Malware !!!

Great set up here. It looks like it will work well if it is set up correctly. It also looks like it can be customized. Customizing takes time and I thought I would add to it's customizing little by little over time. A forum that works right now is what I need.

I have a site that is Russian and English language. I thought I would start a forum in both languages. It was in its second day of existence when two big buttons, saying "DOWNLOAD" and "PLAY NOW" appeared on top of the discussion in forum. This was the first forum I created.

http://savingbp.forumotion.com/

I thought the buttons were from forumotion, so I pushed one of them. My McAfee virus protection became active. I got a page warning I was about to enter a suspicious site and two Trojan viruses were immediately cleaned. Somehow, it downloaded what it wanted. It was an Ilivid media software. It looks like it could be a software I might need later on, so although I don't know what it is, I have not removed it. It was asking me forumotion questions, so I assume it is from forumotion.

In the mean time, the two buttons on top of my forum remained. Pushing them gave me the same message from McAfee. I did a virus scan from McAfee and it cleaned 13 additional viruses. How could I subject my readers to this? I abandoned it and created another forum.

http://sbpenglish.forumotion.com/

Now, in one of the pages, I get the same two big buttons. Another page has a button to download something. Another has a game and when you play it, it takes you to a gaming site.

The Russian language forum has no such buttons, but it has not been used other than starting three threads.

This is quite annoying. Is this something I have to live with if I continue to use your forumotion?

Hello,

Those would be ad's. If you want them to be removed, you will need to buy credits to remove them in the misc tab // buy credits. Once you have credits you can go to spend credits and remove the ad's.

Also there is a lot of false reports about the ad's on Forumotion and they don't have Malware. If that was the case, Forumotion would not allow it.

Thanks. That's helpful, but I didn't imagine the malware. How do you not allow malware? Is not malware not allowed by its nature? Does it not get into your site uninvited?

I looked above and navigated some, but I don't see a misc tab. I see home, portal, FAQ, Search..... Where do you buy credits?

gentleben wrote:I looked above and navigated some, but I don't see a misc tab. I see home, portal, FAQ, Search..... Where do you buy credits?

Hello,

Your Admin Panel should be set on "Advanced" mode

Then click the Misc tab and manage your Credits

That was not a double or triple post. I simply could not find how to buy credits. If you want money, should not that button be readily available? The question was answered and I was able to find what

That to buy credits did not sell credits. It was selling an access code for $2.99. This is subterfuge. Why don't you just say how much to get rid of those buttons?

Double posting is posting consecutively. In other words, it is making another post directly after making a post. This is not allowed unless separated by 24 hours.

Is this problem solved?

No. It is not solved. While I was excited on having a Russian language forum for discussion, I cannot subject my readers into downloading something they might not need. If it takes money to remove the buttons, then it should be told outright how much it would cost. I found out where to pay, but paying the $2.99 was just for access. I assume the access was to find out how much it costs to remove the buttons. Then again, I don't know.

I am running a charity site. My funds are limited. Perhaps when I have better cash flow, I will consider forumotion.

Hi,

What have you paid 'for access'?
The only thing that you are charged for here on ForuMotion is : Domain purchase, Adds removal, additional storage, and footer links removal.
You are informed of the EXACT amount that it will cost in step 2 of the adds removal process. The reason for this is that the techs cannot have an inbuilt part of the admin panel to reflect the price, as the price changes everyday, if not, several times a day, as it is based on your countries currency. For example, a domain is 16USD, and about 21GBP (Off hand, pretty sure that's about right), so that's a pretty clear difference. There is another 2 steps before the purchase of anything, and is done by either PayPal, or via CreditCard, which has your verification as well.

I do not mind ads. One of the buttons is more than just an ad. It downloads a program. It is in my computer and I still don't know what it's for. Before it downloaded the program, I got a message from McAfee - "Whoa are you sure you want to go there? It's contents might be harmful to your computer." Then, it immediately cleaned two of what it called Trojan viruses. I did a scan afterwards and it cleaned 13 more.

The McAfee might be over sensitive. It protects against the downloading of unwanted programs. What is the point in downloading programs to a computer when the owner of the computer does not know what it's for? Will it do things without being accessed?

Those button which you call them are exactly an advertisement for whatever is downloaded. If you have downloaded something, you better do a search on Google or Bing to found out what it is. Also I would remove it from my computer.

RE;

As Slg has said, I too would recommend removing it. McAfee is quite good, and has very minimal false positives.

As you said, after clicking the 'download' advertisement, it redirected you and it auto-downloaded it's self. To me that's not something that's right, and isn't acceptable!
If you by any chance know the URL of the add, can you let us know, and hopefully one of our staff members can report it as a malicious add, and have it removed. As ForuMotion uses a 3rd party to supply the adds, which do link back to Google Adds we can ensure it's removal, ofcause through due process.

If your ever unsure of something, and your anti virus pops up, always follow what it says and try to stay safe, you've done the best thing possible, an antivirus scan. Just remove them now, and the staff will do their best to report it up and it's gone

Thank you, Darren. I was getting the impression that I was not welcome in this forum. I replied to Sig earlier, but my comment was removed.

It was Ilivid media software. After it was downloaded, I took a look at it. It was asking me about my forumotion account, so I thought it was a required program for forumotion graphics. I did find their website. http://www.ilivid.com/ . Those big download buttons are the same size, shape and color as the ones that were in my forum. As I stated above, I abandoned the first forum and created another. Those same buttons appeared.

I do not see those those ads now. Perhaps you removed them. Then again, I have visited now and then and the ads are sometimes different. I emailed ilivid and they answered that the software is safe to use. Apparently, whomever answered me is not aware of how their software is distributed.

https://www.google.com/#hl=en&cp=4&gs_id=l&xhr=t&q=ilivid&tok=bIBmUuZv1_drX2M6FMB3DA&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&site=&source=hp&pbx=1&oq=iliv&aq=0p&aqi=p-p1g3&aql=&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=a1bc1589ec616832&biw=1280&bih=653

There was another ad there that was less sneaky, but sneaky nonetheless. It featured a game where you shoot the enemy by moving your mouse and then clicking enter. After so many enters, it directs you to their website to download. Sorry. I do not have the URL for that.

I just looked at the forums that I created. The ads there are acceptable for me. It shows an ad, and there's a button that says "learn more". The reader is aware that by clicking it, he goes to another screen to see the site. He is not tricked into getting there.

I was going to abandon my plans for a forum, because of the ads. If there are no more ads like that, I will re-consider. But right now, I am apprehensive.

I think most of the reason for this is you are clicking the ad's! We can't stop your actions of downloading or paying or giving out personal information due to this. So don't ever click them! I don't see them or click them, it doesn't bother me as I have a ad blocker set up, but if you don't like the ad's, you need to buy Forumotion credits to removed them!

I understand what you are saying. But what would you do if there are two big buttons on top of your forum and it says nothing else? Also, the game was pretty cool, until I was re-directed. I was not aware they were ads. I have seen no other websites with ads that trick you into clicking them, and I have been visiting websites for more than a decade now. If I fell for it, some of my readers will also.

Re;

I'm sorry that we made you feel unwelcome, we try our best to keep everyone happy with our service.

Ilivid has always been clean, and is also on CNet, so it should be clean. It might of been something with the link, I honestly have no clue.
I have no idea if it has been removed as I'm not working in the company, I only volunteer on the support forum, alike everyone here, including MrMario. The Godfather is currently our only connection to the company.
If there was a report made overnight, it would of been done by my colleagues, and would usually be put into a list of things to be corrected, unless they have the adds as a high priority. Ive got no clue.

If you wish, you can remove the adds in the misc tab in the admin panel and it will tell u how much it will be during the purchase process.


I'm sorry, I don't know what you would like us to do for you now?

Thanks again, Darren. I will observe the forums I created. If those ads or anything similar do not re-appear, then I will use them. I don't mind the regular ads that are there now. My funds are limited. I have been unemployed for quite sometime now. When things are better, I will look into removing those ads altogether.

Honestly, I was shopping around for another forum. Your forums were rather easy to set up and I am quite sure I will not find another Russian forum.

I created three forums, one Russian and two English. Do I need to delete one of them? What is the process?

No problem!

gentleben wrote:
Honestly, I was shopping around for another forum. Your forums were rather easy to set up and I am quite sure I will not find another Russian forum.

Thanks for the compliment, Im sure the people at the company will like to hear that

I created three forums, one Russian and two English. Do I need to delete one of them? What is the process?

No, the forums that you don't want, simply forget about them. There is an automated process that deletes inactive forums after 6 months of complete inactivity. Ofcause, you will get an email asking to check that you don't want the forum any more.
You can reactivate the forums by logging on.

You can delete them yourself if you wish, by logging in, going to the general tab in then delete, and confirm via your email.

I wish you the best, and a joyous season.

I was getting my forum ready for the public. I saw those big buttons again. I refreshed and they disappeared. OK. I will check back in a few days.

Merry Christmas, Darren and everyone.

Those buttons as you call them are ads. Different ads appear at different times. The only way to make those buttons disappear is by using credits. I would post somewhere on your forum where guests and members both can see: Please be very careful with any kind of third-party advertisements, (name of forum) is not responsible for any action you take in regard to third party advertisments.

"As you said, after clicking the 'download' advertisement, it redirected you and it auto-downloaded it's self. To me that's not something that's right, and isn't acceptable!
If you by any chance know the URL of the add, can you let us know, and hopefully one of our staff members can report it as a malicious add, and have it removed."

Yes that has been explained to me. Do you agree or disagree with Darren1? My funds are limited. There are many other things I can do to improve my website that I do not have to pay for. Sorry, but that's how it goes. I would love to have a forum, but honestly, I will have to wait.

I thought about putting a warning sign. Still, some will push it. The ones that don't read the warning sign first will be most vulnerable. Then, I will have one pissed off reader.

Perhaps someone is looking into it, like Darren says. I will check back in a few days or so. Thanks Slg.

You can always have users donate to your forum and you can remove them. I ask last night if The Godfather would check into this, and he will. There is not much we can do to prevent users from doing something they shouldn't. If they want to click the ad's they may do so. Their choice, their actions.

The problem is it doesn't say it's an ad. It says "download". This is the only ad I know that does that. If you push the button, it is in your computer, along with 15 of what my McAfee virus check calls Trojan viruses. You don't know what it is. I didn't know what it was until I took your suggestion to look up the website.

If there is something in your computer and you don't know what it is, it is useless. It does Ilivid no good to have their software on anyone's computer that are downloaded this way. I think it has the opposite effect. The proper thing for a button on your forum, or any website, is to have the button take you to a page that explains what it is, and then have a download button if you want it.

My website is about taking donations to help someone with a life saving surgery. I cannot ask the readers to donate for the forum too.

I don't know what to tell you. Just don't download or click the ads! You need to understand this!

Again, I understand (after I did it). It is my readers I am worried about. I am not in a big hurry to have a forum. I will check back now and then to see if the ads are removed. I am sure you will do the right thing.

There isn't much I can do to fix this issue myself. Only The Godfather can do something. I just pass information to him, like I did. The ad's won't disappear unless they are removed by paying for credits. You can tell your readers not to click them or to look into an ad blocker, but Forumotion can't be responsible for you for clicking on ad's.

I have not held forumotion responsible. I made you aware. At first, I thought it might be your modus operandi. I'm glad it isn't. I will look into removing them by paying credits when things get better.

these particular ad's are on many pages, and coming from Google, along with a hand full of other ad companies similar to Google ad-sense

So it is something that would have to be reported to Google because anyone that has a Google ad-sense accounts knows that you can only block certain ad's within a list of what Google offer's.

For things like adult ad's or other sensitive ad's that may not be welcomed or appropriate for ones site.

However these ad's you are referring to are not on any list to block from Google ad-sense account, So this means it's something Google would have to completely remove from the list of ad's they provide.There is no way for the godfather or anyone else who has Google ad-sense to remove these particular ad's, Only Google can.

So all you can do is buy credits to have the ad's completely removed from your forum.
Or just remind and make an announcement for member's not to click any of them, The ad's are always random and you will not always see the one you are talking about, but it will return sooner or latter.

So there is not anything anyone can do about it accept Google removing it from their list all together or a forumotion founder buying credits to have all ad's removed,


Or you can always try reporting the add to Google as well.
And i have seen this add on many sites, even sites like file hosting and flash games, this ad shows up in many places and has been around for several years. believe me i got snagged with by mistake a few years ago... lol

Live long and prosper, Captain Kirk. I wonder what happened to the Godfather. We have not heard from him.

"these particular ad's are on many pages, and coming from Google, along with a hand full of other ad companies similar to Google ad-sense"

This is just one ad. The game where you shoot the enemy and after so many shots, it takes you to a site, I guess is OK. It tricks you into going into their site, but at least it doesn't trick you into downloading their program.

Is this from Google or another company? If it is from Google, then I just lost their respect some. They are the leader in the internet community and have pushed for good content. Before good content, I think they should help in clearing the internet of individuals or companies that trick you into downloading their program.

I am on the internet a lot. Companies like this were rampant when I first looked into the internet. That was a decade and a half ago. Apparently, they are still around, because that Google search on Ilivid turned up a few who were tricked into downloading their program. I thought these companies were gotten rid of, for the most part.