really know what you mean by identify the application? All I did when it came up was click on the header "Reviews" and "News" at the top of the page. It only comes up when I am in TDP and it isn't the anti-virus that is putting out the message, at least it isn't my anti-virus. It is a fake to get me to do something that I most definitely shouldn't. Since I have clicked the page shut instead of doing what it asks me to do, I don't think my computer got infected from it. I have run a check on my computer and nothing shows up.

[ddt0725]

Hi everyone - thanks for reporting this disturbing news. I too have seen the infrequent fake malware infection screen and have been working on the issue.

Interesting is that I am seeing this happen on other websites as well.

I have tested the site on several malware/virus scanners including those from McAfee, AVG, Comodo, Sucuri and Google. The site shows as being 100% clean in all of them.

Most likely this issue is coming from the Google ads running on the site. The manual third party ads that can ride over the Google ads have been removed - and did not appear to be the problem.

Not long ago, I turned off all of Google's own third party ad networks (600 or so of them). Please let me know if you see any more fake malware infection screens so I can insure that the problem has been eliminated.

Thanks for the help!

Bryan

Thank you Bryan! I will be sure to let you know if I see it anymore.

[Richard Lane]

It is a fake to get me to do something that I most definitely shouldn't. Since I have clicked the page shut instead of doing what it asks me to do, I don't think my computer got infected from it.

If anyone has to close a fake anti-virus scanning window, the best way to do this is from the taskbar (bottom toolbar in windows) and right click on the link in the bottom toolbar and choose close, or you can possibly close the malware in task manager. Most of the time, just clicking on the "X" on the pop-up window will trigger the malware app.

Also for others having this problem, make sure your operating system and browser software are up to date, as well as your Anti-Virus Software, Adobe Flash player, and java (if you have it installed). Most of the time, malware tries to exploit weaknesses in outdated software.

Rich

[HDNitehawk]

I have tested the site on several malware/virus scanners including those from McAfee, AVG, Comodo, Sucuri and Google. The site shows as being 100% clean in all of them.

Not long ago I came accross a bug on my computer at work. It was a nasty little bug that would pop up the mock anti-virus continually, but it seemed to do it more on certain websites. It was doing other things that weren't to pleasant. Since all my computers are Mac's at home now, it has been 3 years since I had to clean up one myself. The work computer was sent in to the IT guys we use. They new what the bug was as it had been circulating for a few months, at the time the easiest cure was to wipe the computer. The bug wasn't showing up on any of the conventional AV we use. Interestingly the first time I noticed the bug, and the website I thought I picked it up from was Yahoo.com.

[HDNitehawk]

If anyone has to close a fake anti-virus scanning window, the best way to do this is from the taskbar (bottom toolbar in windows) and right click on the link in the bottom toolbar and choose close, or you can possibly close the malware in task manager. Most of the time, just clicking on the "X" on the pop-up window will trigger the malware app.

I have been doing this for as long as I remember.

But actually the "best way" to end this problem is when money permits, go buy a Mac .