This is weird???

When I was using a PC I would get this weird spyware called Drive Cleaner. When I'm browsing through Firefox, i get this random pop up (not in the firefox window) but in a prompt window and the only way to get out of it is to press "OK". And when i do, it takes me to its website (drive cleaner). Here is the weird part I got it on my MAC! But it seems like this should not be happening. There seems to be no way to get rid of it. I have used norton and Macscan. The infection is also making it impossible to Download from websites like firefox. Has anyone heard about this? I am afraid I may just have to reformat.

Mac pro
OSX 4
Firefox

It has also affected safari.

Did you import your Firefox profile from the PC, and from there your bookmarks and cookies to Safari?

Using Firefox, I clicked on a Scroogle-search Drive Cleaner result, and a page appeared that says:

Warning - the site you are about to visit may harm your computer!

You can learn more about malware and how to protect yourself at StopBadware.org.

Suggestions:

* Return to the previous page and pick another result.
* Try another search to find what you're looking for.

Or you can continue to http:/;/www.drivecleaner.com/

advisory provided by Google

So I started SeaMonkey (don't want to risk Firefox, so using SeaMonkey, for what it's worth) and went to the site. I enabled cookies and popups and clicked on everything clickable, including the forums. The cookies that the site set were from driverheaven.net (three of them) and www.drivercleaner.net. All are supposed to expire at the end of the session.

After an hour, no Drive Cleaner popups appeared. I'll keep running SeaMonkey to see what happens.

Drive Cleaner isn't listed at StopBadware.

I used safari once to dl Firefox. I did not use my PC profile, or Bookmarks and cookies to Safari. I was just browsing away and this pop up well popped up. It took me to the drivecleaner site where it made it look like it was scanning my computer and then sujessted I dl there program which is an .exe. I find that it goes away and comes back periodically. Also I can not DL from sites or log into second life since this started.

Thank you for your help,

Nathan

I can't explain your problem. Have you cleared the cache, history, the cookies and the download manager by clearing private data?

I was on the net with SeaMonkey (same browser engine as Firefox) for over an hour after clicking on everything at Drive Cleaner, and no popups appeared.

I also have not had any pop ups. The other symptom i am having is that I can not download files for apple, firefox, or Mactopia. when I click on something to DL it send me to a blank page and never dl's the file. What could be causing this?

What sites can you not download from? What files are you trying to download?

Yeah I'm getting the same thing! It just started today, and it's VERY annoying, but I haven't clicked OK. I clicked "cancel" the first time and it just popped up another message (not a pop-up window but what apeared to be a message from Safari itself) with only an "OK" option. So now I just force-quit Safari every time it happens rather than click on the message at all...but needless to say this is very frustrating!!

Things that I have changed on my machine recently:
Installed a trial version of Alarm Clock Pro (btw don't bother with this app, the trial is too limited to be useful to test if the software is worth paying for or not)

I also regularly use mail.com (this isn't a recent change, have been using for years), and it seems to happen when I am logged into one of my mail.com email accounts - but this may just be coincidence.

Using Macbook, all the latest updates etc installed.

Please help!!! Googling doesn't come up with anything useful at all!!! Who should I speak to at Apple about it??

yea ***, im getting this now too!!!!
How can i reformat my mac?

That's a bit drastic.

Try posting at Apple's own forums - they might have a solution.

If you have a 2nd User Account, try it for a while to see if the problem occurs....if you don't have another acct you can always create one.

Pulse-8 said:

If you have a 2nd User Account, try it for a while to see if the problem occurs....if you don't have another acct you can always create one.

Click to expand...

how do i make a new account?

you said the popup is a command window. Are you sure it isnt a "picture" of the command window? A lot of advertisers use this gimmick and when you click the X is click you into a website. The X you are clicking is in fact the same picture. Look closely and you should see another X (probably smaller) in the pop up. But be careful because i have been noticing that they hide or take away the extra X. if this happens i right click my taskbar and select the IE window that has the advertisement and select close. I think you should be able to do something similiar with the Mac.

Drive Cleaner

Same thing happened to me today, although I was using safari. I was on a link on youtube, and suddenly a prompt window appeared. Pretty sure it wasn't a 'pretend window.' Pressed the 'cancel' macro and got redirected to the drive cleaner webpage, with some sort of 'scanning bar' appearantly searching my system..

Haven't found any sign of any spyware on my HD, but watch out as it seems to attack both firefox and safari.

fiks

Same thing happened to me, first last week. I was using safari. After shutting down I had no problems until about 10 minutes ago, also while looking at videos at YouTube. Something at YouTube seems to trigger this.

TOOK said:

how do i make a new account?

Click to expand...

http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=482338&seqNum=2&rl=1

drive cleaner cont.

Had a look at the cookies list in safari and found several www.drivecleaner.com cookies, one with the path ../root. Anybody know if this is harmful? In any case, perhaps a good idea to remove your cookies, as this might trigger further annoying scripts and pop-up windows from this spyware.

purecharisma said:

When I was using a PC I would get this weird spyware called Drive Cleaner. When I'm browsing through Firefox, i get this random pop up (not in the firefox window) but in a prompt window and the only way to get out of it is to press "OK". And when i do, it takes me to its website (drive cleaner). Here is the weird part I got it on my MAC! But it seems like this should not be happening. There seems to be no way to get rid of it. I have used norton and Macscan. The infection is also making it impossible to Download from websites like firefox. Has anyone heard about this? I am afraid I may just have to reformat.

Mac pro
OSX 4
Firefox

It has also affected safari.

Click to expand...

I also have had this problem with Safari. Reading in one of the other posts about the cookies, I intrepidly removed them. Almost immediately after that, I was told that I must shut down the machine by holding down the power button. After that, I tried to validate the startup disk, but was told that an error occured and that the disk could not be fixed. I fixed the permissions, tried validating from the startup disk, but to no avail. Tried to archieve and install, but no go there either. Am now reformatting the hd and reinstalling. From now on, think I will leave the cookies off until I need them.

Hi Shikieki

Sorry to hear that. Your system crashed from removing cookies? I've never heard that one before! Sounds like a virus.. If you open preferences in safari, then go to the security tab and press the 'show cookies' button, you can remove cookies, but this should be a very harmless operation.

If a prompt window like you mentioned appears, avoid at all costs pressing ok! Better to force quit safari!

Drive cleaner

Hi fiks,

Thanks for the advice. I believe I removed the cookies in the way you suggest. Ordinarily I wouldn't think that deleting some cookies would have such disasterous consequences, but I thought I would pass along what happened to me just in case, given the seemingly insidious nature of the popup.

Thanks. Seems to be a rise in pop up windows and prompts programmed for macs these days. Had another pop up window suddenly appear the other day. Not the same as previously mentioned but similar. No cancel option - just an 'ok' macro. Force-quitted safari and it seemed to do the trick.