Neopets spreading viruses? THE RETURN!

[superscreamer1992]

has anyone else gotten a virus from neopets? we got one and my mom thinks its from neopets! we are totally banned from neopets, leaving all our super accounts to rot! i need some long time players to tell weather or not they have gotten viruses from neopets, please include how long you have been on. when my mom sees, she might reconsider. SO LONG TIME USERS PLEASE POST IF YOU HAVE/HAVE NOT GOTTEN A VIRUS! IT MEANS SO MUCH TO ME.

Last edited by superscreamer1992 on Sat Sep 17, 2005 2:17 am, edited 6 times in total.

[Jasujo]

I really doubt you got the virus from Neopets. I've been playing for over 5 1/2 years and I haven't gotten a thing.

[superscreamer1992]

thanks for your post. it helps. wait till my mom sees! the she will let me on! i know it!

[mazil]

Yeah, I think it's unlikely that you got a virus from Neopets. I don't think they install anything on your computer, except for when they ask you to get the Flash plug-in... and you wouldn't get a virus from that either.

You'd probably be more likely to get a virus simply from using Internet Explorer and browsing around other sites. *cough* Firefox is a nice browser to use, and it's more secure =) *cough*

[digitel_anime_fan_20]

I've played for more than two years, and I've never gotten anything from neopets. I got a virus from MSN messenger once due to my stupidity, but not neopets.
Before jumping to such conclusions:
1. Were you, or any members of your family on any other sites? If anyone was on any site of questionable okayness, that may be the source.
2. Has anyone downloaded anything onto your computer? I can tell you know downloading the flashplayer wouldn't have done it, so rule that out, everyone on neo uses it, and if it caused a virus, people would know.
3. what browser do you use? As someone mentioned, internet explorer is a pretty bad browser, and lets all sorts of junk in. I use mozilla firefox, and almost never get popups, I find it more convienent, and faster than IE.

[shapu]

As far as Google knows, "polkapolka" is not a recognized virus, adware, or spyware program.

Just to be sure, you should use firefox or mozilla anyway; both DO have security holes, but are much less frequently exploited by scammers and software developers since fewer people use them.

http://www.mozilla.org for downloads.

You should also get adblock, available on the mozilla website, and do a search here on the PPT forums for the word "Chromedit" for that program and instructions for use.

[Medusa]

I've been playing Neopets for 58 months (59 months tomorrow) and my brother has been playing for 57 months. Over that time neither of us have received a virus that could be directly attributed to the Neopets site.

[Moonlight Flower]

I've been playing Neopets for 61 months and have never gotten a virus from it. I have gotten many viruses just because of security problems in Internet Explorer and not being very web-smart.

Like everyone else has said, I suggest getting Firefox and Adblock. It is really a much nicer interface to browse with anyways, in my opinion. But I get less viruses since less people exploit Firefox and Mozilla's loopholes.

[stampsyne]

I've heard of people getting warnigns from thier firewall while playing neopets, but when I checked the computer myself, I noticed that they had one of those stupid programs that turn text in to searchables through thier browser extension. Not actually neopets related at all!

I hope that makes sense.

[everconfused]

I just went to McAfee and searched polkapolka - doesn't exist. It's not in my spybot, ad-aware or spywareblaster programs either. Are you positive that was the name?

Never gotten a virus from Neopets - and I am super paranoid/super careful about keeping up with these things as best I can.

[superscreamer1992]

I just went to McAfee and searched polkapolka - doesn't exist. It's not in my spybot, ad-aware or spywareblaster programs either. Are you positive that was the name?

im pretty sure. it totally crashed our computer. thanks all for helping, i am gonna email the link to this page to my mom.

[IcyBlue]

Like everyone else has said, I suggest getting Firefox and Adblock. It is really a much nicer interface to browse with anyways, in my opinion. But I get less viruses since less people exploit Firefox and Mozilla's loopholes.

And I don't see why. With half the world using Firefox these days, wouldn't it be more, err, "productive" for evil people like virus and spyware makers to exploit Firefox?

[.:Requiem:.]

I've been playing for about 6 years, and I've never gotten a thing frm Neopets. It seems highly unlikely to me that they'd spread viruses; they have millions of users...wich they n doubt want to keep.

[Kuri]

I've been playing for about 6 years, and I've never gotten a thing frm Neopets. It seems highly unlikely to me that they'd spread viruses; they have millions of users...wich they n doubt want to keep.

Exactly. I've been playing for about six years as well and I've never had a virus or anything that could be linked to Neopets. I honestly think that they wouldn't allow something like that to happen. They don't want to scare all their users away.

[shapu]

Like everyone else has said, I suggest getting Firefox and Adblock. It is really a much nicer interface to browse with anyways, in my opinion. But I get less viruses since less people exploit Firefox and Mozilla's loopholes.

And I don't see why. With half the world using Firefox these days, wouldn't it be more, err, "productive" for evil people like virus and spyware makers to exploit Firefox?

Firefox (and parent program mozilla) combined only have about a 10% saturation rate. Overall, 85% of the world still uses IE.

And IE's popup blockers (since it's the popups that do the damage and install the spyware) are all add-in extensions that you, the user, must find and download. Mozilla/Firefox's, however, are already built in to the program and are easily configurable.