Browser Hijack Spam - Advice for avoiding it is in the OP

[imperial_oz]

Seems to have cleared up in the last hour or two.

Nope. I'm still getting it constantly. You start to read a page and then bang you're back on the bs redirect

 

[Nostradumbass]

Nope. I'm still getting it constantly. You start to read a page and then bang you're back on the bs redirect

I was getting that all day but haven't had it since about 7 pm

 

[Zevon]

Definitely not just an android or Chrome thing. Happening for me using Safari on iPhone. Switched to Firefox and getting the same thing happening there too. Only happening on Bigfooty, no other sites. Not happening on my iPad, only iPhone.

 

[Gethelred]

I am also getting it, almost every time I open a new page.

 

[Chief]

I am also getting it, almost every time I open a new page.

Which browser?

 

[Chief]

Thanks Zevon.

 

[mHmmm]

Definitely not just an android or Chrome thing. Happening for me using Safari on iPhone. Switched to Firefox and getting the same thing happening there too. Only happening on Bigfooty, no other sites. Not happening on my iPad, only iPhone.

View attachment 1445361

Exactly the same every time you open a pages or go back. Samsung phone using Chrome.

If you open a page and just wait for it to start loading and stop it using "stop" you can then use that page without an issue. Go to use a new page and the problem comes right back.

 

[Chief]

I am testing something out myself now.

Google are ******* useless.

 

[Gtowncrow]

It doesn't seem to be happening to everyone - I haven't seen it once. Send URLs to support@bigfooy.com so we can forward them to Google.

I'm told members are not getting spamed.
Is anyone getting spamed in this thread a paying member?

 

[Gtowncrow]

I'm told members are not getting spamed.
Is anyone getting spamed in this thread a paying member?

Someone recommended to me that Brave web browser might be a solution.
I've downloaded it and so far, all clear.
I'll keep this thread updated.

 

[Nothing]

Getting it on Samsung (their browser), sporadically for most of the day.

 

[Hubnester]

Someone recommended to me that Brave web browser might be a solution.
I've downloaded it and so far, all clear.
I'll keep this thread updated.

I believe Brave has an in-built Platinum Membership - https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/account/upgrades so that'd do the trick. But remember reduced ad revenue directly impacts Chief's whisky budget. Back to Johnny Red for him. Can you live with that?

Also same reason why paid members would not be affected - no ads.

EDIT Haha outstanding word filter.

 

[Nostradumbass]

I'm still good since I last posted.

 

[Gtowncrow]

I believe Brave has an in-built Platinum Membership - https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/account/upgrades so that'd do the trick. But remember reduced ad revenue directly impacts Chief's whisky budget. Back to Johnny Red for him. Can you live with that?

Also same reason why paid members would not be affected - no ads.

I'm happy to join.
The sites good.
The ads are bad.

 

[Tony Harrison]

Getting it constantly now. Plus on and off for a week or two.
Only on bigfooty.
iPhone, safari

 

[Pickitt]

Has anyone tried that method I sent the youtube video about?

 

[Coobk001]

I've been trying for 10 mins just to read the last page of this thread but redirect, redirect, redirect. It's happening for me on basically every second page I click on. Sometimes just happens continuously on specific pages and they're just not visible.

One scenario im seeing is you click to like page 2 of a thread, read for like 10 seconds and then bang redirected. You press back to leave the dodgy site, but it takes you back to page 1, so you go back to page 2 but after 10 seconds bang you're redirected again, making it impossible to read page 2.

I've gone through my history and I've had 29 redirects in the last 20 odd mins since I cleared my cache. I'm using Chrome on Samsung Android. So will switch to Firefox, but this is crazy bad. Makes the site incredibly painful to use.

 

[Chief]

Yes. Yes it is very bad.

 

[Coobk001]

Firefox is working without issue for me on same phone.

 

[Chief]

Firefox is working without issue for me on same phone.

I just removed the Google header tags.

 

[Gethelred]

Which browser?

Chrome on android.

For me at least, it seems only to trigger when I click something; an ad at the bottom of the screen or reacting, whatever I click first.

Been a bit better over the last few hours. Earlier today, it was whenever I opened the site on my phone.

 

[Lore]

Took me about a second to replicate this on an iPhone, just opened an incognito tab in the chrome browser so I wasn’t logged in and boom, first forum page I opened with ads on it sent me to
http://2022325luckyday.top/
… looks the same as the screenshots above.

The URL on the hijacked chrome browser actually has an invasive amount of personal data identified in it, including my country, region, city, ISP, device brand, device model, device marketing name, OS type, OS version, browser type, browser version, etc. basically my entire digital fingerprint spelled out in numbers, forward slashes, equals signs and ampersands.

Tried the same thing in Safari, all the other ads come up but I opened about 20 different boards and threads full of ads and didn’t get this hijack ad even once. Same device same everything just a different browser.

I’ve tried a couple of things with cookies and trackers after that and there’s nothing much there to indicate that clearing or blocking them would make any difference, which seems to align with most people’s experience.

The most obvious answer is that chrome likes to collect your data for google HQ, google HQ likes to use that data to sell ad space, and as a chrome user you’re a captive audience to whatever they are getting paid to show you, whether you delete the cookies and the cache or not.

All up it’s probably just a s**t ad being served up to a target demographic, chrome users, in the same way that you might ordinarily want to advertise a chrome browser extension only to chrome users. So all we can really do is wait for google’s ad people to check the reports Chief sends them and get them to take the ad down.

In the mean time, get a better browser that actually values your privacy instead of monetising it, or get a premium platinum membership for the forum to get rid of the ads (or win one!)

 

[Chief]

Took me about a second to replicate this on an iPhone, just opened an incognito tab in the chrome browser

Yes, as I said, I did this earlier today.

 

[Chief]

Chrome on android.

For me at least, it seems only to trigger when I click something; an ad at the bottom of the screen or reacting, whatever I click first.

Been a bit better over the last few hours. Earlier today, it was whenever I opened the site on my phone.

Swap to another browser and it should stop.

 

[Lore]

Definitely not just an android or Chrome thing. Happening for me using Safari on iPhone. Switched to Firefox and getting the same thing happening there too. Only happening on Bigfooty, no other sites. Not happening on my iPad, only iPhone.

View attachment 1445361

Do you happen to use a gmail app?

And what are your settings in safari? There’s a new one about hiding your IP from trackers…

I was wondering before whether the ad targeting system might be looking for google users generally rather than chrome users specifically… but it would only know you’re a google user on a Safari or Firefox browser if the relevant cookie or tracker had identified that you also use google apps or have a google account logged in. Whereas all chrome users are google users by default.

I was thinking it was unlikely since I have a whole suite of google apps on here, but perhaps that IP hiding thing in safari is sparing me from them knowing I have google accounts . Or maybe the incognito browser did its job.