What is this?

You can get help here if Freeciv doesn't start on your computer, or if you keep getting fatal errors while playing etc.
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Arbogast
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What is this?

Post by Arbogast »

I have been seen this the last couple days and I noticed that many mess are peppered with it. What gives?
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spam.jpg
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Alien Valkyrie
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Re: What is this?

Post by Alien Valkyrie »

It's an advertisement, nothing Freeciv-related.
~ AVL
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JTN
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Re: What is this?

Post by JTN »

When/where are you seeing this? When visiting forum.freeciv.org? (The stuff in the background of your screenshot looks vaguely like this phpBB forum, but I don't recognise the content.)
There should be no ads served by forum.freeciv.org.
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Arbogast
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Re: What is this?

Post by Arbogast »

Ok! Since my last post, a lot of those spams have disapeared...
But please note, there was one in the banner, in the word 'free!'
Then, I found another one, here it is. It's a meeting site for sex, for the love of Mary!
I'm sending the whole screen this time.

There are more of them, I'm sure, but I didn't feel like checking every post.
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Spam2.jpg
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HanduMan
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Re: What is this?

Post by HanduMan »

I don't think they are coming from this forum. Sorry to say but it seems your computer is being attacked. It has most likely been infected with some malware that loads and displays random ads while you're browsing the net.

Or are you saying it only happens with this forum?
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Arbogast
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Re: What is this?

Post by Arbogast »

Thank you for your pertinent comment HanduMan.
So here is what I did after reading your post and logging out:
* Ran PCCleaner and a lot of stuff got cleaned, but didn't notice any files about the spams.
* Ran ADWcleaner found very little but I supressed those files too.
* Went to other phpBB sites and they are infected too, which answers your question.

Came back here and found less spams but still some, like this one:
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Spam3.jpg
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Alien Valkyrie
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Re: What is this?

Post by Alien Valkyrie »

It seems special keywords(like "free", "your computer" and "money", as I could see in your screenshots) are turned into links that, upon being clicked on, show an advertisement. I have no idea how to fix that though, my guess would be uninstalling your browser and removing all browser data(that will remove bookmarks and login data too, so be warned), then reinstalling the browser again. Though I don't know if that will work, you could ask somewhere else on the internet. What antivirus software do you use?

EDIT: You could also check your browser plugins and addons first and see if there's something that shouldn't be there.
~ AVL
Sarilho1
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Re: What is this?

Post by Sarilho1 »

It also happens with my sister computer, but not in mine, in many sites. It's not forum-related.
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Arbogast
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Re: What is this?

Post by Arbogast »

Well... THIS IS A MALWARE: "globalconsumersurvey" is a hacker's site.
From the amount of spams, there may be others I'm sure.
And to make things clear, I never implied that this spaming comes from the FreeCiv site.

EDIT a few hours later:
* adwcleaner is not enough, I tried 'iSafe' and altough I didn't understand how it works, it worked.

I seem to have cleared all the malwares, thanks for your sugestions you guys&gals!

Edit2 to Caedo: Your sugestion is not bad but a real pain in the... nose.
I loaded different anti-malwares which did the job OK.
I use three anti-viruses -2 of them from USB keys- but they don't catch malwares, even if they are the three top ranked.
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