Tech Support Guy banner
  • IMPORTANT: Only authorized members may reply to threads in this forum due to the complexity of the malware removal process. Authorized members include Malware Specialists and Trainees, Administrators, Moderators, and Trusted Advisors. Regular members are not permitted to reply, and any such posts will be deleted without notice or further explanation. Notice
Status
Not open for further replies.

Yahoo homepage click redirect to Red warning screen + 90 DLs

In Progress 
1K views 4 replies 2 participants last post by  PacerFan1 
#1 ·
Tech Support Guy System Info Utility version 1.0.0.4
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 10 Home, 64 bit
Processor: AMD A6-5200 APU with Radeon(TM) HD Graphics, AMD64 Family 22 Model 0 Stepping 1
Processor Count: 4
RAM: 3537 Mb
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 8400 / R3 Series, 512 Mb
Hard Drives: C: 444 GB (381 GB Free); D: 19 GB (2 GB Free);
Motherboard: HP, 8137
Antivirus: Windows Defender, Enabled and Updated

Hello everyone,

Just now I accidentally clicked on something which must have been a "sponsored ad" on Yahoo's homepage and before I knew what was happening, it redirected me to one of those red security alert pages. I probably should have read some of it so I could've provided more details, but I think there was a phone number and the standard scam stuff.. I usually just quickly X this out, which I did (am I wrong to discount these potential "threats" in general?)

What made this different is that without confirmation pop-ups from windows, it downloaded 90 very small files (I think they were 2 bytes each, though in file explorer it has them listed at 1 kb)

I ran a Windows Defender "Quick Scan" which has up to date updates. It found 0 threats it says.

How do I proceed? Just delete the files? How concerned should I be?

Here is a screenshot of the files it downloaded:



Thanks for reading, would appreciate any help
 
See less See more
#2 ·
right click one of those files & select open in notepad

post the details back here so we can 100% advise you,
My gut feeing is they are some sort of tracking file that is safe to delete with no further problems

Windows explorer can only display a file size as 1kb minimum, but file details will show the correct size
 
#3 ·
right click one of those files & select open in notepad

post the details back here so we can 100% advise you,
My gut feeing is they are some sort of tracking file that is safe to delete with no further problems

Windows explorer can only display a file size as 1kb minimum, but file details will show the correct size
Thanks for your help. Ok, so I think this is good news: I randomly chose 5 of them to open in notepad and literally each one just had "42" (without quotation marks) written..

Just delete them all?
 
#5 ·
All set, thanks again.

Is it not surprising that this issue came via Yahoo? I would have thought such a well established news/entertainment site would have checks in place to prevent these types of situations. I hadn't had this happen on Yahoo prior to this incident, but then also couple of days later after posting here, I was again redirected to a similar screen from Yahoo, which said data was compromised, etc. etc. and to call this number to solve the problem. No automatic downloads though.. I haven't seen any issues with computer performance, so I'm not worried about it. But I guess if there's a reason to stop using yahoo, this would be it.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top