[mrglsmrc]

thanks for your quick and courteous reply, troy. normally new tabs don't switch me when these open, such as AMEX card pop ups in newspaper sites like the nytimes. perhaps these are pop-unders?
what happened was very pernicious. i cannot even be sure whether the designers deliberately used malicious code because the chat windows kept opening after i left their verizon site and closed the tab.
i have made a point of mentioning verizon here in case your staff wants to test this.