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It's got "affiliate" and "day trading" plus another couple others across it. No, I didn't accept any downloads.
This was the last site I was at when it happened - #2, The Elements of Style at bartleby.com
[google.com...]
A search with this thing takes you here:
ww2.ieplugin.com/q.cgi?q=google%20toolbar
The browser froze up when a popup ad loaded, next thing when a new browser window is opened it's got the other toolbar.
I grabbed a screenshot in Photoshop, includiing the URL of where it goes when I do a search. Where do I send it to report it?
Added:
I went to View > Toolbars and disabled what's there now, called Intelligent Explorer. It's not showing, but the entry is still in the menu and the Google Toolbar is gone altogether.
[webmasterworld.com...]
I guess you will need to remove it via "add/remove programs" and reinstall Tooglebar.
Onya
Woz
[welterweb.com...]
No idea what this is, or how to permanently get rid of it.
maybe in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/software/google/navclient/
or
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/software/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/MenuExt/
not sure if there are other spots but those are the ones I have.
Ho thats new, they used to ignore emails. Let me gess, they tell you to buy addwords to fix your problem? :)
How about running AdAware, the scumware remover - does that help?
Jim
Google needs to do something, because at this point the toolbar is opening the door to people having costly computer problems. How many people will have to pay a tech to reformat their hard drive and reinstall everything? And lose software they paid for if it was downloaded and they don't still have the registration information.
If you track down every part of the toolbar there has to be a piece that is showing the other one.
What it amounts to now is that I have to have to pay a technician to come in and take care of this, and possibly buy a CD-r/w to back up, reformat and buy some new software to replace what gets lost - not cheap. Very expensive deal here, and I can't work without it for a lot of what I do.
This is a parasite that's attaching when the toolbar is present, and Google really needs to do something besides send auto-responder messages. It's apparently the presence of the toolbar that's creating the vulnerability.
Download adware from cnet or tucows and run that, it's free to download. I had a similar problem two weeks ago, everytime I did a Google search it took me to Lycos! Adware fixed it.
The problem is most likely caused by "spyware" that has been loaded on your PC. At sometime you probably clicked on what you thought was the close box for a pop-up ad window and that pop-up tricked you into installing some spyware software that hi-jacks the Google Toolbar. I didn't even notice it happening to me, the install is totally invisible.
These spyware people need legal action taking against them, I know of 4 people who have been caught by the same trick in the last few weeks. One client phoned me and asked why I had turned his web site into a porn site! Sure enough on his PC everytime you typed his url into IE you ended up displaying a porn site instead. Adware fixed that also.
If adware doesn't fix it please be a good net citizen and send adware an email about this thing, then they will build it into their scan so we can all easily combat it in the future. :)
Get Ad-Aware from [lavasoftusa.com...]
It's pretty good at finding and removing spyware, scumware etc.
Does your OS have system restore, would that be of any use?
I had a very similar problem a few weeks ago and I went to the toolbar changes page and checked the box to remove advanced features.. I then went to add remove programs and removed the entire toolbar. went back to google and got a fresh install...seamed to work ok.
Hope you got it fixed.
When I tried to simply remove and re-install the thing ( with advanced features still set) it was back to square one after the re-instal and the blighter was still there.
So this is not a Google Toolbar issue--the scumware can do whatever it wants once someone runs the program somehow.
There's info on pop-ups at the site, maybe it would be a good idea to have a link from somewhere a person who's been infected would likely to be looking for help so they could easily find info on popups and parasite-ware, done subtly so it wouldn't be inadvertantly connected with the toolbar.
In spite of possible excessive crosslinking ;), a few small text links to some Google help areas at the bottom of these pages wouldn't hurt - that's the first place I looked.
[toolbar.google.com...]
Even after uninstalling and going through the whole routine, the toolbar wouldn't install, said it was already present - devastating to a toolbar addict.
To be perfectly honest, an auto-responder message with somewhat helpful information, even links to a few good spots in Google's help pages that are relevant to common problems just as a FYI, would help tremendously rather than just sending a generic that says basically nothing. It wouldn't be bad in terms of appearing to be more service oriented. The response message got me even madder than I was. I know Google's free, but any time a fluff autoresponder message is sent out it's a missed opportunity for building ongoing tighter relationships, as well as slipping in a subtle sales letter.
Interesting that when trying to go to an information page on the Ad-aware site I couldn't get there - that predator hijacked me straightaway to a page on the offending site. Opera saved the day, I downloaded Ad-Aware and that thing is gone, fortunately. There were 47 components found in the Windows Registry, plus a similar number on the C-Drive. I had more garbage in there than the city dump.
Thanks, people. I never gave this too much thought until it hit where really it hurt. I'll go through the suggestions and see what else needs to be done. It seems to be solved now; I was so mad I couldn't think - thanks for all your help and support.
Absolute scum!
After that I started using AdAware by Lavasoft.
The "no pop-ups" page did a lot to educate consumers about scumware. Based on your experience, I'll talk to a few people and see what they think. Things are always busy at Google, but I'm hearing your suggestions loud and clear--thanks for the post.
Does anybody have specifics about some of these programs? Program/company names, worst offenders, good pointers to anti-scumware sites? It looks like and.doxdesk.com/parasite has gone away, which was a fantastic resource site.
it's a missed opportunity for building ongoing tighter relationships, as well as slipping in a subtle sales letter.
Anyway I am glad you got it fixed.
Make sure your firewall is highly rated as some of the wannabe's are so so to no with this kind of alerting.
Run these trojan/scumware killers regularly as a second check sometimes finds ones that are programmed to lay low for a time (or trigger on a special day).
[experts-exchange.com...]
i did a search on "scum toolbar" on google.i guess it is jsut simmilar like yours.
If I went through what some of you explained I would be knocking on the persons door who did the deed.
Is this something due to IE's setup and nature or beyond that
It's a shortcoming in IE and the scripting it supports. If memory serves, IE allows considerably more access to system resources (via ASP scripts I think) than Java does. In a recent post in another thread, an individual posted that he could create a script that could format a user's hard drive.
I continuted using NS4 (Communicator) as my primary browser and personal email app until Opera 6 was released (included a decent email program) simply to avoid these problems. Only use IE to visit trusted sites, never for general surfing, IMHO.
Outlook is program I have always refused to use. I have no recollection about the security issues, I suspect they're similar to IE, but it's the most common target for most email type attacks.
I'm behind a hardware AND a software firewall, and Norton AntiVirus is script blocking and scanning all email, so far it's working pretty well. Paranoid? Maybe, but I prefer to think of it as careful! :)
Ann
edit: ditto on the paranoid!
