Virus!

Chess.com has a virus! Please get rid of it.

yep - i would need more information. just post a screenshot:

1. when the problem comes up, click on PrtScn button on your keyboard

2. come back to this post, click in the reply box, and hit Control+V on your keyboard to paste it. 

then we can see what you are seeing. thanks!

Oh sorry, I should have been more specific. The virus is acquired by simply navigating the website. You might have to go to a lot of pages, but you can get the virus from any page on the site at random.

Sorry...been on here all morning and no virus...no virus warning...and no virus after scanning my system

 What is the name of the virus?

BS. Unless you're in the internet security you can't possibly know how the virus can be transmitted and from which pages. I seriously doubt you are. And I seriously doubt your statement.

These threads seem to pop up every couple weeks.  One person has a virus, mallware, etc.  and nobody else is seeing it.  

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.  (In other words, look to yourself before casting blame outward.)

no sorry, i've had this problem for a while too, where it goes to load a webpage for one of my games and every now and then my anti-virus stops me from loading the page because it detects a virus. It's done it about 3 times over the past 8 weeks or so.

Michael

There is something untoward happening on Chess.com and it's connected (somehow) to the advertisements. The "false scan" hijacking used to happen to me regularly (regardless of which security/browser I was using, I tried a few) and stopped happening the day I upgraded. I'm no expert but that seems fairly damning evidence.

is this STILL happening? if so, i need a screenshot or more evidence so i can research. thanks!

I have been having the same problem for quite a while and people I talk to in my area who also uses the site don't have any problems.  I get red flagged once in a while and just had to take my computer (I am using a borrowed laptop) back to who I bought it from so they could get it all cleaned.  I wish I could show but sometimes the browser takes me to this page that supposed to look like a My Computer home screen and starts "scanning" for Trojans.  IDK I think it may only be happening to free members and I have been wanting to try signing up for a premium and wondering if that will make a difference for all the ads popping up.

One thing to consider is that many antivirus programs use heuristic detection, meaning they are not seeing a known virus, they are just detecting something that they determine could be threat.  Depending on if a person has their settings on the program set to high or normal, etc. could make the difference between it finding false positives or not.  While its nice to be very secure, especially when using a certain OS that is more often stricken, there is a point to where the program can get in the way of normal browsing.  In addition, if there is a part of a security suite that is set to stop adware & spyware, it could be flipping out about any site that has any advertisement on it.  Personally, I wouldn't bring a true security issue up in a forum but would go direct to tech support for the site.  Do what you wish but please know that because a program on your computer pops something up saying "Trojan, trojan!" doesn't mean there is one.  Some antivirus programs are known to have way too many false positives. 

In addition, there are newer actual problematic malware out there in the wild that will disguise themselves as an anti-virus program and offer to scan your system.  If you've ever clicked to allow them to do so, you've inadvertently told the malware, "come on in, there's room for everyone here and by the way, antivirus program that's already on my computer, no need to worry, I'm allowing this one in, he's a new friend but I trust him because he says he's finding 5 trojans on my computer right now!" LOL  Maybe you know this info already, from the way the demand was presented it would appear to be from someone that either doesn't know much about Internet security or someone trying to sabotage a very useful and productive site.

And, yes I had a free account for awhile.  I never had a program telling me there were issues but I do enjoy the lack of adds for sure.  More often I am on a computer that has a Linux OS but there are times when I use the more commonly used OS and I researched the antivirus and anti-spyware program I put on it before installing it.  The particular one I put on the computer is actually known for having a high number of false positives but fortunately I can generally tell which are real or not.

I don't want to sound like I think it is impossible for there to be a virus on this or any site, just that screaming fire in a movie theater can sometimes cause unnecessary panic.  I do applaud the staff of chess.com for taking it seriously and asking for a screen shot, etc.  Some places on the Net wouldn't consider it.  There's always a chance but for some reason I don't get the impression they are at all careless or putting this site together blindly.

Sorry for the length of this.  I'm a bit passionate about this area of information. 

My computer has informed me that Norton AV found the following, and that have been classified as "High severity"

Trojan.Malscript!html

Trojan.Sasfis x 2

Bloodhound.PDF!gen

I believe that this may be coming from Chess.com.

Can you please let me know what you are doing about it, and what they are about.

Hello Everyone,

I work with Chess.com on this issue and if you have any details on the malware issues please feel fre to reach out to me directly.

Here are the things that can help us to determine if it is malware runnign and thru who... If youhave firebug running please send the report, if not here are the basics.

1. What Ad Size is it coming from, if you dont know that it is okay

2. What country are you in, to QA the ads we need to know what country it is coming from

3. How long were you on the site (1 pageview or 25) this helps to ID the offending network

4. If the ad redirects you etc, the URL or screenshots of the ad in actions (please just hit "Print Screen" and send that to us.

5. Any other information will help, we aplogize for any issues and are working to resolve this. Like Browser type, Computer type etc...

I have caught the "Antivirus Vista 2010" virus from chess.com before (I am 99% sure it was from this site), it's basically a virus which keeps on popping up with messages  saying you're infected and must buy their software to clean it.

Their ad closed the window and redirected me to an animation of it performing a "scan" finding loads of fake viruses. Unfortunately I have no URLs or screenshots as it was a few weeks ago.

Basically, the program stops you from browsing the Internet, it hijacks your security centre, and it's not easily detectable. I ran a scan with ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4 and it didn't find anything. I eventually used other malware programs to clear it.

Additionally, whenever I try and load this website now, a message pops up, saying that the website has been reported to Microsoft as unsafe.

If requested I will provide a sceenshot of this next time it appears. I am posting mainly because I do think there is a problem and that some of the claims earlier in the thread are worth chess.com checking out. 

EDIT: It happened again about 5 pages later (the report to Microsoft thing).

Is this what any of you are seeing?

Thanks you so much.

In addition, adding the browser and the system you are on also helps us to Identify the culprit.

 Yes, that's the message.

Browser is IE; system is Vista Home Premium.

Thanks so much this is very helpful, we are testing the tags and will let you know as soon as it is resolved.