9 replies to this topic

[Ickx]

It is ridicculus that the aggressive phishing ads are allowed on Autosport. I have never seen anything like it on other sites and really make me question your advertising policy.

The ad takes over the frame and tries to fool the user with a free iPhone or something else. In my screenshot there are apparently an important update to my phone. It is difficult to close the tab a and impossible to continue browsing without a browser restart.

This ad keeps coming. I try to keep off autosport on my phone now but that is not a solution for anyone.

Lets hope adblock and plugins come to mobile soon as this situation just is not acceptable.

[Vitesse2]

As has been explained before, much of the advertising on the website comes through outside providers, as there would be very little point in serving UK-specific advertising to our many foreign members. That unfortunately means that much of that advertising isn't under Autosport's direct control, so we can only react to problematic ads when they're reported.

 

We can identify a certain amount of information from your IP address, but it's really helpful if - with each report - you can provide as much detail as possible. Type of device. Operating system. Country from which you are seeing the advert. Whether you were at home or using a public IP. Whether you were connecting via a proxy (because if you're in France but connecting via a Dutch proxy you're going to see adverts served to the Dutch market!) or using a VPN.

[as65p]

As has been explained before, much of the advertising on the website comes through outside providers, as there would be very little point in serving UK-specific advertising to our many foreign members. That unfortunately means that much of that advertising isn't under Autosport's direct control, so we can only react to problematic ads when they're reported.

 

Sorry but that's just a cheap cop out. The user surfs Autosport, and everything he encounters on Autosports sites is Autosports responsibility. If you (not you personally of course) have given control, even partly, to "outside providers", that's your responsibility too. We know it was done for a reason, i.e. to make more cash through advertising. You should use part of that cash to put some quality control in place and / or test what ads are shown for visitors all over the world. It's not even that difficult with proxys and VPNs as you mentioned.

[Vitesse2]

It's also possible that some people may be seeing these adverts because of undetected malware which is already on their device. Or because they are connecting through insecure public IPs. So even if we tested every advert we'd never catch those problems.

[Ickx]

I fully understand that Autosport use an agency for ads and can't review them all. Nor should you have to. What seriously pisses me off though is that you accept this kind of ads from your partners. It shows a total lack of judgement not worthy of a serious site like this. This type of ads are not only highly irritating and makes the site unusable, it is downright phishing.

To allow your partners to sell ads that are trying to trick your users is downright shameful. One time it can happen but Autosport seriously need to do something about this.

For reference. This is showing up when I brows the Autosport forum (once on motorsport.com) on my mobile phone. An Android device with Chrome on my 4G connection (do not use wifi).

This kind of ads are just not acceptable and makes me question why to use Autosport at all. The answer is obviously the otherwise good forum but the question is how much it is worth when Autosport have so little respect for the users to allow this.

For reference, I found the below posts. It was supposed to have been taken care of but obviously you did not succeed.

[edited for language]

I'm getting popups again, iOS on iPhone 6S+
 


Redirects to http://www.google.co...G1hbm1hbi5jb20=

Happened twice in the last 5 minutes. Forum only, not on the main site.

 
 

Yep...
It's BACK.
Got it on my I-pod
 
Same redirect as Frood
 

Jp

 
 

+1.

And it's REALLY annoying. Takes about 8 attempts to post anything.

 
 

it's gone as of this morning.
 
UK- Iphone6- IOS 10
 
Jp

 
 

Constantly receiving this google iPhone crap makes the forum unusable for me.

Edited by Ickx, 20 October 2017 - 18:41.

[as65p]

It's also possible that some people may be seeing these adverts because of undetected malware which is already on their device. Or because they are connecting through insecure public IPs. So even if we tested every advert we'd never catch those problems.

 

Possible yes, but in that case the user would see the phishing ads everywhere he surfs, not just on Autosport. And really you should be able to say with confidence "the problem is on your device, because we do assure neither us nor our partners allow such ads". Which you don't appear to be sure of.

[Ickx]

I agree. Malware on my device was something I thought about at first as well and it is of course a possibility I can not say for 100 % that is not the case. On the other hand my personality is that I’m extremely unlikely to ever claim to be 100 % sure of anything.

In that spirit I did some things before bosting anything about this problem. I deleted my internet history on the device; history, catch, cookies and whatever button that said clear. I have also looked through my apps for suspects and have used an antivirus app to look too. I don’t allow third party apps and in general I don’t use many apps besides for my banking, F1.com and public radio.

My reasoning for being pretty sure this is on Autosport is that I’ve seen the same thing on occasions when following google searches to webpages I don’t trust. Investigating the ad strongly indicates it is website related and quite a few people on internet are pissed about them and suggests to stop visiting the pages that push them through. On the pages I use regularly this has happened on two sites; motorsport.com (don’t use often but on occasions) and the Autosport forums that I read many times every day. My guess is that there is an overlap when selling ads as the owner is the same but it can of course be a coincidence. The Autosport forum is by far the worse though as the ads pops up about every time a new forum page is loaded, thus making Autosport useless on the mobile device.

The fact that Autosport has previously apologised for this kind of ads and have promised to rectify the situation obviously don’t make the site look innocent.

[jcbc3]

As has been explained before, much of the advertising on the website comes through outside providers, as there would be very little point in serving UK-specific advertising to our many foreign members. That unfortunately means that much of that advertising isn't under Autosport's direct control, so we can only react to problematic ads when they're reported.

 

...

 

Not getting involved in the technicalities here, but just wondering.

 

If I had a sub-supplier (outside provider as you call it), that didn't weed out these things, I'd switch this supplier in 2 seconds flat. Is that something you'd consider?

[YoungGun]

I don't have these problems .... so who do I blame? 

[Vitesse2]

Not getting involved in the technicalities here, but just wondering.

 

If I had a sub-supplier (outside provider as you call it), that didn't weed out these things, I'd switch this supplier in 2 seconds flat. Is that something you'd consider?

That's way above my (unpaid) pay grade! Grayson might have an answer though.