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How do I get rid of unwanted underlined ads on a mac?

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  • 4 have this problem
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  • Last reply by doncack

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I've started getting links to unwanted ads coming up on webpages. Individual words in an article are turned into all capitals and are underlined too. With a small green arrow on the right hand side. When you hover the arrow over them a preview of the advert is displayed. I've attached a photo as an example. Does anyone know how I could get rid of these? I've tried adware scanner/remover software. And I reinstalled firefox. Neither have worked.

I've started getting links to unwanted ads coming up on webpages. Individual words in an article are turned into all capitals and are underlined too. With a small green arrow on the right hand side. When you hover the arrow over them a preview of the advert is displayed. I've attached a photo as an example. Does anyone know how I could get rid of these? I've tried adware scanner/remover software. And I reinstalled firefox. Neither have worked.

Chosen solution

ok, thanks, that looks clean/freshly reset. so it is likely that something malicious is going on on a deeper system level. was malwarebytes among the security tools you've used on your system already? if not, please run the free version once & perform a scan of your system: https://www.malwarebytes.org/mac-download/

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hello, this sounds like a problem possibly caused by malicious addons. please go to the firefox menu ≡ > addons > extensions & remove any suspicious entries (toolbars, things that you have not installed intentionally, don't know what purpose they serve, etc) or alternatively refresh firefox. Remove a toolbar that has taken over your Firefox search or home page

if you just see this on individual websites it might be an advertising scheme they use to increase their revenue. in such a case you could take a look on the various adblocker extensions that are available for firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/extensions/privacy-security/

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Hi Philipp Thanks for your quick reply. Unfortunately it hasn't worked... Any other suggestions? It's not just on particular websites. But doesn't seem to be on safari so must be something unique to firefox. thanks! Dan

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could you go to the firefox menu ≡ > help ? > troubleshooting information, copy the contents of that page and paste them here into a reply on the forum? this might give us a clue what is going on...

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Here goes:

Application Basics Name Firefox Version 43.0.3 Build ID 20151223140742 Update History Update Channel release User Agent Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.11; rv:43.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/43.0 Profile Folder Enabled Plugins about:plugins Build Configuration about:buildconfig Memory Use about:memory Registered Service Workers about:serviceworkers Multiprocess Windows 0/1 (default: false) Safe Mode false Crash Reports for the Last 3 Days Report ID Submitted

All Crash Reports Extensions Name Version Enabled ID Graphics Asynchronous Pan/Zoom none Device ID 0x1622 GPU Accelerated Windows 1/1 OpenGL (OMTC) Supports Hardware H264 Decoding No; Vendor ID 0x8086 WebGL Renderer Intel Inc. -- Intel(R) Iris(TM) Pro Graphics 6200 windowLayerManagerRemote true AzureCanvasBackend skia AzureContentBackend quartz AzureFallbackCanvasBackend none AzureSkiaAccelerated 0 Important Modified Preferences Name Value browser.cache.disk.capacity 358400 browser.cache.disk.filesystem_reported 1 browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run false browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max false browser.cache.frecency_experiment 2 browser.download.importedFromSqlite true browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion 7 browser.sessionstore.upgradeBackup.latestBuildID 20151223140742 browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID 20151223140742 browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone 43.0.3 dom.apps.reset-permissions true dom.mozApps.used true extensions.lastAppVersion 43.0.3 gfx.blacklist.direct2d 3 media.gmp-gmpopenh264.abi x86_64-gcc3-u-i386-x86_64 media.gmp-gmpopenh264.lastUpdate 1452082061 media.gmp-gmpopenh264.version 1.5.3 media.gmp-manager.buildID 20151223140742 media.gmp-manager.lastCheck 1452082061 network.cookie.prefsMigrated true network.predictor.cleaned-up true places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages 104858 plugin.disable_full_page_plugin_for_types application/pdf plugin.importedState true privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs true Important Locked Preferences Name Value JavaScript Incremental GC true Accessibility Activated false Prevent Accessibility 0 Library Versions Expected minimum version Version in use NSPR 4.10.10 4.10.10 NSS 3.20.2 Basic ECC 3.20.2 Basic ECC NSSSMIME 3.20.2 Basic ECC 3.20.2 Basic ECC NSSSSL 3.20.2 Basic ECC 3.20.2 Basic ECC NSSUTIL 3.20.2 3.20.2 Experimental Features Name ID Description Active End Date Homepage

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Chosen Solution

ok, thanks, that looks clean/freshly reset. so it is likely that something malicious is going on on a deeper system level. was malwarebytes among the security tools you've used on your system already? if not, please run the free version once & perform a scan of your system: https://www.malwarebytes.org/mac-download/

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Done it and its fixed! Thanks so much! You're a legend