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when they know you have problems before you do........

When you say "log out, log back in", what precisely did you do? Reboot the computer? Use task manager to switch off the browser?

There are several scams out there that will take over your browser (or at least one of its tabs) and it's hit me 3 times in the past two years. I use Task Manager to take down the browser. That works.

Haven't had one block up the PC.

PS, I also have powered off the computer and rebooted it. But the Task Manager worked well also. At least for the scam thing I encountered.

And it's always good to clear your cache, clear your cookies, do a scan any time something like that happens.

You need to take a serious look at the sites you're cruising and you need to be running a good ad blocker, and be sure to keep your system updated.

Assuming you haven't downloaded a program containing a trojan most likely you're getting those from either a banner ad, a pop up, or a particular web site either by being re-directed to it or from a CSS attack. (Cross Site Scripting)

The bad thing about pop-ups is they might be something other than annoying. They can be set up so that when you think you're clicking it away you're actually triggering a download..... when that happens the DL can be anything from a browser hijacker giving you more pop-ups or any type of malware there is. Anytime you're getting a lot of pop-ups at once you should be very suspicious. Either you're already infected or you're being set up for a buffer overrun attack.

Best thing is to reboot your system and do a scan. Then get back online on a different site, preferably a site you can trust that you've visited before.... then if you're still getting odd messages or pop-ups you're definitely infected. You'll need to research what to do or take it to a pro, or maybe your teenage nephew, LOL

If this happens to you on a regular basis you might want to look at running a live OS for the kind of browsing you're doing, or for when you do sensitive things like banking.
Avoid public WIFI and if you can't then get a VPN with end to end encryption.