Olley46 wrote:

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Keith19837 wrote:

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As of today (5.11.13) I am getting a little icon appearing on this forum that has never been there before.   It looks like a male symbol and is green in colour.   When I click on it I get a screen requesting  my email address to continue; or a survey for one of the marketing groups.  Does anyone know what this thing is, where it comes from and how to get rid of it please.

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Hi Keith19837

That little symbol marks a post that you started that's if it is the one near the started by colum,when someone else reads that post it is not visible,it is only visible to you,hope this helps.

Lance C

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 Thanks Lance, it's not the little 'tag' symbol.   These other symbols looks like the Male symbol - the circle with the little arrow sticking out at about one o'clock.  It's a green fluoro colour.  Some are just randomly in various posts, some are on the black border between topics and some are in Post titles. When I click on some, I get another screen saying Grey Nomads confirmation Provide Email address.  On others I get some survey crowd asking for answers to questions about all sorts of topics.   These symbols have never appear before but only started today (5.11.13).   It's got me beat.

I've just worked out that this symbol is attached to certain words which relate to other sites.  E.G. when it is attached to the word 'vehicle' it will take me to a vehicle sales site.  When attached to the word 'chat' it takes me to some chat site, when attached to the word 'Nomads' or 'grey'  it takes me to G.N. registry and when it's in the black border it takes me to Woolies, Safeway type vouchers  and so on.  On each of these further sites, I'm asked to enter my Email address for confirmation (obviously I'm not about to do so).   Now I need to work out how to get rid of this link symbol.   I've re run AVG several times plus WinZip Registry and Anti Spyware.  I re set the computer to an earlier restore point and given in a liberal laying on of abuse.   I'm now contemplating lead poisoning via .38.

Happywanderer wrote:

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Would it be worth pm,ing Cindy. She may be able to help.
I've never seen it so have no idea.

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 Thanks Happywanderer, I'll give that a try.

D and D wrote:

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Malware bytes will remove most of the stuff that the microsoft tool misses - you can get a free version just google malwarebytes and follow the prompts to download and install.

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 I  suggest you don't rely on free anti virus / malware removal tools any more.

I used AVG free and this was the entry point for malware that turned off all means to get antivirus protection or security upgrades.

I now paid $80 pa for mcafee,,, it's great and has done the job well.

I also use CCleaner after a suggestion from this forum.

Baz421 wrote:

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You've been hacked by someone,,, automatically I'd guess,,, malware.

Try running the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal tool,,, it's free and updated monthly.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/malicious-software-removal-tool-details.aspx

Make sure you select the correct OS that you use.

I save icon to desktop and run often,,, it tells you when newer version is available.

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This tool is automatically downloaded/updated every month when you apply the Patch Tuesday patches from Microsoft (on or shortly after the second Tuesday of the month). Can be run at any time by typing MRT <Enter> from the start menu (for Windows 8 hold down the Windows key and press R to bring up the Run box). The version on your system is shown at the top of the MRT window (currently October). Running a Full scan can take quite a while on most systems, but recommended as I had an instance where the Full scan discovered some malware that the Quick scan missed.

Baz, if your willing to pay for anti virus software check out the options because there are better products than McAffee at a much lower price - http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2372364,00.asp - mind you if you want to use something different best of luck trying to uninstall McAffee, its like a virus in its own right

_wombat_ wrote:

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D and D, I'm with you, IMHO McAffee is crap, to uninstall it you need to do it at their own web site and then you do not get rid of it all, it is also bloat ware IMHO.

Another problem with VC is the fact that you MUST make sure you are on the correct VC site, I was with Trend for a good few years, had a problem and contacted them through their web site, after a few emails back and forth I was asked if they could access my pc, I replied no, you tell me what you require and I will supply it, they then asked me for $199 as a one off fee to fix my problem, I told them to pee off.

Eventually I discovered that Trend, McAffee and Norton have all been hit by these scam web site that look exactly like their own ones and then people get scammed if they fall for it.

DO NOT under any circumstances let anybody you do not know have access to your pooter. 

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 Understand your points guys but I'm very happy with McAfee. Had problem uninstalling Nortons years ago too.

Tried others Bullguard was good on cousins business computer. Can't remember other so they are not memorable,,lol.

Had to call McAfee support today as I'm trying to solve the XP 100% CPU usage problem I have,,,,,,, and somehow in services.msc I stuffed McAfee updates. Talked to a human and fixed in 10 mins FREE. So the cost of $80 for 3 laptops with McAfee is worth it in IMHO.

Horses for courses,,, and I guess I'm happy (or lazy enough) to stick with the status quo whilst it's going well for me.