'The Pirate Bay' users receive malware warning on Chrome, FirefoxMay 7(AZINS) People who frequently use torrent websites to illegally download their favourite TV shows and movies often opt for The Pirate Bay. It is one of the most popular torrent website with a huge collection to choose from. But users were in for a surprise on Saturday when they tried to access the website. In both Chrome and Mozilla web browsers, people logging on to the website were greeted with an ominous malware warning.

In Chrome, the warning reads as 'Deceptive site ahead' and in Firefox it is in the form of "Reported web forgery". Chrome users are being told, "Attackers on thepiratebay.se may trick you into doing something dangerous like installing software or revealing your personal information (for example, passwords, phone numbers, or credit cards)." It further goes on to say, "Google Safe Browsing recently detected phishing on thepiratebay.se. Phishing sites pretend to be other websites to trick you".

Firefox users are also greeted with a similar warning which says, "This web page at thepiratebay.se has been reported as a web forgery and has been blocked based on your security preferences. Web forgeries are designed to trick you into revealing personal or financial information by imitating sources you may trust. Entering any information on this web page may result in identity theft or other fraud."

In both cases, there is an option of ignoring the warning and accessing the website.

According to venturebeat.com, these kind of warnings are normally served when an ad network is compromised and malicious ads are sent. So it is more likely a third party problem which is crippling The Pirate Bay users currently. It is likely that the website will soon get to the heart of the problem and remove the pages from which malwares are being sent, as have been flagged by Google. Till then, users may need to access other torrent websites to get their daily fix.

The Pirate Bay in the past has been shut down many times for copyright violations but it has again been propped up in new avatars using mirror websites and new domain addresses.