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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In addition to the free Amazon card hijack, I also received this one once, maybe twice:
If it helps, I’m on an iPhone 5, AT&T Network, iOS vsn 11.4.1
It’s been happening for some time on one of my favorite news sites. I’m suspicious that the ISP is at fault for this. Using the VPN may help.
I was getting similar up until last night here in Blighty, but not tried today except on a Windows PC. Sent you a message yesterday via your contact page with more details.
Thursday – same here – initial problem for about two or three days but clear now. No problem with Paul Homewood’s site. I hope you are not being targeted – but if you are it’s a sort of backhanded compliment recognising your influence
I WAS getting this a couple of days ago. Not getting it now, so the “lock down” seems to be effective.
More importantly, I have both an i-phone (work provided) AND a Samsung (Android) phone (personal), and I was getting that shit on BOTH platforms, so it wasn’t JUST an “apple” issue – seemed to affect ANY mobile device.
Pissed me off when I was being essentially prevented from reading WUWT based on some ass who thinks my access to something other than “their” misinformation should be barred!
P.S. At one point, I even tried answering the stupid survey questions, just to see if that would get rid of it. No dice, it was clearly an attempt at “denial of service” or something like that.
having said that I have just logged on to Paul Homewood’s site and found the bu88ers have hit that too
No problem on my iPad, Android phone or multiple MacBook Pros, but I am running Pi-hole on my home network. It does a pretty good job of filtering out stuff without the need to load ad-blockers on every device/browser.
P.P.S. I was on Safari on the i-phone and Firefox on the Android, so if was affecting different browsers, too.
I’ve had similar adds redirecting me to an Amazon promo. I’m not sure if it’s real because I’ve never followed the link. It’s a one-way trip that I cannot back out of. It’s probably happened on my iPhone a dozen or so times over the last several months. I don’t recall it on my iPad.
I’ve shrugged it off as the cost of using socialist media.
I get these on my Android phone using the Chrome browser.
That also happens with Android devices. When I engage my Norton Privacy VPN service (which I don’t normally use on known secure networks because it degrades bandwidth a bit) that blocks the malware that is not blocked by my standard Norto Mobile Security.
I’ve had this problem in the past.
No problem here today in Ohio.
I use an iPad.
Anthony ==> Using my wife’s iPad (I would not own an Apple product if they gave it to me free –might if they paid me enough..:-):
ALL IS WELL — no fake Google page.
On my iPhone- just so and bloody annoying! But so glad it’s you and not me! Hope u can fix
I had repeatedly for 2 days. Deleted my google history and it did not reappear.
“If you’re not taking flak, you’re not over the target.”
I am so stealing this one for future reference!
Was happening a couple days ago, but not now, happens on a lot of sites from time to time, usually political sites but sometimes sports related ones as well. There is a Verizon and Amazon version of the redirect thing as well.
I get “We use cookies” but the site works fine on my iPhone 8 plus.
All good from my iPhone (latest iOS release) using Safari to view the web page.
Been seeing a lot of redirects lately when using my iPhone, mainly on other sites. Not so much on this site.
This is what pops up on bing when you type in ‘wattsupwiththat’
“Watts Up With That? is a blog promoting climate change denial that was created by Anthony Watts in 2006…”
‘Climate change policy denial’ would probably be more accurate.
I have this issue on my Android phones. It happens on a few other sites also.
It comes and goes – every few weeks I get it here on WUWT.
iphone 7 with latest OS update installed, no issues but also run Ad Blocker so rarely see popups anyway.
FYI for those reading this. Hands down my two favorites apps are Ad Blocker and Hiya. Ad Blocker makes my online experience much better and Hiya does such a good job blocking spam calls I no longer feel like I need to let numbers I don’t recognize go to VM.
No ads but I use a ad blocker on my ipad