What do I get "phishing" pop-up screens on a brand new install of Firefox?
Something has infected my Firefox and I can't get rid of it. About a week or so ago, I started getting pop-up ads every time I go to a link in Firefox. I looked on the help blog and it said to do a "Restore to original settings". That didn't do any good. I still got the popups.
So I removed Firefox completely from my computer and rebooted it. I just reinstalled Firefox and almost instantly, on the very first link I got a pop-up screen telling me that I need to do a "Windows Player Update. - Recommended Player Update - Important!" and it wants me to click on an install button. It looks like some phishing site to me.
It won't be so bad, except it happens all the time. Since it's a pop-up, half the time, I can't see my screen.
This is only happening on Firefox. IE is unaffected.
Wšě wotmołwy (4)
Hello,
Certain Firefox problems can be solved by performing a Clean reinstall. This means you remove Firefox program files and then reinstall Firefox. Please follow these steps:
Note: You might want to print these steps or view them in another browser.
- Download the latest Desktop version of Firefox from http://www.mozilla.org and save the setup file to your computer.
- After the download finishes, close all Firefox windows (click Exit from the Firefox or File menu).
- Delete the Firefox installation folder, which is located in one of these locations, by default:
- Windows:
- C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
- C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox
- Mac: Delete Firefox from the Applications folder.
- Linux: If you installed Firefox with the distro-based package manager, you should use the same way to uninstall it - see Install Firefox on Linux. If you downloaded and installed the binary package from the Firefox download page, simply remove the folder firefox in your home directory.
- Windows:
- Now, go ahead and reinstall Firefox:
- Double-click the downloaded installation file and go through the steps of the installation wizard.
- Once the wizard is finished, choose to directly open Firefox after clicking the Finish button.
Please report back to see if this helped you!
Thank you.
Please ignore the previous response since you are saying that this is a clean reinstall.
Sometimes a problem with Firefox may be a result of malware installed on your computer, that you may not be aware of.
You can try these free programs to scan for malware, which work with your existing antivirus software:
- Microsoft Safety Scanner
- MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware
- TDSSKiller - AntiRootkit Utility
- Hitman Pro
- ESET Online Scanner
Microsoft Security Essentials is a good permanent antivirus for Windows 7/Vista/XP if you don't already have one.
Further information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.
Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!
Any idea how you picked up the weDownload Manager Pro extension? Hopefully the general malware cleanup will remove it. If not, you can try to disable or remove it on the Add-ons page. Either:
- Ctrl+Shift+a
- orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons
In the left column, click Extensions.
I have been facing this 'phishing pop up' issue for a few weeks. Scans with most of the anti malware software listed in earlier posts aboce did nothing. In addition scans with Spybot Search & Destroy and trial versions of Bit Defender and Kapersky 2014 did not help. The issue seemed to start after I was asked to complete an online survey for my ISP but they were not the source of the survey. I suspect a link into my computer was created when the survey was 'submitted. It may have originated even earlier with installation of a stand alone video player for a free online TV streaming service. A complete uninstall of Firefox including history cookies bookmarks and the program installation folder followed by registry cleaning and a new download and installation of Firefox is working so far.