Clicking on threads is automatically downloading files to my mac

[ZeroFuchsGiven]

This has happened before a few years back.

It is randomly downloading files f.txt. followed by numbers, It is currently at number 34 so 34 files have downloaded so far.

Use an adblocker.

this is happening to me - just done it twice now - its really frustrating and might have to go off mumsnet until fixed - on an iMac laptop

Ad blockers cause other problems.

Morning, everyone. Thanks for the further information. It's all helped us in tracking down the problem and we hope to have it sorted very soon.

Just to reassure you, the issue you are experiencing is not malware or a threat to your system. This is happening due to an ad being coded incorrectly by an advertiser and we are investigating with all of our ad partners to identify who is delivering this ad and will then be taking strict measures, such as banning the advertiser.

Please note, this issue is not specific to Mumsnet and will happen on other websites because the pop up is being served by the browser misunderstanding the creative due to the incorrect implementation, so it may be something you see elsewhere, too.

As soon as we have tracked it down and got rid of it we'll update here and on the other thread, too.

Thanks again for your patience.

just noticed it happening again (had a break from it happening the last day or two) - seems to be the "cellular" advert

Still happening

It’s 100% the cellular advert. On an iPad.

We're looking into this one now - thank you. Do you have a screenshot of the advert?

Still happening - and it does not happen on any other website I use. I can't understand why this is taking so lomg to resolve - can't you just pull the advert?

It's the cellular ad - as reported to you 4 days ago.

🤦🏻‍♀️ It was said days ago that it was the cellular ad. For god’s sake.

Hi -

Sorry I missed that. There's a few threads on this. Yes, this advert is already being looked into, we're in the process now. We're sorry it's taking such a long time to get to the bottom of this.

It’s this company but not sure if it’s this specific advert as I didn’t actually get a pop up this time, not sure if they have a few different ads with you. When it happens again I’ll screen shot.

Captured it. This cellular advert.

This one

Please note, this issue is not specific to Mumsnet and will happen on other websites because the pop up is being served by the browser misunderstanding the creative due to the incorrect implementation, so it may be something you see elsewhere, too.

I'm not getting this anywhere but MN, and it's still happening here.

Still happening for me and only when I’m on mumsnet.

Why is this taking so long to resolve? Just remove the advert.

It is specific to Mumsnet, don’t gaslight.

only happening to me on mumsnet - and still happening

Happening again now - iphone using safari browser

this is so annoying

Yes happening to me too for several days now and definitely only on MN

I’m getting this too (ipad/Safari). Happening much more today and it’s causing the screen to freeze or sometimes stops me typing.
Please kill the offending ads!
I agree with a pp, I’d be ok with most of these ads if they were static and not full of videos, fly-ins and all that mess.

Morning, everyone. Thanks for all the information, screengrabs and videos. It's been a big help.

Some good news: we have spoken to the advertiser directly and now have confirmation they have paused all activity on Mumsnet so this should no longer be a problem. It's possible you may need to clear your cache so if you do spot this problem again, do try that first. Of course, if there are any further issues after that, please do let us know here but hopefully the issue is sorted now.

We also just wanted to clear up the issue about this happening on other sites too as it seems to have caused a bit of disbelief and concern. We had spoken to other sites, including an ad tech security company, about the same issue and how they were resolving it, so we knew it was occurring elsewhere. Obviously, if you didn't happen to have visited sites where this specific ad was appearing, you wouldn't have experienced the issue there. But we promise we weren't gaslighting anyone with this information, we just wanted to give you as much info as possible while we worked towards a fix.

Thanks again for your patience while we found a solution.