I’m sorry I have to write this, but I need your help, especially if you are an Apple products user, such as iPad or iPhone. I have been getting complaints from people that visit WUWT for a few days now that have been saying they have been getting these fake “Google” pop-up ads that redirect to another website, making it nearly impossible to read articles on WUWT.
I don’t own a single Apple product, so I can’t check, but I did verify with WordPress engineers that the problem exists, and is real. They think they finally have it locked down, but I need some help to check. So if you have either of these devices (seems to be a mobile device issue only) please check WUWT now and tell me if you see anything like this:
If you still see something like, please leave a comment and provide as much details as you can. If you have an Apple product, and you aren’t seeing this sort of ad, that information is useful too.
Thanks. I’m sorry for the trouble, I have no control over this.
Anthony
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No problem a few minutes ago.
No problem on my iPad mini, latest OS, from Canada’s west coast
No problem on my iPad in New Zealand
I don’t have anything like that showing up, but I don’t use handheld IP toys. Just an ancient and reliable desktop.
Sorry to hear about this. Some people have nothing better to do than to make nuisances of themselves.
No problem on iPhone latest OS
A nasty bit of hacking.
Always suspected Google was run by a bunch of hacks
I have been getting those (annoying pop up ads) but not in the last couple of days. Thanks for addressing this!
A nasty bit of hacking. I do wonder about the motives of the hacker.
And the duplicate post filter is acting up again.
What motivates the hacker? The same thing that motivates CAGW “research”: easy money with little to no hard work.
I’ve had it happen once, but not in a few days.
From my iPhone 7 no issue now, sir
I am not seeing any fake pop up ads on this website. I am using safari on iPad running the latest iOS.
Not on my iPhone.
I do get car ads and for some reason affordable septic service.
No problem here, but I would put nothing past Apple, Amazon, Google in the dirty tricks department these days.
I see the ad when I open the item on the WUWT website using Safari on my iPad. Note that I also saw it when the item came to my Gmail account and I read it on the iPad. It also shows up in the email on my Android phone.
Anthony this happened to me about a month ago. I had to kill the browser and open it again.
Lately, I have not seen this redirect.
Can’t give a certain timeline, but maybe 2-3 weeks ago I got the “pop-up” too.
Dell desktop, Comcast, Norton security. ??????
No issues lately.
similar here…and on several other sites. Samsung galaxy/android.
Site looks clean now on my phone..
I have had these but not lately. I also get them on the “Daily Wire” site. Very annoying. I have to close out and come back in sometimes several times before they stop. I just thought some jerk was making it difficult to visit these sites. iPad.
On my iPad a few days ago, but not since – Normally I would just close it out, but i did click the first link. They probably got the data they were seeking. If you find out the purpose of the hack please let us know.
” I have no control over this.”
..
Actually you have full control over this. All you have to do is host this site on your own server, and you would not have to subject your users with ads because you are a cheapskate and won’t pony up to pay for a server.
[?? .mod]
[fake email address, fake IP address, “Remy” is just another sockpuppet fake of David -Anthony]
WUWT needs the kind of server that can withstand a determined DOS attack. That isn’t a “your own server” kind of thing – you need professional hosting.
Remy Mermelstein
And, since you appear to feel that way about things here, how much have you contributed to the upkeep and operations of this site from your pocket?
How much has the federal and state governments been paying for your salary and your computer storage at your university, your lab, your research projects? Where would you be, what would you be able to do without unwilling taxpayer support for your position?
Yeah, to boot Remy Mermelstein is using a Cornell University email address, while at the same time accusing me of “being cheap”. He’s also using a proxy server in Korea to hide is identity
Me thinks Remy is somebody else. (that I know only too well)
Throw some of that Big Oil money at the problem 😉
Remy knows as little about software and economics as he does everything else under the sun.
That happened to me once. Kept happening even after I closed the window.
I finally closed the Firefox browser completely on my iPad. Then I flushed the memory state. Restarted. Haven’t seen it since. Looked to me like something was trying to insert malware by enticing me to click on the selection choice. I didn’t. I kept closing the window.
Happened in iOS, but not on my desktop OS X (El Capitan running Firefox browser).
I have not seen the problem and use iPad and iPhone. I use Google as mail and ISP and Telstra is the service provider in Australia.
Please keep up the good work.
Roger.
Android user here. I usually get Facebook ones, on various sites including WUWT.
I got the ads Anthony asks about on android using firefox. A few days ago. Stopped me from using site for a day
Pop ups like that occur every so often on Apple products. The best way to deal with them is close out of Safari, go to Settings, Safari, and Clear History and Website Data.
That usually resolve the problem.
Yes good advice to close the browser (rapidly press the main button below the screen on iPhones twice, then swipe the browser up and off the page). Reopen the browser. If the popup recurs, power down and restart (reboot) which will usually stop the recurring popups without needing to clear browsing data. But if not, clear cache as suggested. That may cause you to have to log in to some sites where you saved passwords, so that’s why I try to avoid clearing browser data.
I also see that sort of thing using realclearpolitics.com on a regular basis, but not recently on WUWT. Using iPhone 7.
“Clear History and Website Data” doesn’t delete passwords.
Thanks for raising that Anthony, had that problem here in Aus about 2 weeks back on my ipad, not so much recently though. Virtualy had to restart the ipad to get around it, very nasty stuff from google, they should be shut down for their deception.
It’s not Google, any more than it’s a Nigerian prince trying to reward you generously for helping them get their money out of the country.
It’s just criminals preying on gullible people who don’t realize that anybody can buy an add and copy a logo.
Do you really think that Google would have an advertisement with that many spelling and grammar errors?
Damn autocorrect
“Buy an ad”
“Your help needed: Some targeted ads to WUWT disrupt Apple product users”
I’m having trouble caring about this.
Finally, something I can fully agree with.
I use Apple products. Some skeptics do, you know, even though I detest their smug PR policies as PC apeasement.
To report: no issues on iPhone or iMac desktop with updated iOS.
“I detest their smug PR policies as PC apeasement.”
Exactly why I have trouble caring. Apple is portrayed as perfect. At least they stopped the constant attack ads against PCs, but Apple as a company leaves a bad taste in my mouth, pun intended.
Affected Android phones too – so maybe you should (care).
Don’t use my phone to read WUWT. I don’t use tiny screens for that.
I went through a period a few days ago where I had to click the Read More link to an article several times before it would go to the article instead of being hijacked to, not Google adware but a $1000 Amazon Gift Card adware.
Each time I went there there was no way to go back or cancel from the page itself. I had to select the history icon to bring up the the list of sites and delete it from there. After two or three of these cycles I could then get to the article.
Then often as not, as soon as I would scroll down to begin reading another of the same type ad would appear.
I was close to giving up about the time it just stopped. I haven’t had any trouble since.
No problem on iPhone 8plus here in Vancouver, BC
I was getting hijacked regularly but it didn’t look like that. Most common was saying I won a prize from Amazon, less common said my ISP was conducting a survey (I briefly considered that might be authentic, but it did redirect me from the page I wanted to be on, so FAIL). I haven’t seen them for a few weeks. In that time, I changed from iPhone 6 to iPhone X, then upgraded the iOS (twice). I can’t recall if any hijacks occurred after those events. And I use only Safari on my iPhone.
I was getting the same Amazon prize message. Flushing memory and restarting was not effective. Finally discovered that if I let the page start loading, and then hit the stop button (X in the URL bar) which prevented the “ad” from loading. Happened on iPhone 7 for about a week. Did not occur on iMac running Safari and Chrome during the same period.
No problems on my DynaTAC 8000x
No problem on my ipad
No problem on my ancient iPad