Pet Talk Issue [Archive]

Karen

08-23-2009, 09:34 PM

We have been having a problem with a few users reporting a virus or malware that was installing itself from a Pet Talk page.

Tonight we shut down Pet Talk to look for anything suspicious, and were unable to find anything in our server's code. We backed up the Pet Talk database and then upgraded to the most recent version of vBulletin, to have all the new security updates.

Paul did not find anything suspicious in the Pet Talk code, however, there might be something suspicious coming from a link, or perhaps even a bad advertisement.

Please let us know if you get any strange pop-ups, especially from anything claiming to be an anti-virus scanner.

If this happens to you, we would like to know what page you were on, and if you know how, please take a screenshot of the Pet Talk Page.

Several people contacted me through Facebook while Pet Talk was down, Glacier said "AVG blocked it" on her machine, so that might be something to consider installing if you are on a PC.

Cinder & Smoke

08-23-2009, 09:43 PM

We have been having a problem with a few users reporting a virus or malware
that was installing itself from a Pet Talk page.

Glacier said "AVG blocked it" on her machine,
so that might be something to consider installing if you are on a PC.

"AVG"

See >>> http://free.avg.com/ (http://free.avg.com/)

kokopup

08-23-2009, 09:47 PM

Seravieve

08-23-2009, 09:49 PM

Well I was going to post and say I hadn't had a problem, but then I got this when I went to the main PT page that shows all the forums...

Here's my screenshot of the blocked site...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v129/Seravieve/sspt.jpg

I have AVG, but its not currently running, so my guess is Firefox caught it.
The web address was http:// library-presents.cn/go.php?id=2006-67&key=0522c7066&p=1 . Looks like PT redirected to that site for some reason.

I've seen a similar ad on other sites.. has a fake pop up window that shows it scanning for viruses.. but its not really your comp scanning, its an image/video/flash whatever... so if you click on it then youre in trouble. Even looks like your My Documents folder.. sneaky sneaky.

Karen

08-23-2009, 09:54 PM

Paul just took out the ad code.

It is very helpful to know it was on the main page, thank you very much.

Seravieve

08-23-2009, 09:56 PM

Anything for my favorite forum! Welcome.

Karen

08-23-2009, 10:01 PM

To clarify, Paul took out the bit of code that puts the ads on the pages. So, in one sense, we hope that was it - because you said it happened to you when you were on the home page, that was what made us suspect that. Everyone, do let us know if it happens to you again, we are trying to track this down. If taking the ad code out stops it, we will have to contact the advertising agency, and inform them of the problem.

Because it seems to happen sporadically, do let us know if it happens to any of you!

Karen

08-23-2009, 10:59 PM

Just bumping this up, so everyone sees it!

blue

08-23-2009, 11:10 PM

Heck I was thinking my IP got banned. Im happy to see that isnt the case.

krazyaboutkatz

08-23-2009, 11:43 PM

Thanks for alerting us. Hopefully you got rid of whatever was causing this. I've had this problem a few times while on Facebook but I knew it was something fake so I quickly closed the link without clicking on it.

Whisk_Luva

08-24-2009, 02:19 AM

Ah, I had that pop-up twice in 2 days.... I thought it was just my pc....

Glad it is (hopefully) fixed now.

Karen

08-24-2009, 02:50 AM

Well, do clear your cache and your cookies, and let us know if it happens again, okay?

Hellow

08-24-2009, 05:28 AM

Funny, I never have gotten anything like anyone was mentioning. Although that would have made for a *hilarious* screenshot.

pomtzu

08-24-2009, 07:04 AM

Yesterday I got this antivirus thing from no where saying i need to scan for malware, etc. i tried closing it without scanning and it scanned anyway saying
I had 110 trojans. This is a new computer so I found that hard to believe. I was unable to get out of whatever this scanner was so I had to stop the process to escape. If I see it again i will notify you. I am running 3 different anti ( you name it ) types of software and this did not come from any of them.:confused:

I have had this exact same thing happen twice in the past few months. I couldn't stop it from running and had to shut down completely and then run a comprehensive scan.
Maybe this is why I'm getting bombarded with Span lately??? :confused:

smokey the elder

08-24-2009, 07:56 AM

That popup appeared on my work computer once; I closed it and informed IT and they ran an extra virus scan on my PC; it was clean.

momoffuzzyfaces

08-24-2009, 08:31 AM

This happened to me yesterday. I was adding pics to my thread about the momma kat's babies. All was fine until I clicked preview post. Then my PT screen went away and a big screen with all sorts of scary things popped up. It said I had 104 worms, 400+ trojans, and tons of virus.

It scared me so bad I was shaking. I called my bro who is a computer whiz. He said it sounded like one of those things that some people put on wanting you to load a program of theirs down and then charge you. (or just want to give you a virus)

He had me turn my computer off. Then run a complete system scan with my anit-virus software when I rebooted. Not a single virus, worm, or trojan or anything else showed up.

I got an email from Slick yesterday saying her computer is infected. I wonder if she's getting this same thing? Should we send her an email and ask? Yes, and I will right now.

Freckles

08-24-2009, 09:49 AM

July 24th I started having problems with "Smart Defender Pro" Took a couple of days before my antivirus software could fix the problem.

August 21st I got the message "Symantecs Service Framework has encountered a problem and needs to close." That resolved in a couple of days.

Yesterday I got MOFF's problem: "Then a big screen with all sorts of scary things popped up. It said I had 104 worms, 400+ trojans, and tons of virus." Fortunately, a restart solved the problem.

I didn't tie any of these to PetTalk, but I'll definitely be alert now.

aTailOf2Kitties

08-24-2009, 10:02 AM

I got some sort of anti-spyware thing a couple days ago too. I just closed out IE and started over.

king2005

08-24-2009, 10:07 AM

This is the same thing that has been happening on FB for the past few months. its a BAD ad!! FB has caught it as I haven't seen it in weeks, but it sure was annoying.

smokey the elder

08-24-2009, 10:35 AM

It sounds like the ad itself is a piece of malware.:mad:

Karen

08-24-2009, 11:13 AM

So has it happened to anyone on Pet Talk today?

Smokey the elder, the problem is that we are not sure which ad, as the agency serves different ones. If it does not happen to anyone over the next day, we will contact the ad agency and have them scour their own ad server ...

Edwina's Secretary

08-24-2009, 11:35 AM

It happened to me yesterday. I opened PT, it shut down and I was told I had all these worms and viruses.

I was suspicious...especially as it said I had worms in Shared Directory - in which I have no files.

So I shut down and rebooted.

I was chatting with Barbara at the time and she suggested shutting down with either Ctrl F4 or Alt F4? I don't remember which.

Pinot's Mom

08-24-2009, 01:19 PM

It happened to me last night. It was a pain in the butt to get off my screen, but I knew what it was - it's basically a scary pop up ad for an anti malware site.

Karen

08-24-2009, 01:34 PM

Was that before or after we shut Pet Talk down?

Edwina's Secretary

08-24-2009, 02:41 PM

For me it was before you shut down and it was on the first page.

pomtzu

08-24-2009, 02:45 PM

It happened to me last night. It was a pain in the butt to get off my screen, but I knew what it was - it's basically a scary pop up ad for an anti malware site.

What had me concerned, is that I couldn't stop it from running and had to completely shut my system down. It made me rather paranoid for a while regarding my bank and credit card info, but nothing has been compromised.

slick

08-24-2009, 03:25 PM

My home PC has become infected with the FAKE Trojan. For the past few days I am getting numerous pop ups asking me to install Windows Malicious Software Tool. It looks real - it is a Security Alert but experience told me "yah, right!". I have been working on my PC for days and I think I may have it cleaned now, but not sure.

I have a palm sized 500GB external hard drive and have been saving all my files, emails, favourites just in case I have to rebuild it at some point.

Alt/F4 is our friend. If any of you get any unusual pop ups, Alt/F4 will get you out if it safely.

BTW, none of my pop ups happened when I was in PT.

momoffuzzyfaces

08-24-2009, 04:20 PM

No problems at all for me today. My problem was before you shut Pet Talk down yesterday. :love:

gini

08-24-2009, 05:19 PM

Just to add my two cents - I had the same attack yesterday morning.
At first it was very frightening - but on a closer look - it just seemed "fake". It said my computer was being attacked right at that moment.
I re-booted and ran a full scan and CA found and quarantined two files.

I had an email from Slick as well, but I didn't want to respond to her in case it was coming from my computer.

All of this was before you shut down, Karen. I was on Pet Talk, but I was all over the forum - so I cannot pinpoint where I was when it started.

I have run several scans since then and nothing has come up and none of my personal files and data are compromised.

I would love to get a hold of the people that originate this stuff and they would need a lot more than Pet Talk prayers. :mad::mad::mad:

kokopup

08-24-2009, 05:35 PM

I had scan program come up again today saying my computer was infected with malware and I needed to scan my computer. It was not an alert from any of my antivirus software.

I stopped the process and then ran CCleaner to find everything that was on my computer. CCleaner found the culprit so I deleted it from my harddrive. I think I got it when running a video from Pet Talk that installed something before showing the video. Normally when I run videos nothing is installed before the video starts.

Killearn Kitties

08-24-2009, 05:40 PM

sasvermont

08-24-2009, 05:52 PM

I have been getting messages about malware as well. That's what the spyware software is suppose to do.
:)

carole

08-24-2009, 06:22 PM

Yes my AVG was picking up a virus too on Pet Talk, it happened to me twice, i was just about to pm Karen when i read this thread, so far nothing else, seems ok now.

Pinot's Mom

08-25-2009, 09:04 AM

Was that before or after we shut Pet Talk down?

Karen - sorry I didn't answer this - I didn't see it until now. I don't know whether it was before or after, because I didn't know you shut down. I was on somewhere around 11-11:30 PM on Sunday.

anna_66

08-25-2009, 09:41 AM

I had it happen a few times in the last week, but nothing so far.

Karen

08-25-2009, 11:09 AM

I am glad to hear it isn't happening to anyone now, do PM me or post if it does!

Taz_Zoee

08-25-2009, 11:30 AM

I'm glad to hear it wasn't my computer. I also called my brother because of strange happenings on my machine. It was Sunday when it happened to me (same thing as kokopup and pomtzu). I thought my computer was going to need a memorial thread.

Thank you Paul and Karen for keeping us safe here in our cyber-world!! :D

Karen

08-25-2009, 02:51 PM

We are trying to keep it safe, and hope everyone will tell us if any malware pops up ever again! We do not not not want people to have to be afraid of coming to Pet Talk!

Russian Blue

08-25-2009, 07:21 PM

Hi,

I dropped by (I think it was on the weekend) and had the same problem. But, as soon as I went to your homepage the 'attack' started.

When I would first come to the homepage, I looked at the bottom left of the screen and there you could see something was downloading (before the pop up actually appeared on the screen). The downloading came from 3 different websites (I'll email the links to you Karen - don't want to give them press).

I knew the pop up was fake but I couldn't close it so I had to shut down. I wanted to contact you, but I couldn't get on the site and didn't remember your email.

Karen

08-25-2009, 07:38 PM

For the future, you can always email at [email protected] - easy enough? ;)

mrspunkysmom

08-25-2009, 08:08 PM

On both Saturday and Sunday (before PT was shut down) I got a message that AVG had blocked malware. This was as soon as I clicked on the Pet Talk button from the Cat of the Day page. I have had no messages come up since you did the work.

I have AVG and it didn't block it for me. However, I only got hit twice. I didn't ahve to shut down the computer but I did have ot close down IE. Or rather the attack shut down Ie when I shut it down.

Karen

08-25-2009, 08:30 PM

Oh, maybe you need an updated version of AVG? Something you might want to check. And you might as well run a scan on your machine, just in case.

We are so sorry this happened to anyone.

blue

08-25-2009, 09:02 PM

I normally only use my Ubuntu box to access PT so that might be why I didnt see anything before the shutdown.

smokey the elder

08-26-2009, 07:15 AM

This is the first known malware attack I've ever heard of from this site. You and Paul have done a great job keeping it safe for many years!:D

RICHARD

08-27-2009, 07:09 PM

I bought my machine in May and went with the Norton AV free trial, when that expired I bought another Norton program and installed that.

Until recently I would try to attach pics to a post and I would get some kind of warning telling me that I could not post them until I clicked on the warning and then I could go back and put them in like always.

Now, I get a nifty window that pops up and I can get the 'quick reply' window for my PMs. At first I thought it was the AV program because on some sites it tells me to either undo my pop up blocker or I could click on the content and see what was going on.:confused:

All the problems seem to have been resolved, but that was really weird and I thought it may have been part of the way I have the AV settings all tightened up. Now I do a weekly defrag and sys scan and everthing seems to work o.k.

Interesting information and I am glad nothing got screwed up on the site.

Hellow

08-27-2009, 08:54 PM

Karen, Paul: I would suggest contacting whatever company provides ads for your website and report this specific ad. This can/is affecting other people.

EDIT: I should clarify "other people" as in other communities encountering the same AD that Pet Talk has.

cassiesmom

08-27-2009, 10:50 PM

I was getting an ad last week Saturday for one of those programs that purports to rid your PC of viruses and adware - the one that resembles Windows dialog boxes. I ran a full scan with Kaspersky - it picked off some junk and now everything seems fine.

mrspunkysmom

08-27-2009, 11:12 PM

Oh, maybe you need an updated version of AVG? Something you might want to check. And you might as well run a scan on your machine, just in case.

We are so sorry this happened to anyone.

Scan is good, but I will check out the updated version. I rather suspect it is because I am running an older Dell laptop that is a few chips short of a motherboard and I suspect is communicating with the Twilight Zone.

I have another laptop and probably should switch over. Hate re-installing software.

slick

08-28-2009, 06:30 PM

Well, I thought I got rid of my FAKE trojan and my computer was working for a day or two, then the pop ups appeared again so I'll have to devote more time on it. Trouble is, I'm busy all weekend long...Ah well. Without it, my house will be cleaner, right Gini??? :p:D
I am running an older Dell laptop that is a few chips short of a motherboard:D:D:D LOLOLOL I work in the IT field and have not heard this one before. I'll be tucking this one away...thanks. That's hilarious!!! :D

gini

08-28-2009, 06:39 PM

[QUOTE=slicklong...Ah well. Without it, my house will be cleaner, right Gini??? :p:D :D:D:D LOLOLOL :D[/QUOTE]

Yeah, when all else fails - we clean! It is downright disgusting.:D

slick

08-28-2009, 06:53 PM

Yeah, when all else fails - we clean! It is downright disgusting.:D Ain't it the truth....but I don't do windows. :D

caseysmom

08-28-2009, 07:01 PM

I got a virus on my pc at home, luckily I have two pc's.

This happened last Sunday night. It is hosed, I let norton expire for two weeks, I purchased norton at costco but hadn't taken the time to install it. My pc is unusable, I can't even install the norton now since it is infected. I am so frustrated with it my husband it dealing with it.

Norton is gone and all the drives are unusable:mad:

Daisy and Delilah

08-29-2009, 04:17 PM

I am just seeing this thread. I had the same thing happen to me about 4 or 5 days ago. I didn't pay too much attention to when it was. I was in a panic because it reminded me of the day my computer actually did have a virus a while back. I finally got my virus scan to work after trying to close the popups down--I thought I would never get out of it. I haven't had a problem since then.

Medusa

09-01-2009, 08:54 PM

Yesterday I got this antivirus thing from no where saying i need to scan for malware, etc. i tried closing it without scanning and it scanned anyway saying
I had 110 trojans. This is a new computer so I found that hard to believe. I was unable to get out of whatever this scanner was so I had to stop the process to escape. If I see it again i will notify you. I am running 3 different anti ( you name it ) types of software and this did not come from any of them.:confused:

I just experienced this myself and couldn't escape it and couldn't stop the popup from saying that I had trojans, etc. I finally had to call my pc guy and it took him over an hour to fix it. I have Trend Micro virus protection and it said that it blocked it but it clearly did not. My pc guy installed a new malware program for me and still this thing keeps popping back up but so far I've been able to click out of it.

ChrisH

09-02-2009, 04:18 AM

Just wondering, to anyone who has one, has this happened to you despite having a pop-up blocker?

Whisk_Luva

09-02-2009, 04:27 AM

Just wondering, to anyone who has one, has this happened to you despite having a pop-up blocker?

Yeah it did.... but luckily it hasn't happened to me since Karen removed the ads.

ChrisH

09-02-2009, 03:17 PM

To anyone who is interested this little piece of software Spyware Blaster (http://download.cnet.com/SpywareBlaster/3000-8022_4-10196637.html?tag=toprated) is a real gem. I had it installed on my old laptop and now have it on this one and I believe it to be a real help in combination with other security, anti-virus etc. It doesn't scan for and clean spyware, it prevents it from being installed in the first place. It's free but you have to update manually, if you pay $10 you get the updates automatically. Check out the link, read the info, watch the video and make your own mind up.