Pop ups when following links in facebook or twitter apps

Faker74

Hi Folks,

I have an iPhone 6, running iOS 9.1, and more and more frequently I'm getting pop ups like the below when following links from within the twitter and facebook apps. The links are to legitmate sites so don't think they are the problem

I've uninstalled and reinstalled both apps and also cleared the Safari history and Website data through the settings.

Any ideas?

whiterebel

I really, really doubt thats a "legitimate site".

Gordon

That isn't but source page av club probably is. Looks like advertising may be taking over the page.

Faker74

whiterebel wrote: »

I really, really doubt thats a "legitimate site".

Sorry just to be clear, the links I follow are to a legitimate site, in the case of the above it is to The AV Club, but as the legitimate site loads, it redirects and you get the above.

biko

Sounds similar to http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057529785

Faker74

biko wrote: »

Sounds similar to http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057529785

Does seem to be the same issue yeah. Though it is intermittent so the suggestion on the other thread of trying the link from the desktop version of the site isn't necessarily going to replicate the issue.

Worth pointing out I clicked ok on one of those ads once in an attempt to dismiss it, within the hour someone had tried to access my Facebook from Taiwan!

Lockster

Funnily enough my wife was complaining of this same thing happening when she's looking at Digital Spy through safari on the iPad. She thought it had a virus

Sad Professor

Faker74 wrote: »

Hi Folks,

I have an iPhone 6, running iOS 9.1, and more and more frequently I'm getting pop ups like the below when following links from within the twitter and facebook apps. The links are to legitmate sites so don't think they are the problem

I've uninstalled and reinstalled both apps and also cleared the Safari history and Website data through the settings.

Any ideas?

What app is that? Facebook's webview? It's not Safari.

Faker74

Sad Professor wrote: »

What app is that? Facebook's webview? It's not Safari.

Happening in both the Facebook and Twitter apps and yesterday it happened in Safari. And again I've gotten notice that my Facebook account was logged into from Taiwan.

mel.b

I'm getting this message too, but not through the app, just the normal fb page in safari on my ipad. Has happened on fb page (not clicking links, just loading the page) and also realestate.com.au.

I'm clearing cookies each time it happens...any ideas in how to stop it happening for good?

martinosullivan

Did anyone get a definitive solution to this problem?
Do not go to the link within the "s, it will probably harm your device

"http: // store . apple . com-free . tech

Congratulations Vodafone Ireland Limited users! Your Iphone device was selected

because we need more testers for the new IPhone 7 Press OK to participate and reserve an iPhone 6 for free"

at the moment I am advising a friend to take the following steps.

Clear information from your device

To clear your history and cookies from Safari in iOS 8 or later, tap Settings > Safari > Clear History and Website Data. In iOS 7 or earlier, tap Clear History and tap Clear Cookies and Data.

To clear other stored information from Safari, tap Settings > Safari > Advanced > Website Data > Remove All Website Data.

This information comes from https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201265
and from https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7135503?start=0&tstart=0

Faker74

Thanks for that Martin.

Can anyone recommend a good content blocking app, as referred to in the first link?

Sad Professor

I use Purify.

routerhacked

Is your ISP vodafone by any chance?

Faker74

It is.

Vodafone for my broadband, and 3 for my mobile.

routerhacked

Faker74 wrote: »

It is.

Vodafone for my broadband, and 3 for my mobile.

Router was hacked its happening to me.
Can anyone else confirm they are with vodafone?
boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=97996545#post97996545

Faker74

routerhacked wrote: »

Router was hacked its happening to me.
Can anyone else confirm they are with vodafone?
boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=97996545#post97996545

Is there a way to confirm it is a hacking of the router?

I'm not positive it is only happening when on wifi, as I don't recall every single instance. BUT given that the screen shot I originally attached shows that I was on mobile data at that time, I don't think it is the router, or at least not JUST a router issue.

routerhacked

Faker74 wrote: »

Is there a way to confirm it is a hacking of the router?

I'm not positive it is only happening when on wifi, as I don't recall every single instance. BUT given that the screen shot I originally attached shows that I was on mobile data at that time, I don't think it is the router, or at least not JUST a router issue.

Can you go to those sites on 4g or a different network and see if it still happens clear your cookies and cache. If it only happens when your on the vodafone network its been hacked. The fact that someone got your account in Taiwan tells me something is seriously wrong.

Faker74

routerhacked wrote: »

Can you go to those sites on 4g or a different network and see if it still happens clear your cookies and cache. If it only happens when your on the vodafone network its been hacked.

Problem is, ever since it started the issue has been intermittent. So I have no guaranteed way of replicating it.

However, I have had no issues with my laptop, and my wife also has an iPhone (but a different service provider) and has not experienced these issues. So only one of the devices in our home which connects to the router has had any kind of issue.

routerhacked

Faker74 wrote: »

Problem is, ever since it started the issue has been intermittent. So I have no guaranteed way of replicating it.

However, I have had no issues with my laptop, and my wife also has an iPhone (but a different service provider) and has not experienced these issues. So only one of the devices in our home which connects to the router has had any kind of issue.

Has your internet speed gotten slower recently? They only seem to target iphones with the ads. You wouldn't notice anything if you used a desktop. Its also possible the ipad was hacked. I did noticed my ipad boot into a black screen after being redirected to one of those sites.

Faker74

routerhacked wrote: »

Has your internet speed gotten slower recently? They only seem to target iphones with the ads. You wouldn't notice anything if you used a desktop. Its also possible the ipad was hacked. I did noticed my ipad boot into a black screen after being redirected to one of those sites.

Haven't noticed any slow down on my broadband speeds. and there are 3 apple devices in the house, along with any others that might come through with various visitors who always get the wifi passwords, and to my knowledge it has only happened on my phone.

routerhacked

Faker74 wrote: »

Haven't noticed any slow down on my broadband speeds. and there are 3 apple devices in the house, along with any others that might come through with various visitors who always get the wifi passwords, and to my knowledge it has only happened on my phone.

Used 4g for the next day and see what happens

mel.b

I'm getting the same msg but it first happened when i was using 4g at work (iphone 4g paired with ipad). So i don't think its the router being hacked

Tonyandthewhale

So what is the solution if the router is hacked. Needless to say I'm having the same problem as the OP. Only seems to be happening on the home network (not 100% sure though) but mine is one of only 3 iphones in the house but the only one having this problem

Collibosher

Seeing this issue here too, but only on an old iPad 2, and only when on theguardian.co.uk website.

Issue doesn't appear on any of the four iPhones in the house.

ISP is vodafone.

Creamy Goodness

I bet this is down to an ad being served by Google ads that does the popup, if you've a 64bit iOS device, install an Ad-blocker and see if that makes it go away. If yes then you have your answer.

Landoflemon

Also seeing this issue on my ipad 3, no other devices in the house showing problems, and I'm also with Vodafone.

long_b

Not just happening with Vodafone it seems

http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057532187/1/#post97967723

Sad Professor

Check Settings > General > Profiles and delete any profiles that shouldn't be there. This sounds like DNS spoofing.

mel.b

Sad Professor wrote: »

Check Settings > General > Profiles and delete any profiles that shouldn't be there. This sounds like DNS spoofing.

Is this on an ipad? I can't find anything called profiles under general in settings

guil

mel.b wrote: »

Is this on an ipad? I can't find anything called profiles under general in settings

If it's not there then you don't have a profile installed. Don't worry though cos they are only needed to track your device for a particular service etc.

deadanonymau5

I was on Twitter and clicked a link from BusinessInsider's twitter to an article on their site and was redirected to gameofoffers.com. It brought me to a webpage saying Android was not updated and gave steps to install an app (Obviously a dodgy one) Had a pop up as well, when I tried to go back and couldn't exit the app. This all happened in the native in-app web browsing.

I thought Id check out the same page on the Chrome app and same thing happened only I was brought to apple.com-news.press saying I won an iPhone 6s. Then when I hit back pop ups came on. I tried again and the same thing happened only I was brought to antivirus.com-alert.xyz . I think Chrome stopped it and I was brought to a page saying "Deceptive Site ahead. Attackers on antivirus.com-alert.xyz may trick you into doing something dangerous like like installing software or revealing your personal information." There was also a box that I could tick saying "Automatically report details of possible security incidents to Google. Privacy policy" and a button saying "Back To Safety"

I had to close down/exit the apps through the screen where it shows what apps are open. Im on Three and was on my mobile.

Anyone else brought to the same sites?

Grab All Association

Happened to me whilst on eBay.ie iPad

deadanonymau5

Grab All Association wrote: »

Happened to me whilst on eBay.ie iPad

What site were you brought to? Was it to win an iPhone 6s or 7?

Are you on Wifi or 3g/4g? What network if its the latter?

Grab All Association

deadanonymau5 wrote: »

What site were you brought to? Was it to win an iPhone 6s or 7?

Are you on Wifi or 3g/4g? What network if its the latter?

WiFi and apple free something like that. Happened whilst searching eBay despite having pop ups blocked. Reset the iPad (happening anyway)

Faker74

Have had it happen to me on both wifi (vodafone as the ISP), and on mobile (three).

Using an iPhone 6 running iOS 9.1 and subsequently iOS 9.2.

Won't be able to investigate further as the phone feel into a sink of water last night, and now I have a whole other set of issues!:(

martinosullivan

routerhacked wrote: »

Is your ISP vodafone by any chance?

All the people I know who have this issue are using Vodafone for mobile.

Is it possible that this is an attack on the Vodafone network?

I asked the people who I know with the issue to take the following steps.

Disable their mobile data, and connect via Wi-Fi to see if the message on their phone displays, or if it changes.

Change the SIM card in their phone, to another network. Then see if the message on the spam changes, or stops displaying.

So far I have not heard back.

martinosullivan

Faker74 wrote: »

Have had it happen to me on both wifi (vodafone as the ISP), and on mobile (three).

Using an iPhone 6 running iOS 9.1 and subsequently iOS 9.2.

Won't be able to investigate further as the phone feel into a sink of water last night, and now I have a whole other set of issues!:(

Well that will get rid of any spam message. Also won’t make it possible for me to suggest an experiment

long_b

Another data point - guy at work sees it at home and work wifi - both Vodafone fixed line.

deadanonymau5

martinosullivan wrote: »

All the people I know who have this issue are using Vodafone for mobile.

Is it possible that this is an attack on the Vodafone network?

I asked the people who I know with the issue to take the following steps.

Disable their mobile data, and connect via Wi-Fi to see if the message on their phone displays, or if it changes.

Change the SIM card in their phone, to another network. Then see if the message on the spam changes, or stops displaying.

So far I have not heard back.

Happens on Three as well

Eugene Norman

I've seen it on Macworld and I've just moved to VF.

It's definitely in the adds. If you turn JavaScript off it's not an issue. But where's the injection happening?

wheresmybeaver

I've seen this happen on a few different mobile devices in the last few weeks, mixture of apple and Android and differing browsers. Triggers a lot when on the avclub website so it leads me to believe that the ad network they use is having issues.

So the last few days I've been trialling adguard on my Xperia phone and I've had no issues. Also enjoying the general increase in screen real estate without banner ads. Adguard is free for Web browsing but a subscription will also block ads in apps. It is possibly slightly impacting battery life and performance as it runs a local VPN in order to filter Web traffic but I would say it offsets the battery loss through displaying video ads and the like. Www.adguard.com for anyone interested.

deadanonymau5

Eugene Norman wrote: »

I've seen it on Macworld and I've just moved to VF.

It's definitely in the adds. If you turn JavaScript off it's not an issue. But where's the injection happening?

Can you link the article? I can't find it

Happened on twitter links to legit sites and some sites on Chrome for me.

Sad Professor

For the people experiencing this: have you tried installing an ad blocker?

Eugene Norman

deadanonymau5 wrote: »

Can you link the article? I can't find it

Happened on twitter links to legit sites and some sites on Chrome for me.

No. I see it happen when I go to MW. And salon. And business insider.

Utter madness. Strange this hasn't become a bigger issue. You can't read the article.

Eugene Norman

Sad Professor wrote: »

For the people experiencing this: have you tried installing an ad blocker?

I actually don't want to deprive well behaving sites (like this one) of revenue. But sometimes I turn off JS.

Zcott

Eugene Norman wrote: »

I actually don't want to deprive well behaving sites (like this one) of revenue. But sometimes I turn off JS.

Most adblockers offer whitelisting, so whitelist boards.

deadanonymau5

Eugene Norman wrote: »

No. I see it happen when I go to MW. And salon. And business insider.

Utter madness. Strange this hasn't become a bigger issue. You can't read the article.

Oops. Thought you meant you saw an article on Macworld :pac:

I wonder is it just in Ireland....

Eugene Norman

deadanonymau5 wrote: »

Oops. Thought you meant you saw an article on Macworld :pac:

I wonder is it just in Ireland....

Probably or it would be a bigger world wide issue.

testicle

I'm setting the exact same thing on a Galaxy S5

Creamy Goodness

Anyone try messing around with their Google Ads settings and see if switching their interests fixes the problems?

https://www.google.com/settings/ads