Infested with pop ups.

They are in IE too. They are ads placed there by a-holes who think we want to looks at them. When you see double underlined words like that avoid putting your cursor on it, no pop up then.

Yes, along with those annoying pop-up "surveys". you might have a look through here, I have some sort of bug what underlines/links a random word in a page and then gives an add for Apple stuff,how do I get rid of this? | Firefox Support Forum | Mozilla Support

I have seen them for years, they are called Intellitext or Enhanced Text.

Hello AaLF,

Those underlined words are not normal adds, they are adware. I do not know what caused it to happen (sometimes malware, sometimes toolbars and sometimes malicious addons), but I do know how to get rid of them:)

First, are you using any toolbars? If yes, which one(s)?
Second, please provide us with a screenshot of your "about:addons" page.

Also please delete your cookies by following the Delete All Cookies option of this tutorial.

After that please run a free online scan with the ESET Online Scanner

Note: You will need to use Internet Explorer for this scan.

1. Tick the box next to YES, I accept the Terms of Use.
2. Click Start.
3. When asked, allow the ActiveX control to install.
4. Click Start.
5. Make sure that the options Remove found threats and the option Scan unwanted applications is checked.
6. Click Scan (This scan can take several hours, so please be patient).
7. Once the scan is completed, you may close the window.
8. Use Notepad to open the logfile located at C:\Program Files\EsetOnlineScanner\log.txt
9. Copy and paste that log between [code] [/code] tags.

I find that ESET is very good in dealing with PUP's (potentially unwanted programs) and sketchy toolbars.

AaLF said:

Is there a FF add-on to protect me in the future?

Yes, there are a few. But due to forum rules I am unable to tell you how to block adds or mention any addblocking addons. I am, however, able to mention addons that make it unable for adds to track you:) Here are two great ones;
The first one is Better Privacy (Link).

Remove or manage a new and uncommon kind of cookies, better known as LSO's. The BetterPrivacy safeguard offers various ways to handle Flash-cookies set by Google, YouTube, Ebay and others..

The second one is TACO - Targeted Advertising Cookie Opt Out (Link).

TACO automatically blocks 100's of web beacons, bugs, and other tracking technologies that advertisers and others use to track you. Protect your privacy by stopping secret tracking of your web browsing.

In your next reply I would like to see;
1. A list of toolbars you use.
2. A screenshot of your addons page.
3. The log.txt created by ESET.


Good luck and keep us posted,
Nommy