At first I thought it was a fluke. There, on the taskbar, was a second Firefox window; a window entitled - “WARNING!” Cold with dread, I opened the window, and sure enought, it was the “Your computer may be infected with Spyware!” pop up.
I was flummoxed, but as I said, I figured it was a fluke.
Later that day, there was another one. I can’t remember what it was for, but it was a very common, run of the mill pop up ad.
I blame Snopes - I’ve been able to recreate it by going back to Snopes. I’ve double checked that I didn’t have pop ups from Snopes allowed, and I don’t. In fact, just now I opened Snopes again, and I got the standard “pop up blocked” message. Somehow, though, some of them are sneaking through.
It’s still nowhere near as bad as an IE websurfing experience would be, but it is a little disappointing. Gone are the days of being able to boast that since getting Firefox, I’ve never had an unwanted pop up.
Got a couple of those myself - same message too. It was a little alarming at first.
I guess the popularity of FF has caused the dinks that write these to target FF.
I’ve been getting the same thing, but it’s from “Lower My Bills” or some stupid mortgage (?) site. Multiple windows will open too. It usually happens when I’m on MSN or going into Hotmail. I’ve never understood this, is Microsoft so hard up for cash that they need to banners on their page? C’mon Bill, a plague of spam on your house.
I use IE, but MSN.com is my home page. It doesn’t have any popups. It’s possible that Microsoft created popups that target Firefox, but it sounds like you guys have caught some sort of spyware.
I’ve got Firefox AND the Google toolbar popup blocker, and I still get the occasional popup, but it’s always out of left field, at some website I just Googled for something; all the regular popups like cnn.com and Snopes are still blocked.
Yup, me too. Some filth that walks like a man must have figured out a hole in Firefox’s blocking. Or maybe there’s an extension we all happen to be using that causes a bug in the blocking code.
Either way, it’s still disappointing because I use IE for exactly one thing, and I am absolutely certain that that one thing is not a source of popups or spyware. Which means, if I have Spyware, it got in through Firefox.
Although Revtim does bring up a good point… maybe it’s not even a bug, but some innocuous seeming extension that actually introduces a hole?
I’ve been getting the occasional popup in Safari, which I think uses the same blocking tech as Firefox.
I really don’t understand the logic behind this sort of thing. “Gee, this user hates popup ads enough to get software that specifically prevents her from seeing them…but if we can get OUR ad through, maybe she’ll miraculously change her mind and want to buy our product!”
Autocopy
Bandwidth Tester Tabbrowser preferences Forecast Fox
GMail Notifier
FlashGot Dictionary Search
Googlebar FoxyTunes
BugMeNot
(Don’t laugh at me) Abe Vigoda Status
(Bolded the ones in common.)
However, I only recently noticed this, and the only extension I have installed recently was the slightly embarassing Abe Vigoda Status. The rest I installed at, or very soon after, installation.
I don’t have it installed now, so I didn’t list it, but I did have Abe Vigoda Status installed for a bit. Since it’s possible it was installed when I had my popups (and I don’t get one now when I go to Snopes), we should consider that a suspect.
I’ll verify again I don’t get a popup now when I go to Snopes, then I’ll install Abe Vigoda Status and restart Firefox, and see if I get one.
The only extension that I have is AV Status, and Snopes doesn’t give me a popup. I have no extensions at all on my work computer, and this is where I got one of the popups.
My work computer is pretty tight, security-wise. I don’t think this is evidence of a virus. I think the people (and I use that word advisedly) that code these popups have found a hole in FF to exploit.
Copy and paste this into the adblock program after you install it. If you find that you can’t visit certain sites that you want to see, you can remove that code from Adblock.
I’ve been using it for months. No popups at Snopes or anywhere else.
I haven’t read the whole thread, but I think it’s actually a Flash popup. This popup blocker test site: http://www.kephyr.com/popupkillertest/test/index.html
has a test, #13, which results in a popup if I allow Flash to run.
But, thanks to my Flashblock extension, it only comes up if I click the “Flash Indicator” that shows up on the page.