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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Not seen it on my MacBook or my iPhone
Don’t see anything like that on my iPhone8.
No problems loading web pages on iPhone 6 using Safari, Bing or Yandex browsers.
This was happening on my iPad with regularity some months ago,
Very irritating, a fake virus warning
Would have to clear history to get it to stop
Okay on my iphone and iPad
B.C. Canada
I normally use an Android pad without the problem. However I have seen it weeks ago when occasionally using my MacPro laptop. I’ll keep an eye on it over the next few days.
I checked on my iphone and did not see anything unusual.
I’ve seen somesuch thing on my tablet and/or ‘phone….both Samsung. I just closed everything down and ok since. I think I saw it twice but not lately so can’t be sure of details. I am based in Australia.
Has not ever shown up on Mac, iPhone, or iPad. Using Google.
No problem on my iPhone 6, iPad Pro or MacBook Pro in Safari. I do use an Ad Blocker in Safari which makes it a perfect no hassle experience. If I use Chrome on same devices without an ad blocker, it is basically unreadable and unusable due to so many ads blinking and flashing. And then crashes, presumably due to so much system resources being consumed…or is Chrome itself. The only caveat to that is if I am travelling at an Int airport on free wi-fi and forget to turn on my VPN, then somehow I am bombarded with stuff that I presume comes over the free wi-fi. Try and avoid ‘free’ wi-fi…nothing is free…Security Agencies ply the airports pretty regularly doing wireless deep inspections on devices if accessible on wi-fi. Cell data is better, and with a VPN if you can although they are starting to be illegal in some places.
Dissable java script. Only thing that really helps, because the malicious ad runns on the ad banners and is totally disconected from your browser or data stored on yor mobile device. As for information about you as a user stored in the net… well thats a different story.
Its a infected ad banner. Cracking down on a specific ad doesnt work, since they just copy paste the ad to a new site, account, company etc.
As long as google ads decides the ad banner is apropriate for you to see you will have those ad banners popping up. Had the problem since 2014, at times for entire weeks… Couldnt open any site with java scropt enabled, even the ‘legitimate’ ones, like big news sites etc. As long as the site had an ad banner… since many sites dont even work without java script, couldnt acces those no matter what. And the sites i did open didnt have any ad fevenue from me visiting since no java script means no ads prette often.
The problem miraculously dissapeared one day, after a looong time resisting I finally switched to yes on the google account checkbox asking me if I allow google to colect my data to provide ‘personalized’ ads…
My first ever comment but long time reader.
I have been plagued by this problem in recent days. It was on other websites showing ads as well but only on Apple Safari browser.
At the time of writing it hasn’t happened for a few hours. Thank you for your efforts to resolve.
Was getting this up until a few days ago on iPhone X, thanks so much for addressing this. Now if only other sites would too -lol.
I’ve been getting these off and on every since I got my new iPhone almost exactly a year ago. On WUWT and other sites. But none here in the last few days.
Hi Anthony,
Experienced the problem for approx the last 3 days solid when accessing both your site and Paul Homewood’s at Not a Lot… from my iPad in the UK. No other sites affected. Targeted perhaps? The pop up adverts would appear within seconds of accessing a particular article on your respective sites and would only be readable after closing down the ads, coming off your page and re-connecting perhaps 3 or 4 times. Very frustrating. Interestingly, this is the first article that I have read since the problem began where the ads haven’t appeared. Funny that.
@MACK and whom it may concern,
closing an advert by clicking or tapping is risky, I would never click on anything, that is not related to the website/article I intend to read.
Further, why would regular readers of WUWT go through a search engine to come here? When you have just once written the correct URL directly, most environments are set up so you can just type a few something like “watt” and the full URL is filled in for you.
Similar problem to Mack in the UK on an elderly iPad. I find the easiest way to clear them is to open a second window, click the show all windows button and then click the X button on the affected window. Cant find an adblocker for Safari for my iPad but have started using Brave a browser + adblocker. Seems to work well thus far
MacBook Pro: No problems.
Doesn’t affect my iPhone 6 (iOS 12.1)
Has affected my new iPad also running iOS 12.1
Cleared history and cookies –
Happened to me on my iPad earlier this week, but has gone now after the change Anthony mentioned. As others have mentioned, made it impossible to read articles. 1 Ad was offering me a £500 Primark voucher, and 1 to win a new IPhone. It wanted me to pay £2.99 p&p which sparked a Red Alert and I closed the browser TAB down.
Anthony. I have an iPhone 6s, and I’ve seen that pop-up a couple of time over the last week, but not tonight. Bill
iPhone SE, using safrai link to search, and no issues!
Ken
I was getting it up till yesterday. Is there a route for reporting these things?
Not on my iPad today in the UK
I have had this on iPad and iPhone over three days this week 5-7 Nov. None today. Live in UK.
I am in UK and I have had these annoying pop ups, which spoiled your site. There have been none today though so I hope the problem is resolved.
Thank you for hosting a wonderful and interesting blog
I have had the problem on my ipad for the last couple of days but today it is OK