Why does askwoody.com site ask for $50 to open site?

Topic

Why does askwoody.com site ask for $50 to open site? A few days ago I could not open the site without a message asking to pay $50. Click on cancel lead to a flash updates upgrade that was marked as virus. I closed the site and have not been back until now. Please provide info why that happen. Thanks.

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AskWoody.com does not ask for any money in order to access the site. It does not cost anything to register as an AskWoody Lounger. So, I don’t think you were at the actual AskWoody site.

I’m guessing that you may have picked up some malware… ?

Since Microsoft made clicking on X stand for ‘install W10’ I have not trusted malware not to do the same… and have backed out of sites by closing my browser (through Task Manager) rather than clicking on anything…

Non-techy Win 10 Pro and Linux Mint experimenter

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SueW, jburk07, woody, cmptrgy, satrow, Cybertooth

Your browser is infected.

There is no charge to look at the contents of AskWoody, to post on AskWoody, or to register for an account on AskWoody.

We’ve removed the advertising, except for a few tiny slivers.

The people who pay for AskWoody are the Plus Members. They keep the site going. You can become a Plus Member by donating whatever amount you choose.

5 users thanked author for this post.

WSGeo, geekdom, jburk07, satrow, Kirsty

When the site was down a few days ago, I got the same message which seems to me were being caused by the ads on this site. Make sure to have AdBlocker turn on always when surfing. ( I sometimes turn it off since some sites have blockers for Adblocker. This is why I saw this message. After turning it on back, the message did not show up when the site was down.)

That’s not possible. All of the ads were pulled months ago.

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Kirsty

There are numerous ad-ware “plug-ins” for Chrome, Firefox and Edge that purport to be search enhancers or toolbars that insert their own ads on any website. It appears you may have been infected by one.

MalwareBytes calls them either outright malware or adware, but more commonly PuP’s (Potentially Unwanted Programs.) I recommend you review all your plugins – look for anything like add-on toolbars or search enhancers/filters. And scan with MalwareBytes in passive mode if you already have another anti-virus installed. Make sure you turn off Active Protection in MalwareBytes when using it as a second AV for a scan.

You can also reset your browser (I recommend this after a scan finds and cleans stuff.)

Chrome: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/3296214?hl=en

Firefox: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/refresh-firefox-reset-add-ons-and-settings

IE: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17441/windows-internet-explorer-change-reset-settings

Edge: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4023560/windows-10-what-to-do-if-microsoft-edge-not-working

~ Group "Weekend" ~

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Fabled, jburk07

When the site was down a few days ago, I got the same message which seems to me were being caused by the ads on this site.

Yes that was when I had the problem as well.

There are numerous ad-ware “plug-ins” for Chrome, Firefox and Edge that purport to be search enhancers or toolbars that insert their own ads on any website. It appears you may have been infected by one.

MalwareBytes calls them either outright malware or adware, but more commonly PuP’s (Potentially Unwanted Programs.) I recommend you review all your plugins

No viruses or malware or ad-ware “plug-ins”. Scanned with Avast, MS Defender, F-secure Linux Bootable USB and MalwareBytes. This only happen when the site was down a few days ago. All other site load fine without the message.

[tonyl]

I’ve got this site whitelisted, and I’ve not noticed any ads yet. They’re well-hidden

• This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by tonyl. Reason: Typo

Same here: no toll payment requested, now or ever before, although I’ve had this site white listed since long ago. So is there a fake “AskWoody” out there? If there is one, that would be a sort of backhanded compliment to this site, wouldn’t it?

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

Get add-ons NoScript and uBlock Origin.

Block popups.

On permanent hiatus {with backup and coffee}
offline▸ Win10Pro 2004.19041.572 x64 i3-3220 RAM8GB HDD Firefox83.0b3 WindowsDefender
offline▸ Acer TravelMate P215-52 RAM8GB Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1265 x64 i5-10210U SSD Firefox106.0 MicrosoftDefender
online▸ Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1992 x64 i5-9400 RAM16GB HDD Firefox116.0b3 MicrosoftDefender

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jburk07