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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Yes I have suddenly a couple of days ago started getting this constantly popping up whenever I view WUWT on my iPad and it freezes everything and is highly disruptive. I have tried everything to get rid of it but can’t.
Then I noticed that it must be triggered by a specific pixel group in the centre of the screen when scrolling up or down, so I now am careful to only use the sides to move up and down and find I can manage to read the excellent material on my favourite website.
If you find a way of disabling this pest please advise.
Thanks
Yes, I had this come up. The address it pointed to was this one.
http://google-com-win-a-free-gift-from-walmart-amazon-iphone.avbikuscaoms.com/home/valid?jkhjkhetjkewhkjth=1294;3;2e0e785dd4625c93d5f59db7de4445e0;f8fbcf2065ab3d92ca3411ad8d1f8884;0;1009461_1705;http://google-com-win-a-free-gift-from-walmart-amazon-iphone.avbikuscaoms.com
It also sent an email to me, with the same advert.
R
P.S. Why does WordPress no longer remember who I am, so I have to reenter my details with each post…?
.
Affected my iPod 6/7 Nov viewing WUWT only. Only escape was to move site.
I had the problem on all my iOS devices and considered asking if you knew anything about it but thought I might be wasting your time! I cleared all cached data in Safari through Settings on the devices and have had no further issues
Using safari on an ipad in the uk. I had this problem for the last few days.
It happens only on wuwt, if i click the page behind, it disappears for a few seconds, then comes back.
If i click close, it comes back once more.
I have pop ups disabled in safari and fraudulent website indicator enabled.
Couldn’t use WUWT yesterday on my iPhone because of the constant fake ads. Seems OK now.
Thank heavens, I think you’ve fixed it. Being away from home I only have my iPhone so I have been unable to get past the bug and read any of your posts for the past few days.
Im on an iPhone. I was getting them but very plain: a pop up menu taking up 2/3 area of screen, same shape more or less a iPhone screen so a border all round constituting the original page in the background. Black text on white. It was plain text, not fancy, no colour or logos. Google was mentioned in most or all. Happened three times over last 5-7 days.
I experienced this issue on an iPhone 5 ten days ago and turned off settings that might allow these ads through. Under the “Privacy” settings tab there is a tab at the bottom for “Advertising” and in that a toggle for “Limit Ad Tracking.” I thought that was for Apple targeted ads but turned it on anyway. The ads ceased immediately.
No problems on iPad mini iOS 11.4.1 with Safari in Australia. Maybe I should hold off on that 1.24 GB update – that Apple wants me to install*.
*iOS 12, which could be the cause of the problem
No Ads in sight
Some ads for iPhone and a few google surveys maybe two weeks ago but ok since ,using an iPad in OZ.
I had no problems with a BB running BB10 in Beijing during that time, however I did notice that if the browser was left open sometimes it would drain the battery because of some ad. I can’t say that was unique (airports are notorious) but WUWT ads do sometimes try to take control of something.
Is it possible that there is some keystroke recording taking place while making comments, by which I mean going ‘elsewhere’, not to the page?
Someone complained to me FireFox on WinXP (patched!) had these problems with WUWT and NoTricksZone.
Looks like a popup, or a script looping.
Kind of a mixed bag of remarks. Could it be the carrier or the security program and level set? Perhaps that info could be included.
I have an iPhone 6 with the most current updates and Norton Security Suite. My carrier is Verizon. No problems.
I should also mention that I set the security very high on all my devices with history and cookies deleted at the close of the browser.
I get similar popups on my ipad. They are from other sites, but not yours. I have not determined the cause, but I don’t think it is related to your site. If it were related to your site, all these people would be seeing the same problem.
[What version ipad? .mod]
Checked this morning, 8 November, No issue on either iPad or iPhone . I mainly use laptop to access your site and haven’t had any issues there
No pop up here, running iPhone 6 with latest iOS. I would point out that sometimes Google ads also target Windows machines with a “Windows infected” ad that is near impossible to bail from. I’ve switched from Chrome to Firefox (no ad block) and haven’t had the issue yet. I lay the blame at Google Ad’s feet as the phenomenon is NOT the website, but the unscrupulous ads they let go into the wild!
This is yet another useless comment to the effect that it did not happen to me; or it did happen and I have nothing to offer but vague recollection of same; or I have a link here from my address bar that is from the end of the redirect chain and cannot identify the page inclusion that started the chain; or I have something boorish to say about Apple.
No problems on my iPhone 6s in the front range of Colorado.
Got one of these ads on my Samsung galaxy 10.1 2014 version notepad. Had to turn off the notebook and restart to get off that page!
several conservative websites have Ads that seem to auto-launch redirecting to an Ad website, offering freebies or something.
I tried blocking these websites,
But iOS sucks in not letting entire domains to be blocked.
also, the most recent version of iOS seems to have remove the website blocking, so Apple sucks
I got one of these ads yesterday when using my Apple device. It took a while to get rid of the ad. I even let the countdown time out but it just reset the timer. I can’t remember whether or not I was visiting WUWT but since I am a very frequent visitor, I probably was.
I’ve just read the plea by Anthony while using my PC. I immediately tried my ipad but there was no sign of the problem. I seem to remember seeing a similar irritating ad about a year ago.
Not seeing at problem at the moment.
No problem on my iPhone 6 running iOS 12.1