106 replies to this topic

[Cubbie Blues]

Happened thrice in a row this morning:

Went to BN:

Clicked Message Board in the top right. The Message Board never loaded, but the page skipped immediately to this:




Clicking the back button brought me back to the home page -- not the Message Board. I may have been mistaken yesterday when I said the MB loaded first before skipping to the ad. (You'll note that the times on my pics are out of order because I didn't catch the first redirect.)

Now the ad was the same all 3 times I saw it this morning, but I've got the feeling that it was different yesterday, but I can't remember the product it was for. I'm fairly certain that the popup said something like 'Download Now'.

Hope this helps, Ace. Again, this has never happened on my iPad or either desktop I use.

Congrats on winning the iPad 2!!! When do you get it?

[Brett]

Thanks, TWC. Very helpful. I'll start running this down with my ad networks with the intention of killing it (unless it's paying me a king's ransom...). One last(?) question: does the popup only happen when you come to the board via the BN home page? Does it only happen when you use that particular link on the home page? What about the links to specific posts in the right sidebar on the home page?

[MichiganGoat]

Oh I've seen that, so Brett where is my iPad?

[TWC]

[D]oes the popup only happen when you come to the board via the BN home page?

I believe so, but as you might be able to tell from the discrepancy between my original post and this morning's follow up, I'm not 100% sure. I only have the front page bookmarked, and that's where I start my BN browsing.

Does it only happen when you use that particular link on the home page?

That seems to be the case, but I'll keep an eye out to let you know for sure.

What about the links to specific posts in the right sidebar on the home page?

I don't think I've ever used those links. I prefer to go directly to the main MB page (where I can easily see what's new & unread.

Thanks, TWC. Very helpful. I'll start running this down with my ad networks with the intention of killing it (unless it's paying me a king's ransom...)

If link hijacking & directing traffic away from your website pays you a king's ransom, I'm in the long line of work!

All in all, it's a minor annoyance that I can deal with (occasionally) -- but it's certainly more distracting than sidebar or banner ads (even those with the rollover/popup functionality). It's just been catching me off guard, and at 6:19 AM I prefer not to be caught off-guard.

[MichiganGoat]

Come to think of it I've seen this on other sites as well (I think) I just close Safari and move on. Could it be a iPhone app that is pushing ads vs. something BN related?

[TWC]

Come to think of it I've seen this on other sites as well (I think) I just close Safari and move on. Could it be a iPhone app that is pushing ads vs. something BN related?

I'm pretty sure Apple would quickly stomp all over an iPhone app that affected Safari browsing.

[Brett]

By the way, I'm doing some Googling on this, and it appears to have blown up across many sites in the last two weeks (many of which sites say it isn't them, and say that it must be something on the user's iPhone - my response to that, though, is why is it triggered only by some sites (like the Message Board here)). Still researching.

[Brett]

Ok, so it's some kind of thing that's popping up across all kinds of message boards (different platforms, some that don't even have ads), and it's affecting people on mobile phones (mostly iPhone). I'm going to contact my ad providers and see if they're aware of anything, but I have a suspicion that it's something on your phone that is triggered by something on certain message board software (I checked the site files here and there does not appear to be any malicious code).

[Luke]

Come to think of it I've seen this on other sites as well (I think) I just close Safari and move on. Could it be a iPhone app that is pushing ads vs. something BN related?

I'm pretty sure Apple would quickly stomp all over an iPhone app that affected Safari browsing.

Once they had a fix ready for the exploit they would. They might stay quiet until then.

[Crockett]

This is now affecting Android. Got it the first time today. I am using Android 2.3.4 and the Dolphin browser.

[MichiganGoat]

Okay this has happened to me like 5 times in the past day, but not when I'm clicking on the MB link it happened when I clicked on a comment, when I clicked on a article and when I initially loaded the page. I'm sure it will go away in time, someone just found a loophole and I'm sure a patch will be coming.

[Brett]

Okay this has happened to me like 5 times in the past day, but not when I'm clicking on the MB link it happened when I clicked on a comment, when I clicked on a article and when I initially loaded the page. I'm sure it will go away in time, someone just found a loophole and I'm sure a patch will be coming.

Wait - it happened when you clicked on a comment on the blog? As in, you weren't on the Message Board at all?

[Brett]

Also, I'm assuming that a simple solution like clearing cache/cookies, turning off your phone, turning it back on and making sure in your setting to set to "don't allow popups" before coming back here, doesn't work? I never thought about it until now, but I've got popups blocked on my iPhone, and I've never seen this thing you guys are seeing. Maybe? Possible? I know it seems too obvious, and you've probably tried it. But maybe doing all the clearing first before turning it on, and then coming here, will help.

[Spencer]

The exact same thing just happened to me on the main page on my android

[TWC]

It happened a bunch on the front page yesterday for me, too. Not after hitting a link, but just before the page fully loaded it redirected to the spam. And, yes, popups are blocked and (as of two days ago) browser cashe and cookies were fully scrubbed. I'm really pretty confident it's not my phone at this point.