weird thing in Amazon
When I pull up a page for almost any item listed on Amazon, a menu bar pops up at the top of the screen, informing me that I can purchase the same item for less money at another site. This is not the same as offers by Amazon partners shown at the bottom of the page. I've notified Amazon of this problem. They tell me they don't have a virus and have no idea what this is. I have cleared my cache, cookies, history, etc., and run my anti-virus and malware detection software. Everything seems fine on my end. Amazon suggested that I contact Firefox to see whether I have inadvertently downloaded something that is causing or allowing this situation. Do you know about this problem and, if so, do you have a solution? Thanks for your time.
الحل المُختار
I wouldn't say you are "naive", you know the difference between right and wrong. IMO Avast! is pushing the boundaries of acceptable behavior for a "security" application by doing that, as many other AV / Security programs are doing. Actions such as; changing search engines, homepage, and new tab page, along with adding a toolbar to begin with, are all unacceptable actions, IMO.
Personally, I avoid security programs that automatically install a toolbar in a web browser. AFAIK, Avira Free Antivirus is the only major AV application that doesn't automatically install a toolbar in Firefox. Avira Free tried that a few years ago when they released a new version, but they pulled it out within 2 months due to user outrage.
I never even saw that toolbar in Avira Free AV, running my WinXP PC 24/7 in my limited user account, rarely switching to my Admin user account. That toolbar needed to run in an Admin account to install itself, and / or needed a restart of Windows or a cold boot for installation of that garbage.
BTW, I switched to Avira Free from Avast! after Avast! starting adding garbage like we're discussing here, back in 2007 or 2008, IIRC.
All Replies (16)
hello, can you try to replicate this behaviour when you launch firefox in safe mode once?
Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems
Do you use any special connection method for accessing the internet from Firefox? That might include:
- proxy server
- filtering software on your PC
- private VPN service
- TOR
By default, Firefox for Windows will piggyback on the LAN Settings in your Internet Options control panel (AKA as IE's Internet Options dialog). To try to connect more directly, you can use Firefox's Options dialog:
orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Options > Advanced > Network mini-tab > "Settings" button
Try "No Proxy."
By the way, have you checked IE or other browsers to see whether the problem occurs there?
I followed your directions and changed the setting to "No Proxy." That didn't solve the problem. I then went to Amazon via IE, and I still had the problem. Then I went back to Firefox, disabled my add-ons and logged on in safe mode. Ta da! Problem solved! I'm confused though why any of my add-ons would cause/allow this problem. My add-ons are Avast on-line security, Disconnect 3.11.0, Empty Cache Button 2.5, NoScript 2.6.8.19, Self-Destructing Cookies 0.4.4, and Troubleshooter 1.1a. Other than the anti-virus program, would I be better off deleting these add-ons?
I went back to Firefox, disabled my add-ons and logged on in safe mode. Ta da! Problem solved! I'm confused though why any of my add-ons would cause/allow this problem. My add-ons are Avast on-line security, Disconnect 3.11.0, Empty Cache Button 2.5, NoScript 2.6.8.19, Self-Destructing Cookies 0.4.4, and Troubleshooter 1.1a. Other than the anti-virus program, would I be better off deleting these add-ons?
I just discovered that even if I delete the add-ons, I still have the problem unless I launch Firefox in safe mode every time I log onto the internet. Is there a better solution other than having to remember to log on via safe mode all the time?
Have you explored where that menu leads? Maybe that would help in tracking down the cause (or at least Googling for similar reports).
Next time you see the bar, could you hover over any links, right-click and Copy Link Location?
If there are no links, you could right-click it and see whether Inspect Element (Q) is available? If so, click that and Firefox should open a small pane at the bottom of the window with that element highlighted in a sea of HTML code.
Click up/left in the HTML tree and watch Firefox select in the page. When you think Firefox has everything, right-click that element and choose Copy Outer HTML.
Then open Pastebin, paste, double-check that you don't see any personal information, and then get the URL for it.
You can paste that into a reply and hopefully we can make something of it.
(I'm suggesting using Pastebin because this site handles raw HTML poorly.)
Do a malware check with several malware scanning programs on the Windows computer.
Please scan with all programs because each program detects different malware.
All these programs have free versions.
Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.
- Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php - AdwCleaner:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Removal-Tools/AdwCleaner.shtml - SuperAntispyware:
http://www.superantispyware.com/ - Microsoft Safety Scanner:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx - Windows Defender:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/using-defender - Spybot Search & Destroy:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html - Kasperky Free Security Scan:
http://www.kaspersky.com/security-scan
You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.
- Anti-rootkit utility TDSSKiller:
http://support.kaspersky.com/5350?el=88446
See also:
- "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge"> <link id='avast_os_ext_custom_font' href='https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Source+Sans+Pro' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'> <link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Lato:400,900" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <link href='https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Open+Sans:300,400,700&subset=latin,latin-ext' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'> <link href='https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Gloria+Hallelujah' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'> <link href="avast-resource://addon/templates/extension.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <script src="avast-resource://addon/templates/jquery.1.8.js"> </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="avast-resource://addon/templates/jquery.mustache.js"> </script> <script src="avast-resource://addon/templates/lodash.js"> </script> <script src="avast-resource://addon/templates/templates.js"> </script> <script src="avast-resource://addon/templates/safeshop/safeshop.js"> </script>
</head>
<body id="asw-safeshop" style="overflow: hidden;"> </body>
Thank you. I'll run each of these programs.
That are files from Avast as you can see by the avast-resource: protocol tat is used in the src attributes in the script tags.
Hi AmazonBug, I was surprised to see numerous references to avast! in that excerpt. I was able to find instructions on avast!'s forum to turn it off: Safe Price.
That extension is a bundle of support headaches.
Sorry, just to elaborate on that last post, you can look for the Options... button for an extension on the Add-ons page (or just slide the mouse pointer over and use Disable...).
Thank you, thank you, for all your help. My problem is solved. Perhaps I should uninstall Avast and get a new anti-virus program. I'm surprised that a program that purports to protect your system would deliberately impose spam on its users. I guess I'm rather naive. Anyway, I greatly appreciate your sharing your time and expertise with me. You have eased my mind.
الحل المُختار
I wouldn't say you are "naive", you know the difference between right and wrong. IMO Avast! is pushing the boundaries of acceptable behavior for a "security" application by doing that, as many other AV / Security programs are doing. Actions such as; changing search engines, homepage, and new tab page, along with adding a toolbar to begin with, are all unacceptable actions, IMO.
Personally, I avoid security programs that automatically install a toolbar in a web browser. AFAIK, Avira Free Antivirus is the only major AV application that doesn't automatically install a toolbar in Firefox. Avira Free tried that a few years ago when they released a new version, but they pulled it out within 2 months due to user outrage.
I never even saw that toolbar in Avira Free AV, running my WinXP PC 24/7 in my limited user account, rarely switching to my Admin user account. That toolbar needed to run in an Admin account to install itself, and / or needed a restart of Windows or a cold boot for installation of that garbage.
BTW, I switched to Avira Free from Avast! after Avast! starting adding garbage like we're discussing here, back in 2007 or 2008, IIRC.
I've downloaded Avira now and I paid attention while I did. It, too, has a marketing feature that needs to be turned off by going into the "settings" after it's installed. At least they warned me about the feature during the initial download. Hopefully I won't have any more surprises.
Thanks for your feedback. You've been most helpful.