Pernicious JavaScript Confirm Dialog ‘Advertisements’

There’s a resurgence in the use of JavaScript’s confirm command by scummy web page advertisers. What you get is a dialog box that looks like a warning that something is wrong with your computer; in this particular example, that your computer might have “errors in the registry database”.

These “ads” are utterly despicable. The intent is to trick Windows users into downloading and installing software from the advertiser, just by clicking the OK button in the alert window. If you’re using Safari, you can identify these bogus JavaScript-driven alerts by several tell-tale indicators: the boldface headline in the dialog is the URL of the originating site of the JavaScript; the app icon in the dialog is Safari’s; and the buttons are always Cancel and OK (JavaScript’s confirm command doesn’t let you specify button names). Hit Cancel if you see one of these things.

★ Sunday, 26 November 2006