Am I being hacked from a popup website saying I need to update my video player?
I was on Fingerhut. com (first time) when a popup that engulfed the whole page said that I needed to upgrade my video player and that it would take less than a minute, 10 seconds actually. It just didn't feel right, so I Googled it and came up that it is a scam, at least I'm pretty sure it's a scam, I moved my mouse over the Install button and the link was helpingtrk.com/base2.php. I Googled that url and came up with what I thought was a a forum page but it was another scam page, the url for that was http://mediaupdate15.com/418888/?v1=1&v2=1&v3=1 AND when I looked into my "history", that link had a greyed out link that was http://za1.zeroredirect1.com/zcvisitor/a7c6b420-12eb-11e5-bbcf-0a936b024545 which shows up in my cookies grayed out.
I NEVER clicked on anything on any of the pages, my question is, just being on those pages, have I gotten my computer infected with a virus???
Chosen solution
If you did not download anything, then most likely you are not infected. But it's worth a check:
(1) Open the Windows Control Panel, Uninstall a Program. After the list loads, click the "Installed on" column heading to group the infections, I mean, additions, by date. This should help uncover any installer/updater that may push other unwanted software. Be suspicious of everything you do not recognize/remember, as malware often uses important or innocent sounding names to discourage you from removing it. Take out as much trash as possible here.
(2) Most likely, this was generated by an ad in the site, but please check for bad add-ons just in case.
Open Firefox's Add-ons page using either:
- Ctrl+Shift+a
- "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons
- in the Windows "Run" dialog, type or paste
firefox.exe "about:addons"
In the left column, click Plugins. Set nonessential and unrecognized plugins to "Never Activate".
In the left column, click Extensions. Then, if in doubt, disable (or Remove, if possible) unrecognized and unwanted extensions.
Often a link will appear above at least one disabled extension to restart Firefox. You can complete your work on the tab and click one of the links as the last step.
(3) Fianlly, you can supplement your regular security software with the scanning/cleaning tools listed in our support article: Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware. These on-demand scanners are free and take considerable time to run. If they finish quickly and especially if they require payment, you may have a serious infection. I suggest the specialized forums listed in the article in that case.
All clean?
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Chosen Solution
If you did not download anything, then most likely you are not infected. But it's worth a check:
(1) Open the Windows Control Panel, Uninstall a Program. After the list loads, click the "Installed on" column heading to group the infections, I mean, additions, by date. This should help uncover any installer/updater that may push other unwanted software. Be suspicious of everything you do not recognize/remember, as malware often uses important or innocent sounding names to discourage you from removing it. Take out as much trash as possible here.
(2) Most likely, this was generated by an ad in the site, but please check for bad add-ons just in case.
Open Firefox's Add-ons page using either:
- Ctrl+Shift+a
- "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons
- in the Windows "Run" dialog, type or paste
firefox.exe "about:addons"
In the left column, click Plugins. Set nonessential and unrecognized plugins to "Never Activate".
In the left column, click Extensions. Then, if in doubt, disable (or Remove, if possible) unrecognized and unwanted extensions.
Often a link will appear above at least one disabled extension to restart Firefox. You can complete your work on the tab and click one of the links as the last step.
(3) Fianlly, you can supplement your regular security software with the scanning/cleaning tools listed in our support article: Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware. These on-demand scanners are free and take considerable time to run. If they finish quickly and especially if they require payment, you may have a serious infection. I suggest the specialized forums listed in the article in that case.
All clean?
By the way, you have a very old Adobe PDF plugin. For security reasons, you may want to disable it or, if you use the Adobe PDF plugin to view PDFs in the browser, update it. The best way to update Adobe Reader 9 is to install a newer version. You can use the following page to select Adobe Reader 10 (also known as Adobe Reader X). If you lie to the site and say you run Windows 7, you can get Adobe Reader 11. I suggest either 10 or 11 instead of the new DC due to the unfamiliar interface, unless you enjoy learning new interfaces...