Questions about Mac Viruses

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i think I have downloaded and installed an application that I should not have, and now I have a virus…

When browsing web pages with Safari, I get unwanted, automatically opening new tabs, and/or new windows….

…….also on some websites there are "double underlined" words/phrases, spread throughout the text, that appear in green color font. When I hover my mouse "pointer" on them, miniature pop-up ads "spring up" out of these green "hyperlinks"……

…..Do I have malware or spyware or adware viruses on my Mac?
 

Slydude

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You don't have a virus exactly. I think what you have is a form of reference pop ups. See member chascag's post here for an explanation. The rest of the thread gives some possible fixes.

My post in that thread gives some ideas of how you might have encountered this. Downloaded anything from CNET recently?
 

chscag

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They're all beginning to do the same thing, not just Softonic and Download.com. I noticed even some sites that normally have files for download are including other downloads if you're not careful. I suppose in a way that's how they're paying the bills.
 
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I can't remember where.
I think it was a marketing scam.
I clicked through multiple links when answering some e-mail questionnaire about jobs making money online by doing product surveys, for which they were supposed pay .50, or 1.00, 2.00, 5.00 for 10.00 $$ to fill out surveys ranging 30 sec---30 minute duration --- online questionnaires about products and services
BUT
What they really want me to do was agree to buy products or services.

I signed up to do it and after spending 15 minutes for a ******** survey that I think I was supposed to get something like $5 or so for completing, message said thanks for completing survey, you are almost done, but finally to be paid for survey, first view the following offers and select 2 items (out of about 10) from each of the bronze, silver, and gold levels, some being free except for $5 shipping and handling scam, and some costing between $25 -- $150.
So really they just wanted to sell me stuff
I guess they think they can trap me because I won't want to walk away from their stupid $5 dollar paycheck after I blew away 20 minutes of my life on the original questionnaire, and they hope maybe I would
see something I needed or wanted buy already anyway…..So they tried in this was to sucker me into buying some $50 product and/or signing up a 10 or $20 service with recurring monthly billing, just to get my $5 dollar paycheck, which they probably actually pay would have paid me eventually…...I don't know if this program ever would have paid me for the survey or not…..
I closed all the pages and threw the e-mail in the trash before I completed all their requirements to get paid.
Unfortunately, I was doing this late at night while overtired and fairly drunk.
I became impatient while trying to click through all the requirements as quick as I could to see how long it would actually take to complete 1 survey and the requirements to get paid in order to see if it this would be a realistic way for me to make some extra part-time $$$.
AND being, tired, inebriated, and impatient, I vaguely recall that I VERY STUPIDLY downloaded and installed some sort of application.
I don't remember what application was, or where it came from.
Even I though I quit the survey early before completion, closing all windows and throwing out all related e-mails without opining them, my Mac (13" macbook pro, mfd. OCT 2009, running OS-X 10.7.5) has behaved like it has pop-up and marketing viruses ever since…….
 
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I am rather unskilled at using my Mac, unfortunately. At the risk of sounding stupid, where can I look in my Mac for a list of everything I have downloaded, and how do I click to navigate there?
 
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To do that you may well be up for a format of the hard drive and a clean install. What operating system?
 
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Open Finder (the smileyface in the Dock). Double-click on the Downloads folder.
What's in there?
 
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MacInWin

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Unfortunately, I was doing this late at night while overtired and fairly drunk.
To prevent this (or make it less likely), put a password on your account that is 1) difficult to type and 2) very complex. Then, when you are next "fairly drunk" it will act as a type of inhibitor to keep you away from doing stupid things.
 

pigoo3

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Unfortunately, I was doing this late at night while overtired and fairly drunk.

People underestimate how much trouble they can get themselves into when operating a computer while "fairly drunk"! You can actually get yourself in more trouble (at least financially) than a DUI.

- Nick
 

chscag

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You can actually get yourself in more trouble (at least financially) than a DUI.

LOL, not around here Nick. Good friend of mine told me about the DUI his son received in Fort Worth. Big fine like around $2000.00 and being put on the "assigned risk" insurance pool. That means at least 5 years of increased policy payments. Plus he had to go to counseling for which he had to pay for.

Unfortunately Texas leads the US in DUIs. Seems we have the bulk of the drunks who think they can drive while all sauced up.
 

pigoo3

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LOL, not around here Nick. Good friend of mine told me about the DUI his son received in Fort Worth. Big fine like around $2000.00 and being put on the "assigned risk" insurance pool. That means at least 5 years of increased policy payments. Plus he had to go to counseling for which he had to pay for.

Unfortunately Texas leads the US in DUIs. Seems we have the bulk of the drunks who think they can drive while all sauced up.

A $2000 DUI + 5 years of the max. risk insurance category will certainly add up!:(

I was thinking worse case scenario in my response above. Where some sort of identity theft could occur if someone who's "fairly drunk"…somehow does something "silly" with their password(s).

Just imagine logging into a 401k account or stock portfolio account (TD Ameritrade for example)…and the balance being zero. Yikes!!!

- Nick

p.s. There's also the internet porn "angle" of getting in trouble. Either with the girlfriend or wife…or much worse (illegal porn of some sort)! Hello prison.
 

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