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
How sweet it is
A clickbait ad from Weekly Penny broke the boundary and:
- The image covered up text
- The text part is bleeding through the page contents.
I'm Sad Frogerson.
EDIT: Nevermind, I'm not sure if it's an issue with ads or if its on my own end.
Edited by chasemaddigan on Jul 13th 2019 at 6:51:47 AM
To be a Master
Got redirected to: https://c.adsco.re/d#Qj4hAAAAAAAAEy7UL13RqmPdTwDQ5wnEWeWnCCs,dd2df884-574f-4a2c-8f8c-ee9ae7ed62eb_oscar-tow-kexLyCDx,3,,AAJnpVzSguMfkhpUt9qFbBShsRWyvuLLBo_W5BpRly2eiQtSu3xkYlhxib36fzIGMOs3KS5kMwid38Nar-UqEh7LZ4LsYsg4VS7Z-0S-tGlWGu73ZjXgn6BpaoAbmCCe_dedwQD-hlNv0Ij9Dk8cUUbnRkV91tt_ZiWZESc0AuXiBodSmHHlPDlnMUAtuAvxaHGkPOPM-6cj8IGzlLUSmYb83xiv3FpOdNyLtwD0k7703SNGKY5FQQrvrUvkHkP2lmklYBGnmG034F9mN3TWvrwzz-3WtrhXQwKeGwFkVP_6tvfiDp-THqSUD-a4vmdB33F9kHwIsT2b6o0jntIrgYt-UqBXFeLpkTcmW5jWm7njNkHNSOx9FbVtSlS8QYjm6lk?browser=Safari&trackingdomain=rs.eujmj3g.space&brand=Desktop&model=Desktop&osversion=MacOS%2010.14%20Mojave&cep=&cep=ghexFxiWUh_W8-UY76WyupFQPZkBTVfAT11sGhic2C7dVGAwcEu35pHDGF4VPFJsoYmiG57jE4rBylspZ1sEAEQNU-gnaYxcl66Wo9TxiLXggqoXtthBFP5Rhv3ciWLehQB8by7nX9nGwILxfs3bsCpMDRKcqrzhOdR9TdXuir5lL6nRE5vBbf3r0TZwI9nsILaDbKTQYVd-pb53lxaAJ2l_n_Q_F3MAmA5nsRfrxE1-nPeuCEVD_stGg0reWslAvLVP2foNe4JquDnej4zIiqWRNCA5Y7yHjWumUPT53v2DIW6hjKZ8H1XHH_O0XW5xIrKwlfGWheeEeAswpPVB3eHT1rCA5r5YAxkCb8IBtfGbydV7rvyV7i9jwUku1DMOa5xXafoFOMgdCrGlkYDEFnz961fFZ0lzVB-mVCRFSCUjv9j7LXT_dUsZt4mXWVfL_ObJyUtHErgdU5H8VKw7_BKeMmXvw_MTLNcAq16fRF5cdD-nlTB_gaci0JSRhCQZl_jdQCnPQ6lnZ56mPPizvq9_FEgHuHx7NHckQqOGBcWKu9X8fcq35B93HnhKSAnD&lptoken=150063ec423c24d859b7
Edited by Shadao on Jul 17th 2019 at 8:33:21 AM
Same as Shadao, I notice it happens if I click the page. Though for me it opens up a new tab. And it once downloaded something onto my computer. Thankfully I deleted it and ran scan, but still. It's been happening the last few days...
Edit: Okay I have news there's new urls as it just happened again. (Alt
asha.ijuqufx.site/Aw Hn6x U3sjjy 25 K Iruynx9s M 9 H-xfhGLctzpFBrPPUSbC2xYPUeL7pV0ZjpA-kx2AbgtqIQ-Z Y6r PJ 6 Ie4x 29 UH 35_q-5VI2rN1psg88SPOIJg==?ci=wV78UG9P90QA1G2OH7U8K050&n3er=zK3Wtw==&uu=lIaJhrzOpHZ6hnh8d3qQfnd3hnU=
deej.almeusciu.site/Aw F0n 3 Y Xhmwa3y XVS R3z 6 Z Nc 3 Slc D3e Z_DJkGJaIEjvU-D Gs Y 1 Q Ow E4w 3 BN-6f8ostwdN8nhpVt0Fdm3459XGrDb8wghKnw9zdjpW2ORmTRSEA==?ci=wAVH5NIPBVI7FG2O1LD94MBK&n3er=tKymzA==&uu=lIaJhrzOpHZ6hnh8d3qQen59iH0=
Edited by SailorDione on Jul 21st 2019 at 9:23:19 AM
To be a Master
Same website strike here: http://asha.ijuqufx.site/AwHva8XjUVfgHyzyQ8T2ddJ52rh16hVkua4Kju79ox_jK0P_DAfGisMh0ZCa0HDJFGX7BR86Co5Q6EWGV2qmSXQCDgnYY0rjguf6ng-QzVcXEg==?ci=wA98MEQSU62T0S2OHUOMPQB6&n3er=p5S0yA==&uu=lIaJhrzOpHZ6hnh8e36PenZ4iXs=
I also notice more frequent pop blocks occurring according to my pop up blocker.
Always 3:00am in the Filth
My Samsung phone keeps trying to download a "f.txt" file from the ad.doubleclick.net. I'm not seeing any ads on the forums at the moment. It doesn't ask me to download the file, only if I want to redownload it.
"But don't give up hope. Everyone is cured sooner or later. In the end we shall shoot you." - O'Brien, 1984
I have gotten a full-page ad (pic) three times today on mobile (Android Chrome), including while trying to compose this post. It does not go away until I tap a very small x, and if I miss it follows the ad. This is exactly the kind of ad that makes people use Adblock.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Same here, including while trying to write this post.
I got one of those annoying video ads that not only autoplays, but opens a popup in the corner of the browser when you scroll away from it.
It's an ad for Samsung, if that helps. I'm using Chrome on a desktop PC.
Health sure is versatile. It's possible to be both light-headed and dim-witted. At the same time, no less.
Darker Than You
The Samsung Galaxy Unpacked Livestream ad is an eyesore. It's constantly in motion, there's no way to stop it, it turns into a pop-up if you try to scroll down the page, and it's advertising a Livestream that's already done, so it just keeps repeating the intro loop over and over. Clicking on it doesn't stop it, it just tries to load a page I have blocked. Unlike most Google ads, there's no way to report it, either.
If you don't want people using Adblock, then don't have ads like this.
Full-page ads on mobile are continuing to be a thing. Please resolve this.
How sweet it is
I got autoredirected when off tab on desktop, then the page changed to an alert of a bad site asking for my info.
I think the URL it was sending me to was easeonlineshopping.com...
Looking at my history, the URL led to utmmeta.com.
she/her | TRS needs your help! | Contributor of Trope Report
star wars sequel bad give upvotes
Got redirected to Softonic for a download to Roblox, for some reason.
his appendages reach the heavens
I dunno if it's ads or some site weirdness, but for the last three minutes I've had to deal with something caused my screen to scroll back up whenever I scrolled down. I just tried to use the search function while editing FanNickname.Pokemon. Getting to this thread to write this alone was a complete chore.
On a Kindle Fire.
Edited by Crossover-Enthusiast on Aug 23rd 2019 at 6:03:19 AM
Jawbreakers on sale for 99¢
Ive been getting redirected too. Most recently, to here: http://gt9im.tk/active2049242534352/Ews82942fd9eve39dk9329402334/134qrefsdf32435tgddgfhg546/callnow2/2/
definitely a scam page. Been happening a lot recently. At least a couple times a day, and only on this site. scanned for viruses and the like on my end, and appear to be clean.
star wars sequel bad give upvotes
Kept getting a notification from Firefox on this website asking me if I want to open "t.txt", I have no idea where it's coming from. Guess until the ad engine switches to something less dangerous I'm keeping adblocker on for my computers safety.
his appendages reach the heavens
It's been more than a month and I'm still getting full-page pop-ups on mobile. I miss Fast Eddie.
I keep getting one that redirects my browser to an "Official Windows Support" page and then proceeds to lock it down to the point that I have to close the entire browser and start all over again. Turning ads off until this is fixed, because I don't need garbage trying to download itself on my computer.
now @ worldwidewoomy
I’m not sure if this is an issue on my end, but on mobile (specifically Safari) the ads often break boundaries and cover the text and links.
flag edit: nonbinary flag but Luigi
I've been complaining about these since early August and have yet to recieve a response from administration.
I keep getting an ad on mobile for Shopper's Drug Mart that fills up the entire screen and only has half the circle x visible to close it.
Edit: Basically what the two previous posters are complaining about
Edited by Peteman on Sep 27th 2019 at 11:43:15 AM
A procrastination in of itself
So I just realised that there’s no longer a report button for rule breaking ads, is there a reason that it was removed or is it actually still there for others?
"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
I got redirected to a fake microsoft site again. It actually crashed firefox this time. As much as I hate using ad blockers for sites I support,its necessary to ensure security at this point. :/ Im sorry. Please fix this issue soon.
Yeah, I got exact same message from exact same bot