I opened a new session of Firefox this afternoon at around 9:30 Eastern time. I navigated to http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/, at which time an additional tab opened to http: //newbrowserversion.org/f/index.html (link intentionally broken to protect the naive). At that time, I was viewing no other webpages. This page stated, “Warning! Browser Update Required! Important Security Update: Keeping your browser up to date keeps you protected…” It provides a link to secure.pn-installer3.com that I strongly suspect holds malware or other unwanted software, rather than a pristine copy of the latest Firefox.
The initial straightdope.com page included a header banner ad touting an “IQ quiz” asking “What is the capital of the state of Texas: A) Austin B) Orlando C) Miami”. A second ad showed what looked like a non-working media player that eventually turned into a star shaped anthropomorphic cartoon character and then disappeared, and returned to the media player look, then disappeared again. A third ad offered $7.99 large 3-topping pizzas from Domino’s, carryout only.
My virus scanner reported no threats. MalwareBytes’ MBAM reported no malicious items detected.
I want these deceptive browser update ads stopped immediately.