surveys?

[muddled]

Every time I try to read a post this evening, a new page opens on top asking me to fill in a grow your own survey for some enormous (and therefore unlikely) reward.

The first seemed okay, do I enjoy the website? do I think GYO is good value. I only got suspicious when it offered me a weird reward...pick one of these in so many minutes....and none had anyhing to do with gardening! One was face cream "worth £169.00. Hmmm....

So I try another post, again another page pops up, apparently from the GYO marketing team, this time the promised reward is £1,000.00 (I just closed it) is anyone else getting this nonsense?

Three more have opened while I type this

I'm on firefox and have adblock plus.

[Bohobumble]

I'm not, and I have read a lot of posts this evening. Suspect it is something your computer related rather than GYO related.

[Guest]

I'm on firefox and have adblock and I am fine. Don't know what to suggest

[veggiechicken]

I'm on Chrome with Adblock - no surveys.
Can you take a screenshot, Muddled?

[Damian Jay]

This is going to sound really dodgy, bear with it tho. And just for the record I'm NOT implying Muddled has done any of this. From fixing friends computes & laptops this has been the most common reason for unwanted popups.

If you have been browsing or downloading any gambling sites or adult xxx sites and have signed up (or even started to sign up and then aborted) to newsletters or pay per view channels, this can bypass any security or ad blocks, as in the signing up / download process you're effectively giving your consent to allow this traffic through.

Another common reason is fake websites. For example you have an interest in a celebrity, you do a Google search and select form the results. You then get sent to a totally irrelevant site that has nothing to do with your original search. This will then start sending you 'junk' popups as well.

Again, I'm not suggesting for one second this is the reason Muddled has these pop ups. It's just my experience when cleaning / repairing friends computers.

[Damian Jay]

Meant to have added that Muddled should check your internet security settings both on your windows settings AND any anti virus software your running.

I would also suggest that you run your anti virus / malware software to be on the safe side.

Spybot is a great little program that will run alongside your existing software, and it has a free version. You just need to update it and run the program manually if you use the free version.

Spybot available here: Spybot ©

Disclaimer - I do not work for or have any reason to suggest Spybot other than I use it at home myself. Also any settings you change on your computer settings are done wholly by yourself. I am not responsible if you screw anything up on your computer :-)

[muddled]

Aaah!
Being a suspicious sort, I clicked the dropdown arrow thingy in the address bar.
My 12 year old daughter while 'researching my R.E homework Mum' has searched for 'minecraft free download'

Upon interrogation (through clenched teeth and with threats of permanent grounding, computer ban, pocket money suspension etc) she confessed to trying to get the game on my laptop.
I have now found and uninstalled no less than NINE weird apps/programmes that sneaked in.

Only one stubbornly remains.
Called 'clear-pro' when I click uninstall a dialogue box comes up asking if I want to allow clear-pro to to update or something. Not sure what to do with this one.

Her stricken face, welling with tears....she's on a computer ban for a few days because the internet's dangerous if you are lying to your mum.....but I'm very relieved it wasn't hubby looking at somat dodgy so I let the other threads slide

Thank you Damian Jay, I have typed this without a single pop up!

[Bigmallly]

I'd play safe and do a System Restore to an earlier date.

[Damian Jay]

Your welcome Muddled.

If you have problems removing a program this will usually sort it out.
Shut down your computer, leave for about 30 seconds to 1 minute and then restart in safe mode.
You can then go to control panel and un-install the program.

To get to safe mode: (sorry if you already know how to do this)
If your computer has a single operating system installed, press and hold the F8 key as your computer restarts.
You need to press F8 before the Windows logo appears. If the Windows logo appears, you'll need to try again by waiting until the Windows logon prompt appears, and then shutting down and restarting your computer.

When your computer is in safe mode, you'll see the words Safe Mode in the corners of your monitor. To exit safe mode, restart your computer and let Windows start normally.

Hopefully this will remove the program from your computer.

[Damian Jay]

I'd play safe and do a System Restore to an earlier date.

Also a great idea :-)

[arpoet]

I have 10bit unistaller and check it daily to make sure no malware or ad ware has sneeked on. If it has its sismple to to uninstall.
Also, last weekend my grandson clicked some game and got a virus that shut down Internet explorer, amongst onther things.
Using Firefox i got onto Microsoft and saw that many others had the same problem. it was recomemnded to run Malwarebytes and that sorted the problem. Malwarebytes and 10bit both offer free versions.. and they work.