[TriLUG] Is this a hijack?

James Jones jc.jones at tuftux.com
Sat Aug 16 15:19:06 EDT 2008


All,

Not sure if I understand what a hijacked web page is, but I have run
into something that is baffling me.

Recently, I need some battery information so I use my favorite search
engine, Google on my favorite browser, Firefox 2.0.0.14, with the key
search being "battery reference chart" ( without the quotes ). As
usual, Google responds quickly with  "Results 1 - 10 of about 307,000
for battery reference chart. (0.07 seconds) ". Not finding exactly
what I was looking for in the first 10, I went to the second page ( 11
- 20 ).

Number 13 was listed as follows:
==========================================================

Battery cross reference chart, toshiba laptop battery, acid ...
Submenu Item A; Submenu Item B. Nice battery cross reference chart ...
Battery cross reference chart, how to test a battery isolator, lawn
mower battery, ...
www.scottsimmons.tv/media/cpdky/battery-cross-reference-chart.html - 10k -
Cached - Similar pages

==========================================================

As I usually do when going to links on google, I clicked on the first
line -- "Battery cross reference chart...." I am sent to:

http://scan.free-antispyware-scanner.com/100627/3/

The page that popped up was designed to look like winxp as if you had
clicked on "My Computer". For C and D hard drives, red lettering was
underneath it "Hardware error". A horizontal progress bar with
indication of "scanning". Of course, my browser is now locked so I
have to open a terminal window and kill Firefox.

If I use the link at the bottom of Number 13 :

www.scottsimmons.tv/media/cpdky/battery-cross-reference-chart.html

I go to the website without interference from the "hijacker".

How did they do this????

jcj



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