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Original poster

Keep getting directed to dodgy sites

10 replies

StarlingsEverywhere · 20/03/2019 20:53

Hi, three times today I’ve clicked on a thread and it’s opened another window, to a dodgy site. The last one was a “100th person to click wins an iPad” type of thing. I’m on an iPad with iOS 11.2. Any ideas?

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MNHQ

AnyaMumsnet · 22/03/2019 10:36

Hi there all,

We're really sorry to hear this is happening.
We are aware of this issue and are currently working to get it resolved.

MNHQ

soniamumsnet · 22/03/2019 14:02

Hi, thanks for the posts and reports on this. Just to let you know that we've checked and it seems that this is happening across the UK - we are aware and trying to get it under control.

MNHQ

AnyaMumsnet · 22/03/2019 17:28

Hi there all,

We're really sorry about this. We think we've managed to figure out what's been causing this and have put some blocks in place, which can take a while to take effect. If anyone still continues to have this issue after 6pm this evening, please do let MNHQ know.

Thanks for your patience while we've been investigating this.

MNHQ

HebeMumsnet · 23/03/2019 10:14

Morning everyone. We're really sorry about this. Tech are looking at it right now and we'll let you know as soon as there's any news.

In the meantime, just a reminder to be careful when posting screenshots that you aren't giving away any information about yourself in the image such as IP address or other account details. We've been through the thread and zapped any that we could see just to be on the safe side.

Thanks for your patience with this issue.

MNHQ

LilyMumsnet · 24/03/2019 17:33

Hi all

Sorry about that - they should stop again now. We're just running some tests our end.

MNHQ

AnyaMumsnet · 25/03/2019 10:23

Hi there all,

We're really sorry this is taking so long to sort out, thank you for your patience. We are still looking into it and trying to figure out exactly what the cause of it is. We've tried a few fixes so far but unfortunately it seems nothing has worked.

MNHQ

AnyaMumsnet · 26/03/2019 11:29

Hi there all,

Unfortunately, some fraudulent advertising buyers install malicious code and try to bypass the security systems of websites. They target users using random categories, and constantly change these categories which can make it very hard for security teams to find the source.

At Mumsnet we only work with reputable organisations, but in this case we are dealing with well-organised fraudsters, which makes it extremely hard to identify the root cause.

We appreciate all the information you send to us and we use it to help investigate and test out scenarios in an attempt to solve the problem. We are currently talking to Google's Trust and Safety teams to find out more and we'll continue to do our best to avoid these situations.

Let us know if you have any more questions about this and we'll try to answer.

MNHQ

AnyaMumsnet · 26/03/2019 12:33

We always recommend users do not click on anything suspicious and alert us immediately. We need to issue to happen on the live site so we can replicate it and kill it, otherwise we wouldn't be able to get to the bottom of it. We have now got a step by step document on what affected users can do to help us find the source, which we'll direct you to if the issue occurs again.

Obviously we can't be sure of every case for sure, but usually, all these ads are trying to do is drive traffic to their websites, to enable them to make more money from ads. So most of the time it's not really anything to worry about - and it's certainly not a hack or anything like that.

We hope this explains a bit further, but let us know if you need anything else.

MNHQ

KimMumsnet · 14/04/2019 20:06

Evening, all.
We are aware of these annoying pop-ups and are working on it - thank you for your continued patience.
Kim

MNHQ

AnyaMumsnet · 15/04/2019 11:35

Hi there all,

Sorry to hear this is back. We're going to see what's causing this.

However it'd be really helpful if we could have the following information from you.

  1. Device and Platform: iPhone/Android etc and Safari/Chrome/FireFox etc
  2. Redirect Location: Which page where you on when you got the popup?
  3. Redirection Destination: What was the URL that the popup took you to?
  4. Approx Location: You might want to namechange for this one.
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