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CruiseCritic has adware

steve20832

By steve20832,
in Royal Caribbean International

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Homebody

Homebody

Posted
Posted

That's odd. My McAfee has never picked up anything. I am super cautious about spyware/adware. I run Ad-Aware, Spybot, and Microsoft Anti Spyware (Beta) in addition to McAfee and nothing related to CC has ever come up. I swear I must be the most spyware/adware paraniod person out there! :p

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deb154

deb154

Posted
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This has happened several times going to http://boards.cruisecritic.com but no other website shows adware warning from McAfee. That was at my work computer. I'm home now using Norton and Ad-aware and nothing warns me.

I'm using McAfee as well and the same thing has happened, so you are correct. I remove the adware, but it is getting a little annoying. This has only happened within the past few weeks and today was the second time.

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PelicanBill

PelicanBill

Posted
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I don't think Cruise Critic uses any services to serve its ads.. I studied the html code.

 

So what is likely happening is this:

 

Your PC became infected with the some other adware which uses Chitika's contextual ad serving software. When it detects that you browsed to a cruise web site it tries to activate to show you other cruise related ads. McAfee detects it.

 

What exactly does McAfee say is happening? That adware is running off the web page? That adware is running? That adware is running on your PC?

 

Try a standalone full system scan. Does it find Chitika that way?

 

I think we'd have lots more reports of problems on Cruise Critic if they were using Chitika.

 

And yes, using Firefox prevents most things from installing on your PC without your knowledge and prevents more popups and bad behaviors... but you can't use some web site unless you switch to IE. I use Firefox until I hit a site that does not work, and switch to IE only if I trust the site. The main reason Firefox is more effective is that no ActiveX controls will run... and that is how a lot of spyware installs. The other way the spyware and adware installs is when you install something and click "accept" to the license agreement you did not read... you just gave

permission to install whatever they wanted to install. Including their "partner" applications that collect data and serve ads.

 

Running anti-spyware software is as important as running antivirus. The good news is the bigger antivirus vendors are updating their programs to include a lot of spyware detection and removal... but you need to pay for an upgrade, not just a signature renewal.

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PTarbay

PTarbay

Posted
Posted

Pelican Bill is right.The spyware is not necessarily coming from the site you are on.There is some spyware that is hidden and doesn't necessarily show up on a scan with a lot of the programs.Keywords trigger them.There was a thread on this a couple days ago.The moderator assured us that cruise critic does not use spyware or adware.It's good to have more than one program for spyware.

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shmthaus

shmthaus

Posted
Posted

I have done extensive research on malware (spyware and adware) and believe me, CC doesn't have adware attached to it. To contract a malware, you have to click on one of the popups which has an ActiveX control attached to it. The only way that the activeX installs is by clicking on the popup. On some of them, if you click on the exit or close button, the activeX will still install by what is called a drive-by download. To prevent these from installing, go to the taskbar to the window link, right click and close.

 

Some search toolbar assistants are actually malwares in disguise. If you have a search toolbar, uninstall it and see if you get and detections.

 

As one of the previous posters stated, those that are having detections probably have another malware installed and is triggering the detection when going to a cruise website.

 

I use Norton Security and Microsoft Antispyware (Beta) on all 3 pc's at home and McAfee and Microsoft at work and have never had a detection going to CC.

 

Go to http://www.spywareguide.com and you will see over 1,600 different variations of malware. I could not find Chitika but will do more research. There is a link to a registry hack to help prevent ActiveX drive-bys.

 

Chuck

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steve20832

steve20832

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Posted
I have done extensive research on malware (spyware and adware) and believe me, CC doesn't have adware attached to it. To contract a malware, you have to click on one of the popups which has an ActiveX control attached to it. The only way that the activeX installs is by clicking on the popup. On some of them, if you click on the exit or close button, the activeX will still install by what is called a drive-by download. To prevent these from installing, go to the taskbar to the window link, right click and close.

 

Some search toolbar assistants are actually malwares in disguise. If you have a search toolbar, uninstall it and see if you get and detections.

 

As one of the previous posters stated, those that are having detections probably have another malware installed and is triggering the detection when going to a cruise website.

 

I use Norton Security and Microsoft Antispyware (Beta) on all 3 pc's at home and McAfee and Microsoft at work and have never had a detection going to CC.

 

Go to www.spywareguide.com and you will see over 1,600 different variations of malware. I could not find Chitika but will do more research. There is a link to a registry hack to help prevent ActiveX drive-bys.

 

Chuck

 

I have searched the internet for "Adware-Chitika" and "Chitika" and found nothing useful. If you find out what it is, please let me know. Of course, nothing on McAfee website even though they detect it and give it a name. :mad:

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ajpack

ajpack

Posted
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I got 3 warnings from McAfee tonight while on this site.... doing a virus scan right now. We have a spyware program and "supposedly" it is supposed to help. I don't know how much good it actually does.

 

I too don't understand it all!:confused:

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PTarbay

PTarbay

Posted
Posted

There are also some free programs you download from the internet that carry popups and spyware.You agree to it in the fine print before you download them.I use Gator and I know I will get occasional pop ups.I use the program alot so I don't mind.

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CarolinaInMyMind

CarolinaInMyMind

Posted
Posted

Same here. Had no problems until tonight and every other website is fine. Go to CC and I get the PUP warning from McAfee. Try to remove it and it's unremovable. After doing mucho research and finding nothing re: this particular file, I clicked "trust this program" and so far, no more problems. Of course, I've scanned the entire system and nothing shows up.

 

Don't know what else to do. Strange that it only happened to all of us today and yet, there's nothing on CC to cause this??? Hopefully, whatever it is, is harmless and we're all fine.

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CoronaCpl

CoronaCpl

Posted
Posted

Yes, thanks for all the tech info and the article posted by shmthaus.

 

FWIW - I logged into my router and set up a block for scripts.chitika.net and chitika.net. Rebooted and have reentered this board several times with no warning from Mcafee. My router log does show a block for the offending PUP.

 

1| [bLOCK:scripts.chitika.net] Source:192.xxx.x.x Current Time : 00:00:04 (System Time)

 

Appears to have worked...hopefully.

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