Random Websites Spontaneously Open in Tabs

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Hi.

Out of nowhere, a tab spontaneously opened and took me to a website. I didn't do anything that would make this happen. (I had a similar problem with a Toyota dealership a couple months ago. Deleting all my cookies and doing a complete reinstall seemed to have fixed it.)

Here's the website:
https://avengers.square-enix-games.com/en-us/buy-now/?utm_source=280877456&utm_medium=136992872&utm_campaign=DV360_24544696_Launch_VideoSK_Programmatic_CPLPV_US-EN_AudienceBuying&utm_term=mav_amz_01_DV360_Liquid

Is there something in the source code that explains why this is happening? Do I have a security issue? If this keeps happening, I'll have to consider moving to Firefox because Chrome can $@#*%! itself.

I'm running Privacy Badger and Ghostery. My antivirus program didn't find anything when I ran a complete system scan.

[leocg]

leocg Moderator Volunteer @Guest last edited by

@linchpinning It can be from some extension or it can be from some malware.

[A Former User]

A Former User @leocg last edited by

@leocg I use Bitdefender, but their "web protection" browser extension doesn't cover Opera. Makes me wonder if running a regular scan on my laptop will subsequently miss Opera malware.

As for other extensions, I'm not which it could be. They've all been installed for years with no problems until a few months ago.

[leocg]

leocg Moderator Volunteer @Guest last edited by

@linchpinning When that tab opened up? I wonder if it wasn't just an ad.

[A Former User]

A Former User @leocg last edited by

@leocg It wasn't. Opera wasn't even the forefront application when it happened. Slack was.

In my cookies, there was one for rktch.com, which is a site I never went to, so no idea how they set a cookie. Out of curiosity, I went there and saw this:

(I didn't further configure anything.)

Then I found this blurb at a tech site.

Ngnix is the main culprit responsible for random redirects and spontaneous opening of new tabs with the advertising content.

I also have a bunch of .ru cookies, which I deleted and added to my Block list in settings/content/cookies. No idea how I acquired those either.

I hope this fixes the problem and prevents it from happening again.

[leocg]

leocg Moderator Volunteer @Guest last edited by

@linchpinning said in Random Websites Spontaneously Open in Tabs:

In my cookies, there was one for rktch.com, which is a site I never went to, so no idea how they set a cookie

It can be from another page you have visited.

And Ngnix is, as far as I know, just a webserver software.