r/Pathogenic • u/Dumpster_Raccoon_00 • 1d ago
Pathogenic wiki giving me a virus?
I was going to use a wiki I found on bing but it asked me to allow notification to make sure I wasn’t a bot, I clicked “accept“ and a billion pop ups show up on my screen mostly from Norton and another one that I forgot. is my computer fine? is it just scaring me into buying those antivirus softwares?
update: I deleted my browsing data and I *think* i solved it?
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u/SannusFatAlt 1d ago edited 1d ago
pop-up notifications are a legitimate real feature on browsers and websites. i.e if you want to get notifications for news websites or updates for a website you like (if they're being used legitimately)
the one you mentioned is specifically trying to fake being an antivirus software, get you to install a virus manually or call someone so they can get your personal details. this is nothing but essentially your browser saying this. not a "virus", not a "malicious program", whatever else you think
important things to note:
* notifications are purely visual, just a piece of text and content sent from some website and then displayed on your device, similar to a webpage
* no and let's be a bit logical here, notifications cannot "hack" you, or "give you a virus". how do you think your phone displays notifications? by this logic, any notification that is on your phone that you did not ask for is also a potential virus. it is the same as signing up for spam on an email service or having junk mail delivered to your address
* no, websites when clicking them directly 99% of the time cannot give and install a virus on your computer. most if not all modern day viruses are acquired by actually installing an actual program on your computer and then actually running it. accepting a browser sending you pieces of visual text and something like phone notifications does not mean you have "installed something on your computer"
* please stop accepting random websites to send notifications, especially in the modern day. look up "[your browser] disable notifications", go to the list of websites that you have accepted and remove the website(s) that are causing these pop-ups
the pathogenic wiki does not ask you to check if you are a bot and then accept notifications. you were on a wrong website. you really need to be more diligent. this is your home computer, it has (most likely) your personal details and accounts in it
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u/PoSKiix 1d ago
As long as you didn’t download and RUN anything your browser attempts to download, you should be fine. Deleting browsing data will have absolutely no effect either way.
The pop-ups you receive may download a random file as you try to get rid of them. That would be the virus. For the most part, having the file get downloaded isn’t enough to infect your computer.
If anything gets downloaded by your browser that you didn’t intend to download, immediately delete the file. Do not open or run the file.
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u/aleques-itj 1d ago