Search engine results redirect to advertisements

[mikal]

anyone else ever have this problem?

for example, if i search for "U2" under google, and let's say i click on one of the search results (u2.com), my browser will redirect me to an advertisement. i don't know if this is a virus or adware or what.

any advice?

 

[Liesje]

Clear all browsing history, cookies, cache, etc.

 

[Sicy]

And I'd also run spybot and malwarebytes (separately).

 

[vjacqb]

^What Sicy said. My computer recently got a Trojan/Virus that activated on July 4th. I have Norton Internet Protection, which identified it and tried to remove it. But the virus had already made some changes to my Windows registry and to my Google or Firefox settings. In addition to my computer being constantly under attack from some external IP, I kept having the same problem that you described. It happened when I used Google for search, and Firefox as my browser (that's my default). Apparently Norton couldn't remove everything.

I found this post that helped me a lot in removing the malware. If you haven't resolved your issue yet or if you're looking for malwarebytes, read through the post, and follow it to a T. If there is a malware in your computer, either the TDSSKiller or MBAM should find it. I resolved my problems after running MBAM. Just like the original poster, I didn't have to run RKill or TFC.

 

[subnet]

malwarebytes will fix the "IE Helper" file adware you have installed.

 

[ntalwar]

Somewhat related - The Wall Street Journal has a excellent series on the new sophisticated trackers installed by most large websites.

The Web's New Gold Mine: Your Secrets - WSJ.com

I installed a ad opt-out add-on called Taco 3.0: Privacy Alerts
and may install more.

 

[mikal]

thank you all for the advice. i'll give it all a try!