Takeover by male enhancement product ads....HELP!

Yeah, I have the exact same problem, I noticed it first on BBC.com, which i don't think even has actual advertisements, and now the same ads on Yahoo, IGN, and several others. I've scanned my MacBook using several programmes, but can find nothing out of the ordinary??

Someone help!!??

There is no infection, so it's useless to start thinking that way. You cannot download a new copy of Safari, so if you try, you'll be sorry. Instead, try disabling JavaScript and Plugins in Safari preferences, and disable JavaScript and enable Block Pop-Up windows on Firefox.

If you're being redirected to a different site than what you expect or typed in your address bar, that would indicate either a Trojan Horse or something your ISP is doing. But if you're just getting a pop-up ad from a site, disabling JavaScript and Plugins should stop those; but you should also send an email to the webmaster of those sites telling them about these pop-up ads, since it's much more likely that their web server has been infiltrated for that purpose.

Mulder

Unfortunately a lot of things you like in a web page.

Javascript runs much of the navigation and interactivity. Without it your web browsing will be both duller and more difficult.

I know that Ad-Aware removes the malware that causes this browser hijacking from PCs. I am guessing that iAntiVirus will do the same but my MBP is clean so cannot test


http://www.download.com/iAntiVirus-Free-Edition/3000-2228_4-10854561.html?tag=mn col&cdlPid=10854573

There are no viruses for Mac OS X, so purchasing or using Antivirus software will accomplish nothing other than wasting time and money. You cannot defend against or remove something that doesn't exist for the Mac.

As I stated earlier, if you see pop-up ads from sites you visit, you should advise the site administrators, since there are very few that actually allow those types of ads, so either one of their advertisers is doing something they shouldn't be, or their web server has been infiltrated to serve up those types of ads.

Mulder

The only way for the problem to be something on your computer is for you to have downloaded it and installed it, which requires Admin authorization. If you didn't download or install anything that might be suspicious, then we know it's not that. But the fact that it doesn't happen using the AOL browser would seem to eliminate malware from the equation.

You should enable pop-up blocking in both Safari and Firefox if you haven't already; this will stop most pop-up ads and other windows.

Mulder

I just noticed it today. Chicago Tribune, Notebookreview.com, and many others. All of them are from Vimax with the same ridiculous ads about enhancement and enlargement. Surely there must be a market opportunity for someone to come up with a product that will block this.

I just solved my own problem. I installed an add-on for Firefox called Adblock Plus. Works automatically and blocks all of the garbage. Perfect.

I'm so glad I am not alone and this issue is happening in real time to others. I started seeing these Vimax ads on IGN and Globe and Mail just yesterday. It appears the other sites listed below have similar ways of displaying banners...which makes me think they are being hosted by the same company. So this suggests its a server-side issue.
However I am having other issues (I use Vista and Firefox). If i type a search in Google (using the search field at the top of FireFox) that contains .com, i get a looping search error.
May I ask those seeing these Vimax banners try typing "ask.com" and see if it goes to the correct site, or if you see these looping search error. Because this tells me the problem could actually be Malware on my computer...
I have run serveral virus scans, it found 2 viruses and both were removed, now all scans are clean.
Perhaps this issue is so new that it has not hit the Virus Scanning companies yet...
Hopefully its fixed soon!

Adblock Plus is an add-on for Firefox only, which you can install from here while in Firefox: Adblock Plus.

For Safari, you can download PithHelmet, which is shareware, not freeware. Be sure to get the right version for your OS and version of Safari.

Mulder