Getting this dialog box asking to scan and clean my PC

[Phalanx-Imawano 0]

I'm not sure this is the forum to post this on, but it may be related to security.

 

Recently I've noticed a dialog box that pops up. The text in the title bar is "Internet Explorer", and in the box is the text "Your system may be infected by a virus! Click Ok to scan and clean" along with the usual Ok and Cancel buttons. First thing is that I don't think it should be there, if there's a virus or an attempt at infection Norton Antivirus would alert me (and I'm familiar with NAV's alert box). 2nd, so far I just ignore it by clicking the close button (the X on the upper right). I seem to get that dialog box once in a while if I visit the website http://www.fanfiction.net

 

Has anyone else encoutered that dialog box?

 

If I come across it again, I'll get a snapshot of it and display it here.

[sapiens74 0]

Are you sure it's not a popup ad

[Phalanx-Imawano 0]

Well, I shouldn't have any popup ads since I have Popup Stopper running, unless there are some ads that found a way to get around Popup Stopper.

[Sampson 0]

Popup killers stop some kinds of popups and not others. Depends upon how they work. This sounds like advertising. You probably have a cookie in place from visiting somewhere that gets triggered on some sites. Download Ad-aware and scan your machine. Pest Patrol is better but you have to pay for it; it is more active in keeping pests away. You can make the adjustments yourself in IE to limit cookies. You could ratchet up your security level in relation to cookies and make IE inform you when a site is putting a cookie on your machine. A program called Cookie Pal (again you have to pay) will do this for you.

You can also use other browsers that use IE components but include popup stoppers - Avant, Slim Browser, MyIE, etc., or you could install Mozilla based Firebird which is independent of IE. First, though, scan your machine for bots and spyware and remove them.

[Nemesis 1]

Phalanx-Imawano,

 

When you get the pop-up, try right-clicking and selecting View Source, sometimes you can get an idea of what/when/where/why and even who wrote it.

 

[Phalanx-Imawano 0]

Sampson

 

I run Spybot on a regular basis so I should have been able to clean off any adware/spyware programs on my system.

 

Anyway here's an image of the dialog box:

 

[ReadError 0]

IE doesn't have a virus scanner, so it's not a real Virus alert.

[jmmijo 1]

This is most likely an ActiveX control pop-up from a web site you've visited. Could also be a java script but most likely the former. I'd try running something like Adaware for any spybots as well, this is what I use.

 

Could just be a specific web site you visit, if you turn off active scripting and then see if this goes away, then you know for sure.

[ViolentGreen 0]

Quote:

This is most likely an ActiveX control pop-up from a web site you've visited. Could also be a java script but most likely the former. I'd try running something like Adaware for any spybots as well, this is what I use.

Could just be a specific web site you visit, if you turn off active scripting and then see if this goes away, then you know for sure.

The giveaway is that the window title says "Microsoft Internet Explorer." Another indication that it is fake is if you mouse indicates that the whole window is clickable and not just the buttons.

If these things are not so, it still doesn't mean it's real, the designers just made extra effort to fool you. I would suggest familiarizing yourself with the look of you AV.