Links redirect to other websites in search results

Probably called links hijacking but here's a new problem!?

[solvethis]

Hi,

There is a similar post in this forum about "Links hijacked in search engines" and I read through the entire thread.

BUT THERE'S A STARTLING DISCOVERY I MADE... READ THE PROBLEM FIRST AND LET ME EXPLAIN THE TWIST...

I'm facing exactly the same problem.

When I search for a phrase (any phrase), the search engine results page appears with a list of links.

When I click on the top few links, I'm taken to a different website other than the link points to.

This doesn't happen every time. Only 2 to 3 times in a browser session per search result.

And, the same URL is NOT hijacked every time. It's quite random.

The website being redirected to is SAME but the page that appears will be different each time.

HERE'S THE REAL PROBLEM...

This happens only when using Internet Explorer. I've Firefox installed and when I run a Google search for the same term using both the browsers, the problem appears ONLY with IE.

Firefox will get me to the correct website everytime.

For example, when I click for a term, the search results page will display several links.

When I click on the first few links, I'm taken to that same site, etc.etc.. That's a long URL and I'm shown a different website, with links to follow.

This happens ONLY for 2-3 times. After that, I'll always get the correct website. Maybe they are using some cookies to maintain a session.

AND THIS HAPPENS ONLY WITH IE.

So, I bet that the problem is NOT related to any DNS faults or other issues. This could be due to some vulnarability with IE.

This could also be due to some unknown Viruses or Adware.

However, I've checked for viruses using NAV and for Adware using Spybot, Adaware and other programs.

None of them detected any virus/adware/malware.

Any suggestions on this?

[edited by: caveman at 3:13 pm (utc) on May 22, 2006]
[edit reason] Removed specifics, per TOS [/edit]

[tedster]

Have you checked this on someone else's computer? That would be one way to differentiate between undetected malware on your machine and some kind of hijacking out there in the wild.

[solvethis]

Hi Tedster,

I've a Home Office network.

I've checked with another computer on the same network. It's working fine.

Further, I'm getting this problem ONLY when using IE on my primary computer. Firefox, with the same google search results, is opening up the correct web sites.

Any suggestions?

[tedster]

Now it sounds more and more like some adware/malware exploit - undetected, yes, but still it's on just one computer. What else could it be? Are the incorrect sites related to the search terms? That would be a give-away.

There are some clickbot worms that make click zombies out of the computers they infect -- and only recently have the major adware protectors learned about those. Your computer may just be an "early adopter" for some new flavor of adware. That would be my guess, given the details you've shared.