Highlighted words

[dfcauley]

Does anybody know what is going on with the words that appear highlighted when you make a post? It is really strange.........

[Sally]

Donna, I went back and looked at the last couple of posts you did, and nothing shows up highlighted on my monitor.

[dfcauley]

Donna, I went back and looked at the last couple of posts you did, and nothing shows up highlighted on my monitor.

Well I have noticed it on several other post. And if you click on the word..... an advertisement comes up.

[L in Ontario]

I've not seen any highlighted words in any post either, Donna. Can you post a link to the thread where the words are highlighted?

[Sally]

I know that some people can put just a highlighted word and when you click on it, you go to the link they are talking about, but this should only be for finch-related links. I'm with Liz, if you can tell us which post links to advertisements, we need to clean that up, that sounds like spam.

[Finch Fry]

Its a virus / malware on your pc most likely Donna. It just scans the words on your screen and links you to stuff to sell you things based on what that word means.

Have you recently installed anything to your computer?

[FinchDegg]

Sounds more like spyware to me ... if your computer runs on windows, update windows defender and run a scan, alternatively download yahoo antispy to your toolbar and run (very good way of deleting tracking cookies etc) alternatively if your looking for free antivirus for life download AVG from filehippo.com.

Hope this helps, any other computer probs just pm me peeps

[Finch Fry]

Sounds more like spyware to me ...

FYI...spyware is a form of malware.

Donna, personal preference but I highly do not recommend loading on more software to solve the problem. If you just recall the last piece of software that you installed or the last thing you did prior to the problem starting, you should be able to correct it by uninstalling or undoing what you did. Try deleting temporary internet files and deleting all cookies directly from the browser. If ALL of that fails, then you would want to consider using a tool for removing malware. I would also second the choice of AVG... a solid working and trusted and free antivirus software.

[Ursula]

Donna,

It's most likely nothing serious but just an add-on in your internet explorer. I remember I had that problem once that whenever there was a phone number listed in the text it automatically turned into a link and wanted me to call that phone number automatically with some program. Very annoying! Unfortunately I can't remember how I got rid of it eventually. One thing it could be is if you have Yahoo installed, they give you all sort of these add-ons. I almost believe that was my problem. (I don't use Yahoo anymore because they install all sorts of things.)

What you could try is go to your internet explorer Tools > Manage Add-ons > Enable or Disable Add-ons. If any add-ons sound like they could cause that you could disable them.

In any case, it's nothing that any forum member adds to the text, it's your explorer that displays it that way.

[dfcauley]

Thanks all. I am glad I am not going crazy here. The words are still highlighted, but I am just ignoring them.