I was on FaceBook yesterday when all of a sudden the page changed and it was wanting me to sign up for a Singles group on FB. I got out of it and then it flew me to a new page that had Japanese writing, at least I think so. I got out of there in a hurry. I then ran my full Norton scan and full Malware scan and they say all is well. But today it is again taking me from non FB pages, even from GB pages, to those weird apps sites again. I am pretty worried that this may be bigger than I am qualified for. Any ideas, please???

Adding something:This is only happening in Fire Fox not IE. The former is my primary browser.

Try clearing out the history in your Firefox browser. It sounds like you have a browser hijacker. Did you run Malwarebytes? You said Malware, but I'm not sure what that is.

Yes, I meant Malwarebytes. Sorry, this has me rather frazzled. I just got rid of History for the last month. I'll be back if this doesn't help. Thank you so much, I appreciate your sharing your knowledge.

If it continues happening and your Norton and Malwarebytes are not picking it up, you may have to use Hijack This and post logs to a website like bleepingcomputer.com or smartestcomputing.com.

Do you have the latest Firefox? Mine is version 9.0.1.

Folks - you may want to look at SuperAntiSpyware - it's free and there is a portable version you can load on a USB drive - this comes in very handy if the spyware on your PC won't let you install any programs that get rid of spyware !! Yes - They do do that among other nasty stuff.

Anyway - I use it a lot and it saved many a PC from being rebuilt from ground up.

Caution - you should not have multiple programs on your PC doing the same function like spyware - virus removers. Either disable all but the one you want or just pick the best of the lot that you like and use that one.

Give it a shot - always works for me and we do a lot of PC's especially if you have been on Facebook when you got 'hit'

OK, my FireFox is 9.0.1 . I downloaded Spybot Search and Destroy and it found two tracking cookies on IE. Upon using Fire Fox to tell you, it immediately took me to another unwanted site first. Soo, I will now try Hijack This and follow your instructions. Thank you so much Drac. You too sureshot. I will do as you suggested also if necessary and put it on a flashdrive. Great idea. I have another pc to do this on if need be. Will let you know. Thank you so much.

Later: Have done as you suggested and now have to wait for up to five days for answers on the log I posted. Thank you so much again.

Just because you got switched on Facebook to a singles site does not mean you have malware on your computer. It is quite possible the site was hacked.

In any case, Firefox should have the ability to block unrequested popup windows. You just need to adjust the Firefox preferences.

Sureshot, I've been recommending SuperAntiSpyware after you mentioned it some time ago. It's great!

Lotus, definitely try SuperAntiSpyware first.. It's a great program.

Robert, she's also getting redirected from other sites including Gameboomers. Lotus, don't panic and don't do anything until you go to one of those websites and follow their instructions to a "T." Which one said you had to wait 5 days? Don't run a Hijack This scan or anything until you do everything they say... For instance, this is what they need you to do at SmartestComputing... SmartestComputing

BleepingComputer may have a different protocol.

And this question is just one of curiosity... What were you doing on Facebook when this started? I'm finding some of these infections are coming in through their game apps.

Oh dear, I already sent the scanned log from Highjackthis to Bleepingcomputer. They're the ones who said response time can be up to five days but after all they do this for free. I don't do apps per se. I see that a cause I joined is considered an app although I have it set to https as I do not play any kind of game there. I have been tempted but it is too scary to me. I was going from my Timeline to home page and a box flipped up asking me if I wanted to download an HD Youtube player. I opened another page and Googled the player and it looked legit so I did and that is exactly when the trouble began. It has taken me away from this page twice while I am typing this. I did run the SuperAntiSpyware and it found 146 tracking cookies and nothing else. I am wondering if I uninstall and reinstall FireFox if that could help???

When you say you "got out of it," how did you do that? On some malware popups the X in the corner doesn't close the window -- it installs the malware instead. It's safer to use Alt-F4 or Task Manager to close your browser.


There is plenty of malware out there that disables antivirus so it can't find infections -- or at least that specific malware infection.


No big deal. They'd probably ask for it anyway.


That depends on how insidious the malware is. If you uninstall Firefox and then go back and delete the Firefox folder, then clean the registry, you might get rid of it. There are instructions on completely uninstalling Firefox from Windows ***here***.

I know both of them have "read me first" posts in their forums. But if they need something else from you, they will let you know. It's just that they deal with so much of this stuff, they usually ask for people to follow specific protocol to make everyone's life easier. I think Broni on SmartestComputing is a little faster, but they are a much smaller forum than BleepingComputer. Both are excellent though.

I saw several items out there that say simply uninstalling Firefox didn't work. So, I would follow Jenny's suggestion for a complete uninstallation.

Who knows what triggered it, but it must have been something on Facebook. I avoid the game apps and anything that says they will use my information like the plague.

Facebook may have had an infected advertisement with malicious scripting. That's not an uncommon avenue of infection.

Because it's only happening in Fire Fox, check your Add-ons, Extensions and Plug-ins for anything suspicious.

Click the Fire Fox tab on the top left of the browser and select Add-Ons, you'll see the items in the list.

Ramnit Worm Threatens Facebook Users

http://www.govinfosecurity.com/articles.php?art_id=4403

I had this problem a few months back and tried the programs mentioned, they are good programs, but the one that worked for me was Kaspersky TDSS Killer. I have IE on Windows Vista 32 bit.

New Facebook Phishing Attack Steals Accounts, Financial Information

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2398922,00.asp

I didn't go through anything as mentioned above but thanks you for the info. I followed all the steps, Drac and it is still there. i will now see about Kaspersky. I am definitely upset.

What steps are you following, Lotus? If you're working with someone at bleepingcomputer.com, they will walk you through everything you need to do. Have you started working with someone?

Donald,
That kind of infection is unlikely to produce symptoms. The people stealing your information don't want you to have any idea you're infected.

If you're trying to say people shouldn't visit Facebook because of its various security and privacy problems, I agree.

Nobody has contacted me at all from there. You guys are the only help I have gotten. I got rid of the Firefox as per instructions and all the related files, ran Ccleaner etc. and reinstalled it and same problem. Tried a recovery, everything was crazy, didn't recognize the network, couldn't get online, couldn't type, so I rebooted and it is now working. Logged onto GB and it wouldn't let me stay logged in so I could type, tried several times and now that works. Now it won't let me uninstall Firefox. I got a message that Firefox had crashed. I don't know what to do .
I am thinking , with my considerable lack of knowledge, I will have to have pc reformattd. Not very happy today. Thank you for all of your help anyway. You guys are the best! Jenny, I am beginning to believe that FB isn't worth it. I have made some great friends there and can keep in touch eleswhere. I will miss the every day chatter but am seriously reconsidering going there again. Still, it was My fault for mindlessly clicking on a suspect link....???

It sounds like you may have something worse than a browser hijacker.

Don't blame yourself for clicking on a link at Facebook. Facebook is terribly sloppy about what they allow.

If you want to continue going to FaceBook, you might consider something like using a browser inside a Virtual Machine. That way if the browser inside the Virtual Machine gets infected, it won't take down your whole computer -- and the infected Virtual Machine is easily replaced with a backup.

As Jenny said, don't blame yourself. Facebook is a wonderful tool, but a place to be very, very careful for exactly the reason Jenny says - they are very sloppy about their security.

I use it, but very sparingly. One thing you might consider is making sure you are running it in https which adds a layer of security. It's in your account security options. Don't know if that would have helped you or not.

I would be patient and let the folks from bleepingcomputer help you out. If they don't respond soon, then you might consider going over to SmartestComputing and checking out Broni's procedures and start a post there. He has gotten me out of several pickles. Just make sure you only follow instructions at one place, not both of them.