and the links presented...

These issues are becoming more and more common... I suspect it will happen to Unix/Linux (my machine) one of these days too... these things are not the fault of the search engine per se... be cautious/suspect of any hyperlinks and URLs that you choose to click and read them before you commit. This will minimize exposure to these things...

What browser were you using? Explorer of Safari? That may have made a difference too.

A few key browser add ons may have saved you from this too... and maybe not.

For Firefox...

I use...

AddBlock Plus - this most likely would have saved you.
FlashBlock
RefreshBlocker
AND Ad Blocker

I also have programed in some customizations...

You could do the same if your browser supports these things. If not setting options may be of help... bear in mind you can "almost" literally strip all but text from web pages if that is what you want... which most people don't...

Occasionally I will just use a text based browser for down and dirty surfing of text browser compatible sites... which minimizes the pages I can get too, but also minimizes issues and is super fast... trade offs.

Unfortunately, intrusive adds and scams are the internet now... we have to wade through, and navigate around them to get to the information we want in most cases.

What does your "host" file look like?

You can edit this file to block websites and such... you would have to research this for your MAC.

grz-