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Hi Frank et al,

Am noticing a sudden deluge of the "Congratulations!" type ad spam pop ups on the PW forum, using an iOS device. Wasn't sure if that's something on my end or yours, but it was never something that was previously triggered by visiting this forum.

Just thought you should know.

I had EXACTLY the same problem last week (on my ipad), and contacted PW (privately) about it. My solution was to close all of the open tabs in Safari- so far, that seems to have solved the problem.

I had found it hard to believe that I was the only one having this problem, but up to now, I hadn’t seen anyone else report it.

Yep, same here. Spam prevent me from using my ipad when checking in on Piano World.

Rich

This isn't unique to, nor tied to PW. It has been happening to me on my iPad when I am in Facebook and access FB-suggested articles.

The advice I have found to counter this on IOS is:

Go to Settings, Safari...make sure "block popups" is enabled...and then tap on "Clear History and Website Data."

Install an ad blocker (I installed the free Adblock Plus).

--

I made these changes yesterday. The first action seems to have stopped the popup that directs you to a site called "landing.page...". However, it did not stop the popup that directs you to "iResearch...". That's why I proceeded to the second step.

Time will tell whether these two actions are sufficient to block everything.

John

I own only iOS devices, and never have any problems with pop-ups. I don't remember actively setting 'block pop-ups' in the settings on my MacBook Pro and iPod Touch (in fact, I'm pretty sure I didn't with my iPod Touch, as I don't know how to).

But then, I'm not on any social media of any sort, and have never even looked at anyone's Facebook page, and I definitely never look at Twitter. If people have something important to say that I want to know, I expect it to be on a reputable website somewhere.

My friends & acquaintances who use social media a lot apparently just take pop-ups into their stride, like any adverts they get bombarded with on their devices..........

The only website for which I have a problem is piano world. The last two weeks I’ve received a pop-up that says ‘congratulations, you have been selected as an Amazon user for a giveaway’. I cannot just close the pop up without also closing out piano world at the same time. This only happens on my iPhone it happens now frequently

Edited to add: I have pop ops blocked

Well I did as bennevis suggested, even adding the Adblocker Plus and still got the Amazon pop ups. Annoying for sure.

Edit: I just realized I had to go back into the set-up and turn on the Adblocker Plus. Once I did that no more Amazon pop ups.

Rich

Just for the sake of comparison, I haven’t experienced any popups on my iPhone or iPad (both Safari), or on my MacBook Pro (Firefox).

I do have Block Popups enabled on my phone (just checked). I’m not home, so I can’t check the others.

Well, I spoke too soon...

In the 3D printer thread I was just redirected to a site called giftmileupgrades.top.

It looks more like a malware infection than a pop up advert.

My problem with Amazon pop up ads has returned, and until I can figure out how to resolve it, I will be unable to view PW from my iPad. Hopefully the computer won't have these issues, but it's a shame.

No problems here on my PC and Android devices.

Ian

The Amazon ad is driving me crazy!!

This is likely not actually caused by the pianoworld site. See the following lengthy discussion by people who experience this on all kinds of websites. It seems to be malicious advertising using some form of exploit in Safari:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8230496

(make sure to open the full list of answers in that thread, some of the tips in there may help you)

Ironically, I don't get the "Congratulations!" spam when I view the PW forum as a person that's logged out. But, that could be because I cleared my history and cookies from my iPhone (which logs you out).

It's happened a couple times today on my phone. For me it's not all the time...very intermittent.

I now get the fake Amazon promo every time I open PW (and ONLY at PW) on Safari.

As a consequence, I've started using Google Chrome on my IOS devices -- I don't get the popup on Chrome, only on Safari.