Worrying Google 'virus'

This rattled me a bit.
I hadn't downloaded or installed anything recently, and I have AVG link scanner on so I haven't visited any sites flagged as 'bad'.
Then, suddenly, the following started happening :
- Search Google (either on the site, address bar, or search bar)
- The first 5 or so links would SEEM normal - the title would be normal, the description normal, and they were the right 'top finds' in Google rankings but the link (on screen and when clicked) would be for some other sites.
- These sites seemed to be rotated on some kind of list and included obscure search directories, ebay, zip sites ie. NOTHING to do with what they said and certainly not what they were supposed to be.
- Similar problem with Google in Firefox.
- AVG + spybot said nothing and found nothing.
- Ran updates and some random fixes found on forums - nothing.
- Finally stopped this madness with a System Restore to yesterday.

The worrying aspects of this are
- I haven't actually deleted any viruses to 'fix' it
- It came out of nowhere
- It seemed to be living somewhere BETWEEN my browser(s) and the info coming from Google, intercepting it and modifying it with the new links :/
Another PC here didn't go wrong though, so it must have been something on this PC. Should I be worried that it might have been monitoring OUTGOING data as well?

Has anybody heard of anything like this? I've searched around a bit and can't find mention of anything quite like it.

I've heard of similar situations, although not with Google. The software involved is called an 'affiliate leach'. The Commision Junction ad network is notorious for being vulnarable to this sort of malware.

I imagine the net, and networked computers, are starting to look more and more attractive to organized crime, so we'll probably see a lot more of this sort of thing.

It's probably a good time to change your account passwords. Last time I had a serious virus on my computer, I had a couple of failed attempts to access some payment transaction accounts a few days later.

I had either the same or a very similar problem a month or two ago. Download and install MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware. Update it and then immediately run the quick scan. It should find whatever's causing the problem.

Good luck.

I second malwart bytes, it found and removed stuff no other app I tried would.

Yeah, I got that same wierd thing about 6 months ago in Win ME. I'm not sure how I got it but I assumed it was a browser exploit which seemed to start after running IE, so I guess it was downloaded in Firefox and installed via IE.

It is your ISP - You need to ring them and tell them you want to opt out of what ever it is that's effecting your searches (phorm?)

Recently a client of mine had the exact same problem. Luckily for him he has two broadband lines at his works. He spent almost a week scanning PC's to find the problem.

So, I asked him to plug his laptop in broadband line 1 - Google links would take him to other links. He then plugged his laptop into broadband line 2 - Google worked as expect. Back into broadband line 1 - Google links would take him to other links again.

He would tell when he'd be re-directed to other links as the first words in the returned google search were italic.

So then how did a System Restore help him?

I can only say that this exact same thing happened as I described. It has since been sorted out with his ISP and all is fine now.