this is the thing that keeps showing up when i come to daves

is anyone else getting this?

edited to remove the link so that others won't get infected.

This message was edited May 31, 2010 4:53 PM

Mama,
I'm not getting that here. But my DH was getting something like it while online (though not at this website). His turned out to be caused from some kind of spyware or something? Sorry. I don't know exactly and he's sleeping so I can't ask. He scanned his computer with a free program called Malwarebytes and hasn't had the problem sense.

Joy

Assuming you have your ads turned off there are 2 possibilities that I can think of. One is that you've got some sort of spyware/adware program that got onto your computer. Or...are you automatically logged in as soon as you come to DG, or do you have to log in every time? The system doesn't know you're a subscriber until you've logged in, so if you have to log in each time then you could very easily see ads on that first screen.

here is the new one i got today.


i didn't have to log in today when i came. for awhile a few weeks back seems i had to log in every time.

edited to remove the link i sent so others will not get infected.

This message was edited May 31, 2010 4:54 PM

Hi mamajack - did you change your cookie settings lately? DG remembers my password unless I log out and and all goes well until I delete my cookies, then have to log in again.

Personal preference - whether or not to log out. Me, for this and maybe 1 or 2 other sites, i just prefer to not log out and have my password remembered.

mamajack.. it's spyware/adware and anyone who clicks on those links is subject to getting it on their computer. I advise you remove the links as soon as possible, and cleaning up your computer with a spyware cleaner like Ad-Aware.

how do you remove the links?

No, this is something coming through the Google network of ads unfortunately. We've told the company multiple times to stop targeting this site (and others of ours) and will remind them again on Tuesday.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

How come others don't get it?

I would still delete it. Go to the post, click on 'edit', then delete it. Do it to both of them. Let us know if you need more info.

so have other people told yall that they also were getting the ads miguel? and from what you said sounds like i don't need to do anything, right?

sbarr........help me. when you say "go to the post". what i did was click on the link above and then realized i don't know how to delete it. it's not like email where it says the word "delete". i am not computer smart either so you have to go real slow.

Dave also went through this with Google and it stopped for a while.

The box to the left of your post will have the word 'edit'. click it and it will bring you to the post you made. Now you can edit it. Put you curser at the begining of the link's text and hit the delete button on you keyboard until it's all gone. Then resend the post.

well now.........my post. i know about the edit button. are you saying that if i go delete the link from my post that that is how you get if off your computer? so sorry that i am soooooooo stupid.

Mama Jack, Rockgardner is explaining how to delete the link out of your oringinal post above. It has nothing to do with what is on your computer. Hope that helps.

mamajack...

No, but when others click on those links, they may potentially get the same cookie you have placed on their computers. Those links are essentially mini-virusus for people who don't have their computers protected against such. That's what google wants... it's a way for them to make money off the advertisers. It's better to be safe then sorry, so I suggest removing the links. You may continue to get those pop-ups until you clean up your computer.

ok i should remove them to keep others off them. i will.

yeah mama :-P, I clicked on the dang thing and had to run the spyware scan AGAIN and the Avast scan. thanks!

Not mad at ya' , just sayin' ;-)

Barb, if you need help getting the "thing" off your computer, d-mail me. I've been helping my mother lately with the same sort of stuff. It looks innocent, just annoying, and then it takes over.

Oh I clicked on it too. Should I run a scan?

Luckily I can't see the 'ad' you are referring too but I have a pretty good idea which one it is.

For personal protection I suggest, as Joy mentioned, adding Malwarebytes to your arsenal of protection.
It's free and should clear out most problems.
Be aware these are not usually not traditional viruses.
They are Trojans.
Malwarebytes is free but NOT self Updating.
So every few days update and scan.
AVG + Malwarebytes scans should knock everything back to normal.

If you get the dreaded....
“Windows has detected spyware infection!" Pop up do not click anything. Period.
Close Windows or your browser..... scan your computer immediately.
Clear cookies, recent history, temp files.... it can hide deep!
It usually takes two cleanings to drive it out.



This message was edited Jun 1, 2010 8:34 AM

Thanks to all that jumped in and assisted in this... it was a lonely battle for a while as I'm no expert but have had lots of experience (the hard way).

A note to everyone not so familiar with this kind of stuff... it's ok to post about it, but please don't post the links. Thanks.

(now why Miquel made it sound so harmless is another question!)

I may be mistaken, but I do not think something like this is "harmful" as a virus or worm that destroys your files or captures your PC and makes it into a bot. But it is quite annoying and sometimes difficult to remove. Google should not do that without asking first if you would like to receive such links. If I'm incorrect, ignore what I'm saying - I don't want to steer anyone wrong.

You are correct... that's why I called it a "mini-virus". Too many of these can slow your computer down to a snails crawl... among many other inconveniences. There are too many inexperienced computer users on these forums, and can you imagine if you had a dial-up service, as many seem to have.

Ditto to using Malwarebytes, as well as Spybot, and Ad-Aware (from Lavasoft) -- they all seem to catch different things, and all are free.

You've really gotta be careful out there -- I was recently entertaining myself by googling "dave's garden internet brands" and my Norton internet security identified several of the "hits" as having "computer threats." Without that I would have had no way of knowing.

patrob is going to show me how to get rid of them. thanks to all of you for helping.

Sorry, I may have misunderstood.

We've seen 2 different issues across some other sites recently:

1) is a pop-up ad to take a "survey" from safecount.com. We've not allowed them to be running this on any of our sites (we don't like pop-ups) but they've snuck in through an ad network.

2) is an ad or two that tends to be triggering people's spyware software. I'm not absolutely sure it is spyware, but it certainly triggers alerts (these alerts often error on false positives just to be on the safe side). These too have been coming through ad networks running through Google.

When I read the first post I thought it was the #1 scenario, but now that others have chimed in it looks like people also had alerts go off.

Regardless, we're reaching out to both safecount and to Google to get them to block these things.

PLEASE NOTE: If you ever come across an ad that you think is either inappropriate or "dangerous", please just start a thread here and let us know what it is. If you can get the domain name (the www.?????.com) that is best but if not, please just describe it as best you can. You can often get the domain name by hovering your mouse over the ad and looking down in the bottom left of your browser window.

Thanks, Miguel. The best thing to do is not click onto ANY ads...like Miguel says, go to their website if you want to respond to any ads, as sometimes these will take your computer into places you would rather not have it go. Not all of these are ligit as well, and can mess up your computer a lot.

Yah know the old saying..."An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure."

I hope this helps as well.

Actually just want to clarify something.

I never said don't click on ads. In fact, if you find the ad relevant and you want to learn more, do click on it. It will take you to their site in a new window so you will still have DG open. That way we get compensated (it does take money to run this site) and the advertiser knows that their ad is working.

If you ever feel that an ad is dangerous or irrelevant though, please feel free to report them here and we can block them.

Thanks Miguell.

Firefox has many add ons that check site security BEFORE it will allow it to open.
Might be worth a look.

Let's make a distinction between ads that are integrated into a website and unsolicited pop-ups, especially those that prompt you to interact.