Post by khj on Mar 13, 2020 18:50:20 GMT -5
Recently, there have been some concerns that the Stamp Bears Forum might be infected with a virus (no, not COVID-19, you can't get COVID-19 from surfing Stamp Bears! 
)
Firstly, please post here or contact us privately if you are experiencing possible virus/spyware problems when visiting Stamp Bears. I thank those who brought to our attention problems they have been running into. This allows us to look into it, and assess whether the problem is with the Stamp Bears Forum or on your device. If it is your device, then somebody here will chime in and help walk you through the spyware removal process if necessary.
For possible problems on SeeMyStamps, please contact the webmaster Phil (thanks again for hosting our stamp images, Phil!).
The past few incidents have involved viglink redirects and "Windows Alert" pop-ups. These typically indicate spyware infection on your computer. Sometimes we accidentally click on an ad (I've don't than more than once, trying to click on the small X to remove a pesky loud video ad). Google ads does a pretty good job of filtering out phishing ads, but it's hard when they have millions of different advertisers each year (30 billion ads each day!!!), and some will get through initially.
If you are getting any sort of redirect, revisit that Stamp Bears webpage and hit Shift-F5 immediately (before it redirects) to force your browser to re-load the original webpage. Otherwise, your browser will keep reloading the redirect page. If that solves the problem initially, you will still need to clear your browser. Then you will need to use one of the free basic spyware scanners such as MalwareBytes or SpyBot. It will give you a list, you may need to Google around to find out which item is the actual spyware. If MalwareBytes or SpyBot cannot directly remove the spyware, Googling will usually provide a solution -- but be careful, some of the sneakier spyware will also post "solutions" that actual embed the spyware further or swap to a new spyware!!!. I usually am wary of accepting any solution not posted by MalwareBytes or SpyBot.
Again, if you run into problems, contact us, or post here if you are willing to discuss publicly.
Meanwhile, enjoy your surfing experience here on Stamp Bears!
k
)Firstly, please post here or contact us privately if you are experiencing possible virus/spyware problems when visiting Stamp Bears. I thank those who brought to our attention problems they have been running into. This allows us to look into it, and assess whether the problem is with the Stamp Bears Forum or on your device. If it is your device, then somebody here will chime in and help walk you through the spyware removal process if necessary.
For possible problems on SeeMyStamps, please contact the webmaster Phil (thanks again for hosting our stamp images, Phil!).
The past few incidents have involved viglink redirects and "Windows Alert" pop-ups. These typically indicate spyware infection on your computer. Sometimes we accidentally click on an ad (I've don't than more than once, trying to click on the small X to remove a pesky loud video ad). Google ads does a pretty good job of filtering out phishing ads, but it's hard when they have millions of different advertisers each year (30 billion ads each day!!!), and some will get through initially.
If you are getting any sort of redirect, revisit that Stamp Bears webpage and hit Shift-F5 immediately (before it redirects) to force your browser to re-load the original webpage. Otherwise, your browser will keep reloading the redirect page. If that solves the problem initially, you will still need to clear your browser. Then you will need to use one of the free basic spyware scanners such as MalwareBytes or SpyBot. It will give you a list, you may need to Google around to find out which item is the actual spyware. If MalwareBytes or SpyBot cannot directly remove the spyware, Googling will usually provide a solution -- but be careful, some of the sneakier spyware will also post "solutions" that actual embed the spyware further or swap to a new spyware!!!. I usually am wary of accepting any solution not posted by MalwareBytes or SpyBot.
Again, if you run into problems, contact us, or post here if you are willing to discuss publicly.
Meanwhile, enjoy your surfing experience here on Stamp Bears!
k