Warning - friend got BUBBLEBDOC after installing FIREFOX

jimbo45

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Hi there


Note this is NOT Firefox's fault - just someone hosting their software.

I've often complained of sites MISLEADING users by having so many links and hiding THE REAL software they are trying to download -so ask them to take care - but some people obviously never learn

Anyway he downloaded Firefox and ended up with probably the most horrible piece of adware I've ever seen in all my years I've been handling computers -- a nasty thing called BUBBLEDOCK - every time he made a key stroke about 15 ads pop up in different windows all over his screen - (even when he's NOT using a browser - so even popup blockers are no good here). These popups also randomly appeared even when he wasn't NOT doing anything,

(Mods -- this isn't I hope against the ad blocker rule - it's just this piece of insidious software is SO horrible it goes far beyond any decent legitimate advertising business).

Even I gave up trying to remove all vestigial traces of it -- Of course my colleague didn't have backup either --- Well finally a good excuse for me to update his system from Windows 8 to 8.1 Pro with a totally fresh install.

So PEEPS : If you want to download anything (Firefox is OK if you like different browsers so it's NOT firefox's problem) ALWAYS CHECK THE DOWNLOAD SITE IS THE OFFICIAL ONE and not some 3rd party site. ALWAYS CHECK EVERYTHING BEFORE ACTUALLY HITTING THE DOWNLOAD BUTTON, UNCHECK ANY TOOLBARS / SPECIAL OFFERS AND IF AT ALL POSSIBLE AVOID USING ANY DOWNLOAD MANAGERS THESE SITES HAVE.

(Sometimes it's not always possible but a legitimate site - say like adobe is OK - just beware of "unknown 3rd party sites").

I hope none of you ever have to deal with BUBBLEDOCK in a big way -- if you want to see how horrible it is create an ISOLATED VM - I'd suggest say WIN7 as you don't have to "pre-activate" and you can test for 30 days before activating - download bubbledock and see your system destroyed. While testing though isolate the VM from the rest of your network.

I wasted 4 hours with that rubbish.


Cheers
jimbo
 

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Oh my, and I thought that dealing with "Babylon" was a bother.
 

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Sounded like installed Firefox from a 3rd party site rather than Mozilla's site.
 

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Hi there


Note this is NOT Firefox's fault - just someone hosting their software.

I've often complained of sites MISLEADING users by having so many links and hiding THE REAL software they are trying to download -so ask them to take care - but some people obviously never learn

Anyway he downloaded Firefox and ended up with probably the most horrible piece of adware I've ever seen in all my years I've been handling computers -- a nasty thing called BUBBLEDOCK - every time he made a key stroke about 15 ads pop up in different windows all over his screen - (even when he's NOT using a browser - so even popup blockers are no good here). These popups also randomly appeared even when he wasn't NOT doing anything,

(Mods -- this isn't I hope against the ad blocker rule - it's just this piece of insidious software is SO horrible it goes far beyond any decent legitimate advertising business).

Even I gave up trying to remove all vestigial traces of it -- Of course my colleague didn't have backup either --- Well finally a good excuse for me to update his system from Windows 8 to 8.1 Pro with a totally fresh install.

So PEEPS : If you want to download anything (Firefox is OK if you like different browsers so it's NOT firefox's problem) ALWAYS CHECK THE DOWNLOAD SITE IS THE OFFICIAL ONE and not some 3rd party site. ALWAYS CHECK EVERYTHING BEFORE ACTUALLY HITTING THE DOWNLOAD BUTTON, UNCHECK ANY TOOLBARS / SPECIAL OFFERS AND IF AT ALL POSSIBLE AVOID USING ANY DOWNLOAD MANAGERS THESE SITES HAVE.

(Sometimes it's not always possible but a legitimate site - say like adobe is OK - just beware of "unknown 3rd party sites").

I hope none of you ever have to deal with BUBBLEDOCK in a big way -- if you want to see how horrible it is create an ISOLATED VM - I'd suggest say WIN7 as you don't have to "pre-activate" and you can test for 30 days before activating - download bubbledock and see your system destroyed. While testing though isolate the VM from the rest of your network.

I wasted 4 hours with that rubbish.


Cheers
jimbo

Why on God's green Earth would anyone download Firefox from anywhere but firefox.com? Do people still not understand that the Internet is a cesspool of deception and infection? People, wake up!
 

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Another vote for download from Third party site. Mozilla does not package their software with Adware, Freeware, Malware.
 

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I concur, broe23
 

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Hi there


Note this is NOT Firefox's fault - just someone hosting their software.

I've often complained of sites MISLEADING users by having so many links and hiding THE REAL software they are trying to download -so ask them to take care - but some people obviously never learn

Anyway he downloaded Firefox and ended up with probably the most horrible piece of adware I've ever seen in all my years I've been handling computers -- a nasty thing called BUBBLEDOCK - every time he made a key stroke about 15 ads pop up in different windows all over his screen - (even when he's NOT using a browser - so even popup blockers are no good here). These popups also randomly appeared even when he wasn't NOT doing anything,

(Mods -- this isn't I hope against the ad blocker rule - it's just this piece of insidious software is SO horrible it goes far beyond any decent legitimate advertising business).

Even I gave up trying to remove all vestigial traces of it -- Of course my colleague didn't have backup either --- Well finally a good excuse for me to update his system from Windows 8 to 8.1 Pro with a totally fresh install.

So PEEPS : If you want to download anything (Firefox is OK if you like different browsers so it's NOT firefox's problem) ALWAYS CHECK THE DOWNLOAD SITE IS THE OFFICIAL ONE and not some 3rd party site. ALWAYS CHECK EVERYTHING BEFORE ACTUALLY HITTING THE DOWNLOAD BUTTON, UNCHECK ANY TOOLBARS / SPECIAL OFFERS AND IF AT ALL POSSIBLE AVOID USING ANY DOWNLOAD MANAGERS THESE SITES HAVE.

(Sometimes it's not always possible but a legitimate site - say like adobe is OK - just beware of "unknown 3rd party sites").

I hope none of you ever have to deal with BUBBLEDOCK in a big way -- if you want to see how horrible it is create an ISOLATED VM - I'd suggest say WIN7 as you don't have to "pre-activate" and you can test for 30 days before activating - download bubbledock and see your system destroyed. While testing though isolate the VM from the rest of your network.

I wasted 4 hours with that rubbish.


Cheers
jimbo

Why on God's green Earth would anyone download Firefox from anywhere but firefox.com? Do people still not understand that the Internet is a cesspool of deception and infection? People, wake up!

Hi there.

At the START of my post I emphasized that in spite of all warnings people still DO download from these sorts of sites (also explained that this wasn't Mozilla's fault either).

Not everybody is as knowledgeable as a lot of people on the Forums -- they hear a name from possibly their mates, then GOOGLE it and simply download from the first site that comes up without checking the address in the URL.

However even some quite LEGIT sites for OTHER software make the actual download hard to find - loads of green arrows -- often loads of toolbars, Video converters, computer performance scanners etc -- all of which have nothing to do with the actual download you want. Unfortunately this is an increasing tendency now so even experienced users should take care when downloading ANY software.

There ARE dangers on the Internet as there is on say the N.Y subway, London's Night buses or major freeways / motorways - but on the whole we are much BETTER off WITH these facilities than WITHOUT them and if you take reasonable care you can use all these services without a problem.

Same with the Internet -- there is some deception but I don't agree it's totally a cesspit . I think at least 90% of us at least is FAR BETTER OFF WITH the Internet than WITHOUT IT - we just have to learn how to use it safely and properly and remember a lot of criminal activity has moved away from the Streets and Physical property.

Cheers
jimbo
 

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Totally right, jimbo. on internet, all you have to do is READ and UNDERSTAND what's written. Pushing the wrong button, even in "real" life can get you in a trouble in a jiffy, same goes for internet, why would that be any different ?.
 

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Sounded like installed Firefox from a 3rd party site rather than Mozilla's site.

Yep, that's what Jimbo said in his first sentence.

Add to Jimbo's warning: Do not click on a popup that tells you you need to install something or other. My neighbor's 9-year-old grandson did, and was sooooooooooo embarrassed by all the porn he got on his gramma's computer. We finally had to go to Microsoft Support to get that one off.
 

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Why on God's green Earth would anyone download Firefox from anywhere but firefox.com? Do people still not understand that the Internet is a cesspool of deception and infection? People, wake up!

There are newbies born every day, sgage. As can be told by these forums. I live in a subdivision where fully half of the residents are computer illiterate.

Let's not be so hard on those who aren't as computer literate as most of the people here.
 

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That's where images come in handy. That's easier than fighting the thing.
 

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Why on God's green Earth would anyone download Firefox from anywhere but firefox.com? Do people still not understand that the Internet is a cesspool of deception and infection? People, wake up!

There are newbies born every day, sgage. As can be told by these forums. I live in a subdivision where fully half of the residents are computer illiterate.

Let's not be so hard on those who aren't as computer literate as most of the people here.

so true and most will never become computer smart because they will not take the time we did/do .I remember when I bought that used 386 machine back in 1996 my first ,set it up plugged it in and took about 10 minutes to realize I had to bush a button to get it to turn on ,and another 10 to turn on the monitor ,and about 2 days [lol not really ] to click on an icon .
 

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Hmm, my IBM 386 (in 1991) turned on faster but I never used it. I put it into the credenza in my office where is probably still sitting.
 

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Well, even with legitimate software there is a risk that the author of the website or the author of the software has added spyware, bloatware, adware, etc. to advertise and make money, even off of "free" software. One site I never go to because not only do they add spyware and bloatware but they also add malware, is cnet. That site is legitimate and yet they are dangerous in my book. I have downloaded several programs from there in the past and regretted it. One thing I do when downloading software is scan it with my AV right after it's on my desktop. The second thing I do is instead of doing a quick install, I choose the advanced option and uncheck all the extra software and toolbars it wants to install. Then, I go to my uninstall list and make sure it didn't sneak something in without my knowledge. For the most part, I go to the authors site for software. For Firefox, I go to mozilla's site. For Open Office, which can show several third party sites in Google, I find the correct Apache site. I do not bash this guys friend or belitttle him for downloading from a third party site, because we all have done it at one point in our lives.
 

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People do darnest things on the computer, things they wouldn't do in "real" life. On computers or internet they never take any precautions like locking doors and windows (pun intended), looking first before opening door or let a salesman sell them something they don't want. But, put them in front of computer and they would believe anything or just go with the flow.
 

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Yeah, Count, but tell me you haven't done something considered "n00b"ish on the PC at one point in your life. If you haven't then perhaps you should run Microsoft, IBM, Apple, etc. :)
 

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Yeah, Count, but tell me you haven't done something considered "n00b"ish on the PC at one point in your life. If you haven't then perhaps you should run Microsoft, IBM, Apple, etc. :)
Oh I can assure you, did lot's of it but not for those reasons. Just at times when I didn't think something thorough or skipped my own or somebody else's advice.
 

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Why on God's green Earth would anyone download Firefox from anywhere but firefox.com? Do people still not understand that the Internet is a cesspool of deception and infection? People, wake up!

^ This
Like wtf. Its good it happened, taught them a lesson maybe and thankfully wasn't worse for them
 

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Why on God's green Earth would anyone download Firefox from anywhere but firefox.com? Do people still not understand that the Internet is a cesspool of deception and infection? People, wake up!
not everyone fully understands computer and the internet , ever suggest to someone to make sure they have the latest drivers install to correct a problem ,and have them post back and say "where do I get latest drivers" I could go on and on ,I was that person years ago ! maybe we all were
 

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