Thank the good Lord for Firefox and Adblock Plus! I’ve never run into trouble on this site.
It’s a bit trickier than that, as it really doesn’t give you any instructions to follow.
I just checked on a version of Linux, and it sends an alert box saying you need to install an antivirus. If you click cancel, I think you get an are you sure type prompt, and then it takes you to a page that resembles My Computer, and shows a fake scan, saying you are infected. You then get a fake popup that looks like a Windows XP alert, but it isn’t. Anywhere you click starts a download of the program. Yes, No, Close, it doesn’t matter.
I don’t know what happens after that, as I got a legitimate prompt asking me where to download inst.exe. I wonder if it normally gets around that on Windows. When I clicked no, I was left with the fake Windows XP alert, and I tried closing the tab, which sent a message telling me again that I had viruses. When I again clicked cancel, I got out.
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It appears to me that you could easily get out of this by using Ctrl-Alt-Delete and killing your web browser process.**
After I get some sleep, I may try it out on a Virtual Machine. I just loathe having to install the OS.
Add in Flashblock[sup]1[/sup] and NoScript[sup]2[/sup] (even if you set it to let JavaScript run by default), and you’ve cut off nearly all the vectors exploited by Windows malware.
[sup]1[/sup]Flashblock is so flash can stay disabled even on sites you trust. It just has too many ways to infect you.
[sup]2[/sup]NoScript can disable all plugins on any site you don’t trust. Or even on those you do. I usually disable everything but flash on all websites, and let Flashblock handle the Flash.
I was seeing something like this pop up a couple of weeks ago on my work PC. It would show up while I was browsing various sites, including the Dope. I thought it was odd because our company has some pretty heavy-duty anti-virus software. I was able to close down the pop-up window by right clicking the icon on the status bar with no ill effects.
The malware reports having dried up, we’ll assume the ad we stopped Friday (not a brokered ad, incidentally) was the source of the problem. Our apologies for the inconvenience.
VSCAN7
Hit me 3 times in 2 days on the Dope. Never on any other site and Spyware Doctor and Malwarebytes didn’t find it on my machine.
We’re discussing this particular piece of malware and the other current annoyances over here.
I picked something up aftr visiting a thread on alternate lifestyles. Can’t remember which… It invited me to close my AVG!