I have a very annoying pop up/linky type spyware and it won't die. Help!

[D0oinMeCleanin]

It makes links in texts that if I hover over shows me an advert.

I am think it is a virus, unless MNHQ actually want me to work online earning £1000's per week like a mum from neighbouring town and then go and spend all my online earnings at Paddy Power and buy an iphone 4 from dubious sources with my winnings? It only seems to be effecting MN

So far I have tried:

SuperAnti Spyware Free Edition
Ad Aware
Macaffe (free version)
SpyBot Search and Destroy
Malware Malicious something or another
AVG Anti Virus - free addition

and in desperation I have just bought a paid version of Norton anti virus and the bastard clicky link/hover what not virus still won't die

What next?

Argh! It's doing it on my above OP. "Norton Anti Virus" came up as a clicky link with a hover box to direct me SoftFly.com.

It's not like that on anyone elses' is it?

That's going to be a spammy browser extension or add-on. What web browser are you using?

Check in add/remove programs and see if it's a program that's installed itself. Try this too housecall.trendmicro.com/uk/

Check to see if you have any of the following on your PC (and if you do, uninstall/disable as appropriate): "I Want This" browser extension, "Vid Saver" Youtube downloader or a program called RewardsArcadeSuite?

If none of those are present I can explain how to tell what site is feeding you those links and then we can block the offending addresses, which will stop the ads, but obviously it'd be better/cleaner to remove whatever is trying to call up the ads.

And when we're done, can I persuade you to ditch Norton, even though you paid for it?? Or at the very least, we'd need to do an audit of what security software you have on the PC now that you tried all that lot, as certain ones will conflict with each other if you've not fully removed them.

Oh, apparently another potential culprit is a browser extension called "BCool"... Have a look for that one, too.

Thank you.

I am at work atm but will try your sugestions when I get home tonight.

I was honestly on the verge of crying earlier today

It has been annoying me for days now and nothing makes it go away.

No problem. It'll be an easy fix :) Oh, and I just re-read your OP and I missed the fact that you mentioned being directed to SoftFly.com. They actually provide a adware variant browser toolbar (powered by conduit) so look for and remove any "Softfly" or "Conduit" toolbars/add-ons, too...

I had a terrible problem with some malware that I couldn't get rid of, and I eventually posted a help message on a geek forum, and they were incredibly helpful (and posted endless posts with very complicated instructions, but it did eventually work!).... good luck.

Is Norton not very good then? It was rated as the best over all on PCMag.com.

My PC is running horrendously atm. I might look into those geeky sites. It's so fecking slow. My virus checks are taking hours and hours and hours.

try running a virus scan in safe mode and/or download microsoft malicious software removal tool
personally i dont like norton, takes up too much memory makes the computer run slow especially when running a scan
i use avg free not the paid for avg and it works well for me
i also use ccleaner it is good for removing various junk off the hard drive

Thanks for whoever sent me the link here. However, I have none of these things installed.

This is only happening on MN and only since I updated my Firefox tonight. Any ideas please?

Happening on my iPhone too - can see the paddy power link (on phone now).

And it's turned the word iPhone into an eBay link!

This has to be a MN thing as its happening on my PC in Firefox and also on my phone in Safari.

Can MN HQ explain if this is a site issue please?

And it turned the word eBay into a link in my post above.

There's a thread in Site Stuff about this, apparently this auto linking is creating revenue for MN. To stop seeing it you can install AdBlock Plus to Firefox or Chrome.

It doesn't stop auto links in your posts, as somebody thanked me yesterday for a link I didn't post.

Really bloody annoyed about this. First I thought I had a virus, now find its commercialisation of my posts!!! Thanks for your help though x

Hi there, rest assured it's intended and not a virus. Justine has posted about it here in more detail.

I've now got to hope I haven't broken my of by uninstalling firefox maintenance last night :(

of = pc

Norton is not great. I use Emsisoft Anti-malware and its brilliant! I had a virus on my PC that my cousin put on there via his dodgy downloads and it was the only programme that managed to get rid of it.

There is no need to pay for anti virus programs. I use Avast Free and the free version of Threatfire. Both update automatically and are damn good. I also have MBAM which I run about once a week, and CCleaner which I run whenever my pc starts running slow.