It certainly sounds like you've got some sort of malware on your computer. Try downloading Adaware from https://secure.lavasoft.com/products/ad-aware_se_personal.php - it's free and can sort out a lot of nasties. Another good one is Spybot S&D from http://www.spybot.info/en/index.html = If one can't find anything the other probably will. Also make sure that you carry out a full virus scan; you have got some anti-virus software, I hope.

I would agree with that assessment. We had a similar report right after the game was released, and we strongly suspect some sort of infection on that computer, as well. This is almost certainly not something that is caused by the a game malfunction.

teresarae,

have you tried doing an online virus/malware/trojan scan? it couldn't hurt to try, especially if your antivirus installed on your machine has become compromised in some way.
Trendmicro has a good, thorough and free online scanner, it's at http://housecall.trendmicro.com . You should probably turn off System Restore before doing the scan, otherwise possible infections could be lurking there and re-manifest themselves even if the online scanner cleans them out.

HTH!