Strange Happenings

[Eddy]

I'm not sure if this is the place, but it's the most appropriate one that I could find. Logging in this afternoon, I found a new, un-relic-related avatar sitting next to one of my posts (and after a search, the rest as well), along with a picture advertising "www.thebugs.ws" below my avatar. Upon further inspection, this picture appears to have replaced the "this person is online" pic.

Furthermore, i have noticed that several other users have suffered the same fate (replaced avatar), with pics advertising thebugs.ws and webfile.ws and something called Noob Store (that I have seen).

These are all being hosted by forums.relicnews.com (as was my avatar), it appears that the new pics have just been substituted for the existing HW based ones.

I wouldn't have posted anything, but for two reasons. My avatar was changed without my input (and I am sure that my password is secure), and the replaced avatars are breaking the forum (pushing parts off the screen, etc.).

Just noticed the same thing happening with clickable smilies.

This aint normal, right?

[cfoley]

Your avatar and online status button look fine to me. It sounds like you have been infected with some sort of virus/spyware/adware thingy.

A quick google didn't reveal anyone else with the same problem as you but the website it is advertising appears to be up to some illegal activity (based on google search results. I didn't visit it). I wouldn't put it past them to use adware.

[Eddy]

I changed my avatar to another image after making that post, and I'm not having any trouble with any other forums, and I regularly scan for malware. Could be though, I'll try looking at the forum on my brother's Mac.