We occasionally get reports of ads that trigger antivirus warnings or infect computers that are browsing the wiki. This FAQ is an attempt to consolidate all the information about such things into one thread. Please read the below before reporting any incidents.
This thread may also be used to report ads that violate our policies in other ways, such as being too "adult" or NSFW, automatically playing audio/video, etc.
REPORTING: try to get a screenshot of the console as well as this will help identify where it's coming from.
REDIRECTS: Its very tricky to get the first URL of a redirect trigger because they are designed to hide where it came from. So you need a redirect plug-in
active while the redirect happens so you can find the first URL, not the last. Where you were directed to doesn't help track down the source.
- TV Tropes, as a site, does not contain malware. We are a text-and-image wiki; viruses and malware cannot be uploaded to or embedded in the articles. As always, however, beware of any external link that you don't recognize, since we cannot automatically screen edits or posts for malicious links.
- 99.99% of the time, any suspected malware will be related to the wiki advertising.
- TV Tropes does not directly control the ads that are displayed. We use third-party ad providers and we determine things like the size and placement.
- We instruct our providers not to serve ads that redirect your browser, take control of the screen from you, forcibly scroll your screen, play audio without being clicked on, install malware, "pop up" or "pop over" your screen, or in any other way interfere with your browsing experience.
- We have custom software designed to detect ads that do these things and automatically block them.
- Malicious entities are constantly trying to sneak ads through the providers' networks in violation of these instructions. As providers have little incentive to proactively detect and block them, it's up to websites to report these sorts of problems.
- We rely on our users to report ads that get through these measures.
- Just because you see a particular ad doesn't mean everyone else sees it. Ads are customized by the ad providers to your location (by IP address), the content of the page you're viewing, and your browsing profile, which is tracking data accumulated by third parties over the course of all your internet browsing.
- Just because you get a malware warning or infection that seems related to an ad on TV Tropes does not necessarily mean that it is caused by one of our ads. Pre-existing malware on your computer can intercept ads and replace them with malicious ones.
- Ads containing malware, obviously.
- Misbehaving ads, such as ones that load a pop-up or pop-under, redirect your browser to another page, hijack your screen or automatically scroll it.
- "Adult" or NSFW ads. Scantily clad women alone may or may not qualify, depending on context, but we want this site to be work-safe.
- Ads that automatically play audio — that is, the audio starts without you clicking on the ad first. Video ads are acceptable.
- Note: Political content is not grounds for rejecting an ad. However, an ad that contains or implies hate speech, disinformation, or outright falsehoods may be objectionable enough to be blocked.
- First and foremost, maintain current, updated antivirus software, and keep your operating system and browser up to date with all patches offered by the software vendors. This includes Adobe Flash, Java, and other rich media plug-ins. Turn on your software's automatic updates if they are not already on and act immediately when prompted to install them.
- Never click on pop-ups purporting to have detected a virus, offering to "tune up" your PC, or otherwise inducing you to click on a link that you were not expecting. Any genuine message of this nature would come from your antivirus software and not from a web page.
- Be careful clicking on external links. These are identified with a small icon next to them. Example: Google. TV Tropes does not endorse or control the content of external links and you open them at your own risk.
- Never respond to any email or web page that asks for personal or financial information, including passwords, unless you have verified its identity. No reputable company will ever ask you for your password(s), other than to log in.
- You may choose to opt out of having tracking information collected by ad providers. This does not stop malware but helps you maintain your online privacy. See here for additional information.
- TV Tropes requests that you do not use ad blocking software while visiting us, as this site depends on advertising revenue to operate. If you do run an ad blocker, please add tvtropes.org to its exception list, or consider donating to the site to have certain ads removed.
- We (or the ad provider) place a "Report advertisement" link next to most advertising frames. Clicking on this will generate an automatic report and is the best way to do so. If you cannot click on this link or do not see it, continue for more advice.
- Try to identify the source URL of the suspect ad (see below). You can also use the target URL (if you are redirected), but note that this may be intentionally obfuscated by the ad provider to hide the source.
- Identify the ad provider. Some ads have a small area that links to the ad provider's page (like Google or AOL). In other cases, you can tell from the referral URL or you can look it up in a search.
- Go to the ad provider's contact/abuse page and fill out their form. Below are some links to common providers' abuse pages:
- Scan your computer for viruses. If your antivirus software will not operate (many malicious programs attempt to disable your antivirus software), you can download a scanning tool on a known clean system and run it on your infected machine from a read-only CD-R or flash drive.
- If you suspect that you've been tricked into divulging personal information to a phishing attempt or other fraud, change your passwords to affected sites immediately and contact your bank, credit card companies, and the credit bureaus to request a fraud alert.
- Please note that TV Tropes cannot assist you with the specifics of maintaining your computer. That's your responsibility. You may request general help in the appropriate forums, but please don't post new threads in the forums dedicated to wiki operation (Wiki Talk, Frequently Asked Questions, etc.).
- Sometimes, the wiki administration can get better results from the ad providers in dealing with malicious ads. If you can identify a malicious ad by referral URL, you can post the link in this thread, but please omit the "http" component so it doesn't create a hyperlink that someone might click on inadvertently.
- For image ads, right-clicking (or a long tap on mobile devices) should give you the option to view and copy the URL that clicking on it will send you to.
- For Flash, Java, or HTML 5.0 ads, it may be difficult to identify the source or the URL by right-clicking. In these cases, you need to view the page source to identify the ad so we can report it.
- In Internet Explorer, you can right-click in a blank or text area of any web page, and choose View Source from the context menu. Firefox also has this option. In Chrome, you can use the Inspect Element menu option, which interactively highlights the portion of the page whose code you are hovering over. You can use this to identify the ad frame and its source URL.
- For embedded ads, there will be a "frame" element with a "src" parameter. Drill down until you get to the lowest level. All we need to identify the ad is the "src" URL from that frame.
for more information or to discuss the service.
Edited by kory on Nov 15th 2023 at 10:36:27 AM
I'm getting harmful redirects, some of them being "reward sites", on my phone. I'm unable to link here since it constantly doing it.
he/him | Image Pickin' regular
I'm also getting constantly redirected to malicious "reward" sites.
Keet cleanup
Short-Term Projects herald
Same here. And it's only on mobile. I have edited within the past week at that.
Contains 20% less fat than the leading value brand!
he/him | Image Pickin' regular
Now that I'm editing on desktop, ads aren't loading and I keep getting a message on the bottom of the screen saying "This is page #X you have viewed this month without ads", even though I don't even have an ad blocker active.
EDIT: It only seemed to happen when I first booted up; it stopped now.
Edited by rjd1922 on Apr 27th 2019 at 7:56:39 AM
Keet cleanup
Having the same problem being automatically redirected to malicious websites on mobile. Don't know what to do about it OR how to block it.![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
I'd like to report some Lowe's ads that I've been seeing for a while. They're in the sidebar and play video on mute, which on its own is fine. The problem is that it's the kind of video where, when it scrolls off the screen, it creates a pop-up in the corner and keeps going. It won't even give me the option to dismiss it right away. Benign, but annoying.
I wasn't able to get a URL, but it's from Teads Advertising.
Edited by DragonRanger on Apr 27th 2019 at 5:29:55 AM
NaNo 4328 / 50,000
Part of mediamarket-rewards.xyz redirects.
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
NaNo 4328 / 50,000
This redirect got blocked by my browser, making it easy to return to the website.
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
NaNo 4328 / 50,000
Another complicated layered redirect page, from the forums.
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
Getting redirects to "iPhone-super" or "iPhone-lucky" that hijack the back button beyond human ability to click fast enough to actually get back.
Fresh-eyed movie blog
To be a Master
The Draftsman of Doom
I see advertisements for Manwha from Toomics which are NSFW. Mind you, the NSFW parts don't show up immediately but the works are NSFW.
Rawr.
Getting redirects solely on mobile (iPhone 8, Safari, fully updated) that stick me in a loop for Wal-Mart gift cards.
Also getting that too on Wi-Fi. The .site domain needs to be dealt with, as I'm fed up having to run to my web browser data to delete its crap.
https://insidekyotonishikimarket.site/39ca38ac4847bd74b3a569483e67ecb1/index.html
Edited by BF10 on May 2nd 2019 at 8:23:24 AM
How sweet it is
Another one encountered when I was on ATT.
she/her | TRS needs your help! | Contributor of Trope Report
How sweet it is
And another...
https://d32dnmizc5tlyk.cloudfront.net/notice?eid=rubicon&pid=tvtropes.org&83mP1YD3=140882000401087
Cloudfront ads are back:
https://d3ms2x2seouw0z.cloudfront.net/notice?eid=rubicon&pid=tvtropes.org&avc4fQRc=140879120746171
Title
Redirected to this, refreshes so that you can't backspace:
forum signature
On mobile Chrome: https://ca-rogers-phone.com/win/ca/rogers/index.php?ip=[REDACTED]&lpkey=15e557c662fe786043&uclick=7vxidvgh#
And then this while trying to report the first redirect: https://www.incentive-giveaway-winner-award.club/bdf9a337-c0e9-44ab-8d53-73bd77e584d8/c99670f8-977b-4503-b3c4-2680fde12c74/? (the rest has been removed due to sensitive info).
How sweet it is
An ad for Flower Child covered up part of the page while I was browsing the forums. There's no way to close it.
Edited by Berrenta on May 17th 2019 at 10:24:45 AM
she/her | TRS needs your help! | Contributor of Trope Report
I'm Sad Frogerson.
Just got an ad from hellocare.com that fullscreened my Kindle Fire and wouldn't let me exit.
Jawbreakers on sale for 99ยข
Short-Term Projects herald
Found this:
https://www.swarovskioptik.com/hunting/z5-c200503?utm_source=teads&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=2019_US_teads_Z5
Contains 20% less fat than the leading value brand!
Got another diseased ad: https://weeklysavingschedule.site/f671f158048d4854967a195b0b1debd6/index.html?isp=Virginia%20Polytechnic%20Institute%20and%20State%20Univ.&trackid=20190426180356858#