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Accidentally clicked on an OkeyShare link

I have a Mac laptop - my computer has Sophos Anti-Virus (9.4.0) and Safari is my internet browser (6.1.6). I believe I'm using OS X Mountain Lion; I may have upgraded to El Capitan and forgot.


About a week ago while looking up images from DeviantART on Google, I noticed links to some website called OkeyShare. This is a false website that pretends to have work and artists from DeviantART and redirects the user elsewhere if clicked on. I researched it a little and found it has caused some confusion amongst DeviantART users. This is one of the journals one user has posted addressing the issue: http://theinfiniteglow.deviantart.com/journal/OkeyShare-What-the-crap-is-this-th ing-562902521. Users there have naturally questioned what their work is apparently doing on an unfamiliar site; some have had experiences clicking on an OkeyShare link that claims to have their work on it and being redirected to places like hidereferrer.net, imageol, a jcpenny coupons ad or site and even po'rn sites. Some speculate it is a 'click-bait' scam and only hope these sites don't transmit malware. Needless to say I set out to avoid OkeyShare.


However, this morning I Googled the title of a specific DeviantART image and accidentally clicked on a link to OkeyShare. I think I managed to click to the previous page before it completely redirected me to wherever it was going and deleted it from my Safari History. However, in Safari Preferences I found cookies from OkeyShare and hidereferrer.net so I removed them. I scanned my Mac with Sophos Anti-Virus and it came back with 'no threats found'.


What I want to ask is if anyone on this community has heard of OkeyShare, hidereferrer.net or imageol, and if they know of any potential dangers. Can anyone also tell me what is 'click-bait'?


Much appreciated,

Posted on Jan 26, 2016 9:49 AM

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Posted on Jan 26, 2016 10:41 AM

If you're concerned that you were infected with malware merely by visiting a website, you don't need to be. That doesn't happen. You should get rid of "Sophos," which is much worse than useless.

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Accidentally clicked on an OkeyShare link

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