My mac keeps automatically downloading weird files

A number of senseless answers here.

Try this first:

Quit all browsers.

Open Safari while holding the Shift key ,

then from the Safari menu, choose "Clear History...", then select Clear all history and website data.

Do the same with Firefox if you have that.

Stop using Chrome at all.

I'm having this problem too, but it's with Facebook! Every single emoji and pictures of people whose posts I've liked or when I visit there walls ends up on my computer. I have noticed this before but didn't think much of it until I started to delete them, but there's so many and I can only delete 3 at a time. I'm in "All My Files" I don't know where else to find them, but they must be taking up a stack of storage space. Does anyone know an easier way to delete and to stop them downloading?

Probably malware. You should have your Mac scanned. SOON.

Just wondering did your computer keep downloading those ads?

Because mine is doing that too and I'm not sure what to do...

Did you get your computer scanned?

Thanks

Mine has been doing this for the last couple of days as well - seems to be something new. I'm running MacScan at the moment? Is there anything else I should be scanning with?

Thanks

Used MacScan - it deleted a bunch of stuff, but the ad .html files are still downloading automatically

Don't use Safari, use Firefox instead.

Firefox doesn't allow drive by downloads like Safari does.

Didn't Apple fix the drive-by download problem back in version 5.0.2?

Apple plugs drive-by download flaws in Safari browser | ZDNet

This is probably NOT malware... it would be pretty lame malware!

Have you tried quitting every web browser you have running? Most likely you've just got some page open that has a very badly screwed-up script that's trying to load advertisements on some kind of cycling banner, but is causing the HTML files to be sent to your downloads folder instead of being properly handled.

Yup, quit all and rebooted. It is still doing it. Was on a friends Mac yesterday and theirs is doing it as well. Must be spreading quickly whatever it is. Anyone else have any ideas?

And are you always visiting the same site when this happens? Are the files always .html files? Where do the files come from? (Select one, choose File -> Get Info and see the Where From information.) More details would be required if you want an answer.

Mine has been doing this for the past week too. I've tried deleting all the files that download but they come back 1 minute later. I've also tried deleting all my downloads from the past 2 months and have wiped all cookies, but they are still downloading. I usually use safari but tried switching to firefox and that hasn't made a difference either. On average I'd say I get about 20-30 of those .html files downloading randomly per day. I did the get info as you suggested Thomas and it has come from:

http://served.antventure.com/creatives/answer3/entertainment/72890ad.html, http://ad.yieldmanager.com/iframe3? (followed by a whole lot of info, mostly letters and numbers)

My email was hacked into last night and spam was sent out to all of my contacts, would this be related? Is it a virus? How can I fix it?

Both of those sites are on a list of known malware distributors. They are extremely untrustworthy sites. However, that does not necessarily mean that there is malware involved.

Do these files continue to appear when you don't have any web browser open? If yes, there's some other software downloading them, which could be (but is not necessarily) malware.

If no, do those files start appearing as soon as you open a web browser? Or do they only start appearing after you have visited a particular site?

Also, note that your e-mail account could be hacked without malware being involved. That often happens with accounts on popular servers (Yahoo, Hotmail, GMail, etc) when you have a very weak account password.

To rule out malware in all these cases, just download a copy of ClamXav and run a scan of your entire hard drive. (Note that ClamXav is the only AV software I recommend on a Mac.) For more information about Mac malware, see my Mac Virus Guide*.

* Disclaimer: links to my pages may give me compensation, and should not be taken as endorsement of my services by Apple.

Sorry to say that I've just joined this club .. after years of smiling smugly at the virus/ malware experience of PC users! So much for progress .. but not bad for humility. I switched from Safari to Firefox and so far all is quiet on the download front. Any suggestions for a safe/ effective AV scanner for an older iMac .. G4 .. 10.4.11?