Scam popup on this site with iOS

White Hawk · Aug 22, 2018

I've sent this to the website via Contact Us but thought I'd place it here also.

It just started today but I believe you have an issue with at least one of your avertisment providers that are causing a popup to appear randomly when I go onto your website using an iOS device (both my iPhone and iPad) saying:

Congratulations! Google User! You've been selected as a winner for the free Apple iPhone X 256 GB, Google Pixel 2 64GB or Samsung S8! Please click OK to claim your prize before we give it away to somebody else.

The website it redirects to is: eu.rewardcenteramazongiftcard.pw/uk_google_iphoneX/index.html?trackid= then a bunch of numbers

Nothing I can do my end works, deleting all website data, nothing, from what I've read online this is an issue server side with an advert provider, so if you could pass this on to them or somehow find and block this particular one causing this that would be great as I have no way of using your website most of the time otherwise.

I don't know yet if this happening because I'm logged in via my Google account and if so if this will occur on other sites via the same issue and advert providers but thought you guys need to know.

After a bit of testing without logging in with my Google account and had no pop up it does seem to be linked to that, is there any way to transfer a Google log in on this site to a standard one without losing data?

White Hawk · Aug 26, 2018

After a few days of this not happening it’s started again with a different address this time, can someone please let me know what’s going on?

https://eu.bestrewardonline.pw/uk_google_iphoneX/index.html?trackid= And more numbers.

natedogg1867 · Aug 26, 2018

RD uses a crappy Ad provider and apparently cant/wont do anything about it.

See this thread, and all of the subsequent responses from the linked comment: https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/ridiculous-adverts.100152/#post-2669009

This has been going on since January '18, and still hasnt been fixed. So, it seems this happens on iOS too now

My suggestion... dont ever browse RD on your mobile. Or boycott the site entirely. I would lean towards the latter, but you might not be at this point yet.

White Hawk · Aug 26, 2018

Thanks for the info, I’ll add what I wrote here in a post there, probably won’t matter but ya know.

Do you know if it’s directly linked to using a Google account to log in or does it not matter? I’m not sure, my small test suggests yes but can’t be 100%

It seems I can get around it by hitting the back button when it redirects the webpage but that’s super annoying and it’s all a bit worrying.

natedogg1867 · Aug 26, 2018

White Hawk said:
Do you know if it’s directly linked to using a Google account to log in or does it not matter? I’m not sure, my small test suggests yes but can’t be 100%

Hmm, frankly, I had no idea using a google account to log in was even possible. I have a user account here that is unique to this site. Namely, its own username/password to log in with.

I imagine at least some of the other people that were experiencing this in the thread mentioned above also just have a Race Dept. account.

White Hawk said:
It seems I can get around it by hitting the back button when it redirects the webpage but that’s super annoying and it’s all a bit worrying.

I've done the same when I tried browsing on mobile in the past, but the problems seem isolated to this site, and my phone doesnt have any viruses or anything else on it. So I imagine if you just exit out of those pop ups, that no other problems will arise.

James Robertson · Aug 26, 2018

I am getting it too. Just started today. It takes you too a page that tries to trick you into thinking you have won some kind of official google reward. Only happens on Rd

Kenny Paton · Aug 26, 2018

The thing is that I can't replicate the problem on my android mobile or ipad.
I'm also using Chrome and have a RD account.
So it can be difficult to track down.

White Hawk · Aug 26, 2018

Kenny Paton said:
The thing is that I can't replicate the problem on my android mobile or ipad.
I'm also using Chrome and have a RD account.
So it can be difficult to track down.

I’m using Safari on latest iOS 11, been using the site for a long time but this only just started doing this, just had it three times while typing this message, it’s horrendous.

Different site again: https://eu.bestgiftjaipur.pw/uk_google_iphoneX/index.html?trackid= Numbers.

Kenny Paton · Aug 26, 2018

White Hawk said:
I’m using Safari on latest iOS 11

Just tried that with same and got the ad site pop up, clicked back and logged in without any more problems. Seems once you’re logged in it’s gone.
Hopefully one of our tech guys will get the chance to look into it.

White Hawk · Aug 26, 2018

Kenny Paton said:
Just tried that with same and got the ad site pop up, clicked back and logged in without any more problems. Seems once you’re logged in it’s gone.
Hopefully one of our tech guys will get the chance to look into it.

I’m logged in every time. Sometimes it doesn’t happen so that unfortunately doesn’t prove anything, but most of the time it does while I’m logged into the site with a Google account.

I’ve posted in the this thread too: https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/ridiculous-adverts.100152/#post-2669009
Check the pictures Mike_WasTaken just put up to see what I’m getting.

thepharcyde · Aug 26, 2018

Adblock, pay for premium; you choose

Kenny Paton · Aug 26, 2018

thepharcyde said:
Adblock, pay for premium; you choose

Nonsense, premium has nothing to do with it, seems to occur before people are logged in.

thepharcyde · Aug 26, 2018

Kenny Paton said:
Nonsense, premium has nothing to do with it, seems to occur before people are logged in.

Adblock or premium and sign in then?

I hate adverts with a passion hence all my electronics from day one are setup to block them.

At home it's at the router level

Neilski · Aug 26, 2018

Kenny Paton said:
premium has nothing to do with it

ummm, well Premium members get *no* ads at all...

Neilski · Aug 26, 2018

White Hawk said:
I’m logged in every time.

We're doing what we can, but sadly there's little progress to report so far. I'll be having another look at the server logs but it seems likely that our own server is out of the loop for this content

Kenny Paton · Aug 26, 2018

Neilski said:
ummm, well Premium members get *no* ads at all...

It happened before I logged in on Safari, once I was logged in it was fine.

Neilski · Aug 26, 2018

Kenny Paton said:
It happened before I logged in on Safari, once I was logged in it was fine.

Yup, but did you do it from your own (Premium) account, or a dummy non-Premium?

natedogg1867 · Aug 26, 2018

Kenny Paton said:
It happened before I logged in on Safari, once I was logged in it was fine.

You are repeating exactly what he is saying.

One of the benefits of premium, is that you dont get any ads. So when you are not logged into your account, you are fed with ads... which just so happen to be these highly malicious ones.

When you are logged into your premium account... you are not fed with any ads.

The cynic here would wonder whether nothing/little is being done because ad-free browsing is a benefit of Premium and this is just a method to get people to buy into premium...

Ad-blocking works on desktop for me, but I dont feel like going through the hassle of rooting my phone and installing ad-blocking on that just for this lone website.

Kenny Paton · Aug 26, 2018

Neilski said:
Yup, but did you do it from your own (Premium) account, or a dummy non-Premium?

Yes my own.

natedogg1867 said:
One of the benefits of premium, is that you dont get any ads.

I know.

What I'm saying is it only happened when I used Safari not Chrome or Firefox.

Neilski · Aug 26, 2018

natedogg1867 said:
The cynic here would wonder whether nothing/little is being done because ad-free browsing is a benefit of Premium and this is just a method to get people to buy into premium...

Hell no. The admins and staff do lots of stuff in response to queries from non-premium members. We're just not making headway on this one. Kenny's the first staff member to ever report seeing the dodgy stuff, as far as I'm aware. (I have tried several times myself and so have others.)