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
reconsidering
i keep getting redirected to this https://shoppingspreesweepstakes.com/?sid=28960-&sid2=TrafficCompany&cid=P3WF77rPjLVMteRMRQbKtt
edit: ah, i see im not the only one. just mentioning it then
Edited by Tremmor19 on Jan 1st 2022 at 1:42:21 PM
A procrastination in of itself
I keep getting page freezes when trying to make a post, the text box just stops taking inputs and the entire tab freezes out on me. I’ve also had multiple forum threads freeze halfway through loading. I’m on iOS, using Safari.
The problem has gone away now I’ve enabled my ad-block extension, but I don’t like having it enabled on here and I’m sure the team also don’t like me having it enabled.
Edited by Silasw on Jan 9th 2022 at 12:41:34 PM
"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
Lord Barglebroth, Come For Your Souls!
I have repeatedly encountered a McAfee alert that bumps me off the site and demands I install its software, even though I use an iPad. Can you ensure I do not see it again?
Check out my fanfiction account here!
I'm occasionally getting fake Anti Virus browser hijacking popup ads, the website sometimes will redirect to a fake Mc Afee page that says "you have visited an illegal website, click here to scan" essentially. I know it's a virus so I don't bother clicking. I don't think it's on my end as I've run multiple antivirus scans to try to get rid of the source, but I noticed that on here and a few other websites, the fake Mc Afee popup appears, but never on sites like Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, or Wikipedia.
Wikipedia doesn't have ads.
"Listen up, Marina, because this is SUPER important. Whatever you do, don't eat th“ “DON'T EAT WHAT?! Your text box ran out of space!”
Wikipedia also runs frequent donation drives. Your point being?
Anyway, got that McAfee scam redirect as well, https://web-protocols.org (with a bunch of personal info after that omitted, y'all know the drill)
Edited by Crossover-Enthusiast on Jan 11th 2022 at 7:21:30 AM
Jawbreakers on sale for 99¢
I also keep getting the MacAfee thing.
Edited by Eiryu on Jan 11th 2022 at 6:27:45 AM
Now a lurker. Thanks for everything. | he/him
I just got redirected myself.
TRS Queue | Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper Wall
Let's Hop to It!
Got the McAfee thing just now while in the middle of watching a video. Highly irritating. Here's a picture of what it looks like:
AI with access to the console
Got a "most addicting game" ad in this case spider-gwen? (thats her name right?) with her legs spread out and facing away from the camera. anyhow came up while i writing a post so i didnt notice until i hit send. might of been a one off case but if anyone does see it please report it
I look to the stars... but that's mostly because there isn't anything else interesting
Thanks for letting us know. We are sending your reports about the redirects to the company we contracted for ad quality. The scammers come out heavy in the first 6 weeks or so of each year as the CPM's are the lowest.
Pretty interestin'.
"Listen up, Marina, because this is SUPER important. Whatever you do, don't eat th“ “DON'T EAT WHAT?! Your text box ran out of space!”
Now a lurker. Thanks for everything. | he/him
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
You're welcome. Thanks for doing something about it.
Let's Hop to It!
Thanks, itcdr! Much appreciated.
Don't know of this is a site thing or an ad thing, but currently on mobile (Android, Chrome browser) having this issue with really long ad sections. At first I thought it was a full-screen ad or the rest of the page failed to load or something, but if I keep scrolling down long enough, I eventually get past the ad. The ad itself only takes up a small portion of the section.
I've had the same issue as danime - there's often a ridiculous amount of white space (at least one or two screen's worth) after the first ad block when viewing the site on mobile. I'm using the Chrome app on android with no ad-block addons.
Obsessively adds images to character pages.
I have the same problem as this guy.
Young Wanderer
I'm in the same boat, massive blocks that take up the entire screen just for one tiny ad.
Too easy.
Now a lurker. Thanks for everything. | he/him
This site is becoming unusably slow for me, with pages stalling and stalling forever, and when I turned my ad blocker on the problem seems to have subsided.
I think there's an ad somewhere that's breaking the site, but I don't know.
Edited by themayorofsimpleton on Jan 24th 2022 at 12:11:27 PM
TRS Queue | Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper Wall
Plakis Morakis
I've also been having the same problem, though it hasn't caused anything to lag yet.
Welcome to Ideal's World
Mine is also unusably slow today.
"Can you see what I see?"
I have been having similar problems. Most of the time, I can't click anything, and then I get a pop-up telling me that the page is unresponsive.
Ever wanted to see the most inexplicably horrifying intro to a game ever?
Now a lurker. Thanks for everything. | he/him
Forgot to mention that, Chrome gave me a pop up saying the page is unresponsive.
MaDitto
Found another suggestive webtoon ad. The "Steamy Comic For Men" tagline doesn't help.
Yet another suggestive ad.
Edited by Excessive-Menace on Jan 24th 2022 at 11:10:51 AM
YAWK YAWK YAWK YAWK
Can the moderators/admins please fix the redirect ads. its currently unusable right now with the Mac Afee ads and the other ones
THE BATTLE CONTINUES