I run Firefox on Vista, and unfortunately I got tricked (through a deceptive google result) into going to a page containing one of those fake "Your Computer Has all of this Spyware on it!" pages. I tried manually closing the tab, but it had a "Are you sure you want to navigate away" JavaScript alerts (HATE THOSE). So I clicked "OK," and the tab closed. Then I closed firefox altogether and rebooted.
Now, before I could close the tab, it did prompt me to download a file, but of course I choose not to, and checking my downloads folder, nothing new is there. Also, even if I ?did? download it, ?I? would still have to choose to run it by double clicking on it for it to install itself, right? Also, I ran Malware Bites and Windows Defender and both said everything was fine.
From this I would normally believe I am safe, but I have read everywhere that this thing "automatically installs" itself and that it is a bitch to get rid of. Is it really possible for this thing to dig in if you are running firefox and didn't choose to download it or run it after downloading?