Reports of malicious ads

[051119]

Hi all

Hope someone can help. A few of my customers have reported that they have been redirected to random websites when accessing various pages of my forum.
It isn't particularly helpful, but they have posted some information in this thread here: https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...-to-wiserapps-site-false-virus-alerts.158556/
Unfortunately I don't have an Android device or know who does, so I cannot check this for myself.

I've run it through a few of those free malware checkers online, including Google Webmaster tools, and nothing has come up, but I don't hold out much hope for these services as when I used vBulletin I had an actual SQL Injection causing redirects and none of these services highlighted that anything was wrong.

I'm only using a few plugins, all of which downloaded from here, and using the latest version, so I'm wondering if it's a dodgy Google Ad, but I'd be surprised it is going on for so long.

Can anyone help?

 

[Digital Doctor]

Nice title.
Sounds like an ad problem for Android only

 

[Chris D]

It's almost certainly going to be malicious advertising so in the first instance I'd recommend reporting the problem to your ad provider. I imagine they have processes in place which log ads served, and are better equipped to deem whether any malicious ads are being served.

 

[051119]

Unfortunately we use Google Adsense, so getting in touch with an actual human being which knows what they are talking about will prove to be exceptionally challenging. I’ve had dodgy Ads before, but I’m surprised that they would have been displayed on Google Adsense for so long. I’m alsp surprised that it doesn’t appear to be affecting other websites which makes me wonder if it’s an issue on my forum. Going into the Ad review centre will prove a challenge as there are thousands of Ads, plus I can’t check which Ads are causing it as I don’t have Android or know who does.

 

[M@rc]

Unfortunately we use Google Adsense, so getting in touch with an actual human being which knows what they are talking about will prove to be exceptionally challenging. I’ve had dodgy Ads before, but I’m surprised that they would have been displayed on Google Adsense for so long. I’m alsp surprised that it doesn’t appear to be affecting other websites which makes me wonder if it’s an issue on my forum. Going into the Ad review centre will prove a challenge as there are thousands of Ads, plus I can’t check which Ads are causing it as I don’t have Android or know who does.

You can try turning off ads for members for a while to see if you continue to get these reports.

 

[STIJL]

Expect a long frustrating patch sorting things out with google adsense, if the trash ads don’t stop on their own soon, turn off adsense and maybe you could use chitika for advertising until the issue is sorted out or better yet use both.

 

[RobParker]

We're experiencing the same issue (I actually found your site when googling for it).

I've not experienced it myself but our users who have managed to identify that rgshark.com was involved somehow which led me to finding the same info on your site.

Searching our adsense account, there're no hits for rgshark.com so I'm somewhat stumped how to proceed. We've reported it to Adsense but the last time they had an ad like this it took months to get it removed and we can't even identify the ad to block it.

 

[Alpha1]

I still cant paste links into the XF2 editor because I use Firefox, but go to androidpolice.com and search for 'rogue redirect ads'
It concerns a string of redirects of which rgshark.com and subdomeins is just the middle of the string.

 

[barbeluk1]

We're also getting reports of these pop up ads, only on mobile. We also use Adsense. As mentioned, there seems to be loads of other reports from other forums. I can't believe Google are allowing this to happen!

If someone finds a solution, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks,
Andy

 

[Case]

Google have added something to the Chrome browser on Android that has helped some of our users.

Paste the following into the address bar and enable the highlighted feature.

chrome://flags/#enable-framebusting-needs-sameorigin-or-usergesture

Some more info here: http://www.androidpolice.com/2017/11/08/heres-protect-rogue-redirect-ads-right-now-chrome/

 

[DGG]

I'm experiencing this issue on my site as well. Anyone been able to figure out a solution? My users are reporting that following these previously suggested instructions to block redirects in Chrome (for Android) don't solve it either (they still get popups/redirects).

Also, curious if anyone know of a non-Xenforo site dealing with this issue?