Is this a scam?

[neksmerj]

I've noticed recently, that in the text of a post, certain words are highlighted in red, and underlined.

Clicking on the highlighted word takes you to a survey with the promise of free gifts.

This smacks of a scam to me, so didn't take it any further.

Anyone been sucked in?

Ken

[Durdge39]

Never seen it on here. I know on quite a few forums and article-type sites that it's an advertising thing that picks up on certain keywords to do the same thing - but it's mainly just harmless spam in those cases. If you're seeing it on this forum I'd run a virus scan as you may well have a sneaky little bit of adware hiding in your PC.

[Ueee]

Hi ken,
You have probably just installed a program that had installed some extras... Can't think of what it is called but it is a search engine that imbeds itself into your browser. Can't think of what it is called now.

It's called Babylon....

[neksmerj]

Negative on installing any programs recently. AVG scan reports no viruses.

Tis a mystery, who knows what's out there.

Ken

[grunto]

Sounds like some sort of malware that is similar to EZula. Perhaps try Spybot?

[Master Splinter]

It will be a 'browser helper object' or some sort of additional toolbar that has been added to your web browser.

Typically they ride along with some useful (but 'free') package that you have installed; they'll be the tick box in the install with words like "Click to not not install [blah blah blah] which provides you with a better, more relevant web experience" and a choice of three buttons confusingly labelled Install, Ok, I agree.

They may not show up as viruses as technically, they aren't; they are just annoying spam which make me think of the Bill Hicks on Marketing skit.

[Ueee]

What browser do you use?

[SurfinNev]

Heard of this on a couple of forums. My brother gets it on an aquarium forum. We both use Firefox. I have not come across it anywhere yet.

Nev

[China]

Avg misses lots of items I would upgrade to something else

[jhovel]

Free virus checkers on the whole do just that, and generally do ot well - the company's reputation is staked on it.
To have protection against phishing code, worms, keyboard monitors, bots, malicious cookies and other code nasties, you generally have to upgrade to a pro version of some sort for an annual fee.
Unless you are prepared to have serveral free specialised protection programs for the various attack codes running at the same time and regularly update them.

I use the free Windows firewall, Windows defender, avast Anti Virus and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. I've not been caught out for a number of years. Finers crossed....

Joe

[Groggy]

This thread has been moved to the computers forum instead of the metalworking forum. Please save us mods some work by checking for the appropriate forum before posting.

[bsrlee]

The technical term is 'PUP' - Potentially Unwanted Program - and yes, they come as dodgy parts of some 'free' software. It may not even have been a new install, some of them have started being bundled with 'upgrades' to existing packages.

I've found MalWare Bytes to be the best freebie at finding PUP's. I also use Spybot S&D and AdAware when things are slow, plus Microsoft's free anti-virus runs all the time. I find that each of them can find things that the other's can't, and that goes for commercial programs like Norton's as well.