Celtra.com taken over Safari website

Question

Level 2

216 points

Celtra.com taken over Safari website

I have tried repeatedly to log in to a Safari money portfolio website to change a couple of my entries. I do this on a regular basis for the past two years but from today I can get no further. No sooner do I log in to the site but the page is quickly replaced by a site headed "track.celtra.com" in the address field, on the page of which is an advertisement for a Boots (The UK chemist) spray-can product. This page has nothing else on it...no links to anywhere else, no other products and a pure white background.Every time I press the "back" button to get back to my portfolio, either it doesn't work and I get back to my Homepage (Apple Discussions - naturally!), or I get back to the portfolio site momentarily after which it reverts quickly back to this track.celtra.com site. It is driving me insane.

Disturbingly, I can't successfully sign in to the Apple Discussions pages from Safari now. I enter my Apple id and password but they are not recognised and I get repeatedly cycled back to the log-in page. Consequently, I am typing this question using the Chrome browser which seems unaffected. Can anyone help? Do I have a virus / trojan infection?

Posted on Dec 7, 2016 8:52 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Kurt Lang

Level 9

68,394 points

Dec 7, 2016 10:38 AM in response to Ken W

Okay, that was just the easiest place to manually check.

Download and run MalwareBytes for Mac. It is written and maintained by forum member Thomas Reed. It's main purpose is to look for adware and items like this.

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Answer 2

Kurt Lang

Level 9

68,394 points

Dec 7, 2016 11:54 AM in response to Ken W

Not sure what keeps filling in track.celtra.com, but if I open a new tab and put that in, I also get a blank page, other than this text at the top left:

Not found: /

Which is a rather literal message. celtra.com has no subfolder named named track.

Another simple possible fix is to reset Safari. With Safari as the foreground app, click its name at the top left and choose Clear History.

This will reset just about everything in Safari to the defaults. Sites you've previously visited that have a login may not remember you, so you'll have to enter your login credentials again.

This all assumes Safari itself is the issue. What portfolio site is this? Can you post just the general site users would go to? I'd like to see if it does the same thing here. If it does, that would suggest something is wrong with the site.

Also, does Chrome do the same thing if you try to access your money portfolio through it?

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Answer 3

Kurt Lang

Level 9

68,394 points

Dec 7, 2016 9:09 AM in response to Ken W

You have something that is redirecting Safari. Most likely an extension. Open Safari's preferences and click on the Extensions tab. Disable all of them by turning off the check box by each one. If the issue is gone, one of the extensions is causing it. Turn them on one at a time and test. When you find the item causing the redirects, disable it again and delete it.

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Answer 4

Ken W Author

Level 2

216 points

Dec 7, 2016 10:41 AM in response to Kurt Lang

Thanks. Malwarebytes for Mac found no problems and suggests the problem may lie within the website being visited. The problem is still there and I have emailed the editor of the site to see if anything can be suggested.

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Answer 5

Ken W Author

Level 2

216 points

Dec 8, 2016 1:41 AM in response to Kurt Lang

Thanks for sticking with me. The problem is now resolved by the website editor. He sent me the following email:-

"Hi, thanks for getting in touch.

We’ve not been hacked.

There was some new code released to the site that conflicted with some of the older code.

The resulting technical confusion means an ad is being pulled in from the home page.

It should be fixed in the morning.

Sorry about that and thanks for your patience."

This outcome was a direct result of instructions given on the Malwarebytes information page, which suggested that one should write to the website editor of the affected page. In other words, if you hadn't suggested I try Malwarebytes for Mac, I wouldn't have got my solution so quickly.

Sorry about the small font size...something to do with copy and paste. I can't seem to change my "Helpful" rating to "Solved", but I thank you again for leading me to the solution of the problem.

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Answer 6

Ken W Author

Level 2

216 points

Dec 7, 2016 9:49 AM in response to Kurt Lang

Thanks for trying to help, but I have no Safari extensions at all. Also, I am having to type this reply on the Chrome browser because your answer in the Safari browser has no "Reply" button.

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Answer 7

Kurt Lang

Level 9

68,394 points

Dec 8, 2016 6:24 AM in response to Ken W

Excellent. Just happened to get a nudge in a direction that would help. 🙂

At least we now know where the problem was. Thanks for the update.

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