GuitarSmokr

Oh wow, I was just getting another download off C|net and it clicked and I saw what was happening. It is a rectangular shaped advertisement but the color pallet for the backdrop has been matched to the background of host site for the advertisement so the buttons on the banner look as if they are hard coded into the host website. *FireWorks*

So the only conclusion I can draw is something is "wrong" with my PC/Browser/GUI/OperatingSys?????

Hey guys thanks for all you responses, I was typing this reply that was extreamely detailed (I spent over an hour typing it) then I accidently clicked on another members avatar and my browser jumped and when I press back all the stuff I had typed had not been saved to the cache but was gone forever OH WELL. Maybe it was for the better. To sum things up though I have 2 questions, Can somebody please explain to me WHO the culprit behind this malicious pop - up add was in their belief? Was it in fact Filehippo as I had originally thought, or was it a 3rd party that ran the pop up that send me to DL the bad software, OR (This answer unlikely as I got the same link on 2 different computers) was it my web browser or worse, windows infected with some sort of process that runs these pop-ups so that I see them and people with ad-blockers do not? Please help me understand this in full if you can, thank you And the 2nd thing I wanted to ask, is what pop-up blockers do you all run again? I saw NoAdblock and Ghostery. I know nothing about these programs, how safe they are, and whether or not they are free, what would you all recommend? I must not get fake trick add/links again! Last time I downloaded a pop-up blocker program it was powerful little pain in the @$$ virus, so can you also give me a safe source ti get whatever popup blocker you Again thanks

Okay, I wanted to contact Piriform directly to address this issue but they seem to not want to be contacted unless it be their sales team you are contacting, which I am not going to call to get transferred to somebody who can help MAYBE, because I just don't give that much of a F!#@. However, I have decided to go out of my way tonight to create an account for this forum and waste time valuable I could spend wasting some other way like playing video games or crying in the fetal position because I want to see if I am right or just an idiot n00b, also I don't want to see people screw up their computers trying to get software to fix them. Please somebody who is checking my work follow the following directions to see if people are using the links on this [/size]"[/size]Official Ccleaner/Piriform Website" [/size]to get duped into installing a bunch of [/size]harmful crap or malware.[/size] Ok go to the Ccleaner homepage, which I BELIEVE, but am not %100 sure is here: https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner Now click on the link that is green and has the word"Download" printed across it with an arrow pointing down. Which will take you here https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download Now at this point you can either download the setup file on this page (which should work no problem) or you can choose to download the file through 1 of 3 hosting sites, we will be examining file hippo, please click the file hipp link which will take you here http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner Now when you arrive here this is where thing are weird, you can click the green link on the right side of the screen and it will download properly (there is a screenshot in .png format attached to this of this screen). However this is what happened when I was putting this software on a friends computer, if you click the green link on the LEFT side of the page it should take you here: http://rubbishsoftwarelink.com/freedownloadmanager?creative_id=b&subid=software&subid2=filehippo.com&source=google_browsersafeguard-display-us-soft32-728x90-25848088132&adprovider=google_softpioneer.com&gclid=CKzchrju874CFdNzMgoddUsAfg WTF!!?!?!?!?!? At this point it doesn't matter what you do, the file that you will download is no longer the ccsetup414.exe file it is now A A file called setup.exe Do not download and install this file unless you are an idiot, in which case go ahead, or better yet, take your laptop and throw it against the wall. Now I was able to catch this but somebody else might not, my question is why would piriform link to a site that has malicious software masquerading about as their very own installer, as you install this the top left corner of the window says "ccleaner installer" as goes installing some stuff that is going to BANG YOUR HARD DRIVE UP. Obviously they don't know and I can't find a way to get into contact with anybody that might give a care, so please people check and make sure all this info is correct and see if you can't help me send this s**t through the proper channels, thanks!