Pop-up when viewing Railforums UK

[fgwrich]

Just tried it in an XP virtual machine with IE8 and got a survey with the promise of a chance to win an ipad - a very good reason not to take part IMO.

Looking at all the cookies (mostly Google as one would expect) it's a bit tricky to work out which one it relates to, though this the alleged domain;localgiftspanel.com.

I would suggest turning off javascript but if you do that you probably won't be able to log in.

Ive had exactly the same advert / spam pop up too unfortunatly - again only with this site. As for turning my Javascript, can't remember how to do this - firstly, is this a good idea? and b, how can i do it? (used to be able to knowhow on XP but on 7 )

 

[185]

Me too. Navigates forward to the spam page. I think the site itself is infected with a browser-grab type virus.

 

[wintonian]

Me too. Navigates forward to the spam page. I think the site itself is infected with a browser-grab type virus.

That had crossed my mind but as I never come across any sites that have been I wouldn't know what one looks like when I come across it.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I too have had an occurrence of the same matter and have sent a report in to the forum administrators and asked them to make a posting to let forum members know what is currently occurring.

 

[wintonian]

Is this happening to people when they type in the address (or use a bookmark) or is it just when using a search engine and how often?

I got it the first time I visited in my virtual machine but can't seem to replicate it again, so I wonder if it somehow remembers your IP for a time?

 

[Jordy]

This thread has been noted, we'll get back to you.

 

[Mike395]

I suspect this is a Google advert-related issue - will look into this in more detail when I get a moment later today, and report back accordingly.

One thing that would be useful for us to know is whether the same advert is causing the issue (i.e. check the currently displaying advert when the popup displays) - as this would help us get to the root of the problem.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Just to confirm - I have investigated and it is a Google Adsense issue, only affecting users who are running Internet Explorer. Google are aware of the issue so hopefully it will be resolved shortly.

 

[yorkie]

Ive had exactly the same advert / spam pop up too unfortunatly - again only with this site. As for turning my Javascript, can't remember how to do this - firstly, is this a good idea? and b, how can i do it? (used to be able to knowhow on XP but on 7 )

I use FireFox and the 'Noscript' add-on, which is a bit of a pain as you have to 'allow' every website you visit, but it's good for peace of mind and makes your system a lot more secure. I personally think that's worth it, but others will disagree.

 

[jon0844]

I've seen other forums and websites using Google AdSense (which includes DoubleClick and other services Google has acquired) affected by things like this.

Annoyingly, even though the problem might be down to ads - Google can mark your site as having malware which causes a warning to be presented to anyone that finds the site via a Google search.

 

[Mike395]

I've seen other forums and websites using Google AdSense (which includes DoubleClick and other services Google has acquired) affected by things like this.

Annoyingly, even though the problem might be down to ads - Google can mark your site as having malware which causes a warning to be presented to anyone that finds the site via a Google search.

Usually Google are good at not blacklisting sites where the malware is caused by known issues with Adsense scripts

 

[LE Greys]

I use FireFox and the 'Noscript' add-on, which is a bit of a pain as you have to 'allow' every website you visit, but it's good for peace of mind and makes your system a lot more secure. I personally think that's worth it, but others will disagree.

Me, too. It's sometimes a bit annoying, but definitely worth it. It's currently blocking both googleanalytics and google-syndication.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

Over approximately the past 8 days, I, too, have experienced a MS IE browser window redirect to http://testables.net/d/juicyru.com
while viewing this forum only, and on several machines, all running MS OSes.

 

[Ivo]

Usually Google are good at not blacklisting sites where the malware is caused by known issues with Adsense scripts

"Usually" is right. We had not too dissilimar problems back in February (see attached screenshot), after which Google effectively decided the site was dangerous and one to avoid...

What version of IE are you all using? I'm on 8 and not having any trouble at all.

 

[Mike395]

To confirm, the problem back in February was not ad-related in any way, which is why the blacklisting took place then.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

What version of IE are you all using? I'm on 8 and not having any trouble at all.

I am running Internet Explorer 9....as there were recent problems with Google Chrome.

 

[Crossover]

I had the redirect to the iPad survey thing the other day too - didn't really think much of it as it was only a quick visit.

Seen a few possibly ad related problems away from RUK too - had a site at work which tried to launch something on the network...wasn't work related though so I just banned users from going on it
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I've had the juicy.ru one again just now

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I had the juicy Russian one again at around the same time... that's interesting... looks like it's triggered at specific times for whoever is online with the relevant software?

 

[wintonian]

I've been playing with IE to try and get it to come back but I can't.

 

[jon0844]

I wonder if the code looks at your IP address to deliberately hide itself, until it wants to pop up something else in a few days/weeks. I expect it would be too obvious if it popped up all the time.

In fact, if I was writing some rogue code, I'd even seek to try and hide myself from known spiders - thus stopping Google etc from detecting the malware.

 

[wintonian]

I wonder if the code looks at your IP address to deliberately hide itself, until it wants to pop up something else in a few days/weeks. I expect it would be too obvious if it popped up all the time.

In fact, if I was writing some rogue code, I'd even seek to try and hide myself from known spiders - thus stopping Google etc from detecting the malware.

I did suggest this further up and as I have a static IP its my favourite theory ATM- its also my only one just now.

 

[jon0844]

I did suggest this further up and as I have a static IP its my favourite theory ATM- its also my only one just now.

I have never had such a pop up (using Opera on a Mac) but if I do, I'll reconnect to the Internet by rebooting my ADSL modem - or switch to a mobile connection with tethering, and see if it comes back.

Can you quickly connect a mobile to your computer to get a new IP address?

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I have only had the one solitary case of the pop-up and no occurrence since.

 

[wintonian]

I have never had such a pop up (using Opera on a Mac) but if I do, I'll reconnect to the Internet by rebooting my ADSL modem - or switch to a mobile connection with tethering, and see if it comes back.

Can you quickly connect a mobile to your computer to get a new IP address?

No need to, I've just had a 2nd chance to win some Apple crud, and lurking at the bottom of the source code is a nasty little tracking script - that's one reason why all those mostly unnecessary cookies get cleaned out each time I close the browser. I also use Ixquck instead of google for searches and a Firefox force HTTPS add-on.

I wonder if the survey is just a cover for the fact that this nasty tracking script has run and fattened you up with tracking cookies?

 

[Geezertronic]

I've had my IE session hang a fair few times on here when generally navigating between forums and posts - Task Manager reports iexplore.exe running at 50%ish utilisation and requires the task to be ended before it recovers. I tested it on a few of the works Terminal Servers (different versions of IE) and the same applies. Like others, only happens in IE (not Firefox or Chrome).

I've also got the redirect to the "dodgy" survey ad as well. PC is clean etc...

 

[Crossover]

Just redirected again. This time ended up at this eventually:
http://localgiftspanel.com/uk/survey/indext3b1.php

 

[Peter Mugridge]

^^^^^ Snap! Happened at 23.04 to me, to the same site....

If that's not evidence of a forum wide time trigger I don't know what is...

 

[table38]

I just got the "http://localgiftspanel.com/uk/survey/indext3b1.php" redirect.

As the normal forum page had started to load before I got redirected (I'd just clicked on "User CP"), I suspect it's coming from one of the adverts.

 

[Mike395]

It's definitely a Google Adsense issue.

I am looking into the possibility of temporarily disabling adverts for IE users until this bug is resolved. As it is, it is out of our control

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

It's definitely a Google Adsense issue....I am looking into the possibility of temporarily disabling adverts for IE users until this bug is resolved. As it is, it is out of our control

Thank you for thinking of the IE users on the forum. I used to run Google Chrome (which I was using when the original thread matter was being discussed0 but I had to change over to IE9 when I experienced other problems with Google Chrome.

 

[Ivo]

I am looking into the possibility of temporarily disabling adverts for IE users until this bug is resolved.

Can you make it permanent so we don't have any more stupid UNISON adverts please?

jk - I know the ads provide revenue