Help I'm getting hijacked by Win A Walmart Gift Card "Surveys"

[BlancheSplanchnik]

Help! How do I stop this? Has this ever happened to you? I get a couple clicks into DU and then I get hijacked to this bullshit that doesn’t let you out!

I hope I can get past it to post! Any thoughts, comments, solutions?

Thanks,
Blanche

[JDC]

1. Probably a malware attack.

There is a free program called Malwarebytes that scans and quarantined/removes little hijack apps like this. I would try that and see if it helps. Good luck.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

2. Thanks!

[hlthe2b]

3. Download the free malwarebytes software but then consider purchasing the full version

Very much recommended.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

4. The download is confusing me --I'm SO un-tech-savvy.

Hopefully it’s working on its own, we’ll see! I can ask a friend who knows more.

[hlthe2b]

5. Download it, install it and then call it up and let it scan.

It really should be automatic unless you are getting some kind of conflict with your anti-virus package.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

6. It just downloads to files but nothing opens.

I’ll have to get help.
But here I am on DU and haven’t gotten hi jacked so far this time. 🤞🏾

ETA: it just did it again. Jerks!!!!

[hlthe2b]

7. Did you double click on the download to start the install?

[BlancheSplanchnik]

8. Let's see if it lets me (I'm on my phone)

Edit— it’s only downloading as a document. Nothing to click on. Grrr, technology drives me nuts. I hate being a pest cuz I don’t know how to work it!

Thanks for helping out!! ❤️

[demmiblue]

14. Check YouTube for a tutorial. Here is one:

[BlancheSplanchnik]

16. I just went to the App Store and downloaded.

It says it’s installed and working now.
We shall see!

[BlancheSplanchnik]

17. Dammit. Not working. ☹️ n/t

[rusty fender]

23. I had this problem while using Safari

On my iPad. I switched to Chrome and haven’t had the gift card attack since

[JDC]

29. I missed the part where you told us it was an iPhone.

Try just clearing your history and cache/cookies in your Safari browser. Under settings. Clear passwords and everything.

Good luck

[hlthe2b]

18. I guess I somehow missed that you were having these issues on a cell phone...

Usually (at least with iphone), malware is not really an issue and get cleared pretty quickly. I do know that malwarebtyes has issued apps for iphone, but I'm not currently using it. The few times I felt like I was having issues using Safari as the browser, it all cleared once I fully exited the browser or reset my iphone.

Good luck.

[Tanuki]

24. +!000. I was having all kinds of malware problems until I signed up for Malwarebytes. Totally

solved the problem. I've had it for about 3 years now, and it is really effective.

[mobeau69]

27. Malwarebytes is great! Solved the problem. No pop-ups at all!

[calguy]

9. All you have to do is this......

Make a donation to DU, any amount you want, and you won't have to deal with any ads, anytime. Websites are not free to operate, and the website needs to generate an income to pay the bills. If you use DU you can choose to pay by donation, or you can pay by being exposed to ads on your screen. The choice is yours.

[Celerity]

11. that is not what the OP is talking about

they have a web browser hijacker issue

nothing to do with embedded adverts

[BlancheSplanchnik]

12. You mean malware will be blocked too? n/t

[mobeau69]

10. Downloading malwarebytes right now on iPhone

Will post results.

It is the only security apple recommends. They have a free level and Apple told me that's all I would need when I had issues with my iMac.


OK, malwarebytes for iPhone is a little different than for iMac. Web Protection is not free but Ad block is. I chose Ad Block only and it seems to be working. No popups at all!

[BlancheSplanchnik]

13. 👍🏾

[irisblue]

15. I occasionally get this with a different website.

Thx. I'll get the download

[Trailrider1951]

19. I have an android smartphone and I was getting those ads and many others

while accessing the internet. I tried Malwarebytes, but it did not help much. A friend told me to download the browser from Adblock. Yes, there is such a thing and you can find it at the google play store. Download and install it and use it instead of Chrome. The ads will be GONE! Hope this helps!

[Demovictory9]

25. i had that experience with my smart phone.goes away after a day or so. i assume my

cell phone carrier does something to eliminate it, very annoying

[Ms. Toad]

20. It is likely a new app you dowmnloaded

Or one that did an update to add the hijacker.

That happened to me once with a flashlight app. I downloaded it after checking the reviews, which universally praised it for being ad free. It was hard to track down, because it was popping up full-screen ads when I hadn't used the flashlight for weeks. After searching and pestering my phone provider for weeks I started going back to app reviews, and sure enough, about the time my problems started, a slew of reviews popped up complaining about the issue I was having.

[raccoon]

21. Other Duers having this problem, including me. See this link:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/109523228

[BlancheSplanchnik]

31. Haven't read the link yet, but I did actually think suspicious thoughts!

I got the app people here recommended. We’ll see. But I wondered if DU was targeted.

[petronius]

22. I don't think it's anything on your device, it's a malicious ad in whatever ad network DU uses

Here's an article from Vox discussing how it works...

https://product.voxmedia.com/2018/1/22/16902862/why-ads-redirect-to-giftcards-and-what-were-doing-to-secure-them

[reACTIONary]

30. Interesting, thanks nt

[allnews]

26. Me too

It has happened to me before on other sites but never DU until this morning. It’s on my iPhone and I constantly have to close it out and start over. Most annoying.

[Mersky]

28. Had to contend with that pop-up ad page yesterday

I'll just repost my comments from a previous thread, https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1095&pid=23228


7. Yeah, I got that loompasplace junk
I don't associate these phishing pop-up survey ad pages with my iPhone/iOS/Safari exclusively. Happened more frequently with my Android phone a couple years ago when I was running the Chrome browser. I expect it to happen when I visit certain websites like the Houston Chronicles website, chron.com. However all that, has been much less of problem after switching to iOS/Safari. Was kinda surprised when it happened upon pulling up the first website of the day... which is nearly always DU, and today was no exception.

Today's round of internet buggery was squashed when I closed the last ten of my open tabs. Included such things as DU, Wikipedia, and ticket purchasing pages for the Jeff Beck tour dates in San Antonio and Austin. Didn't have to clear my entire history, or toggle the recommended settings... Which I believe I already did a few months ago. I use duckduckgo as my search engine, and while I'd like to believe that's one of the reasons these intrusive Congratulations, user! pop-ups have decreased, I'm not sure at all.

Btw, I'd be leery of any website offering a way to clean or protect your computer or phone from these pop-up pages. I generally avoid any service that doesn't have real money/investment/history behind their name. I would love, love, love... I mean, love, for a major tech publication like Arstechnica, etc to call out exactly what's happening with this Congratulations web spam crappola.


14. Admittedly, I took the lazy experiment route yesterday, and while it worked...
I'm likely to take extra measures. Will probably clear my browser history/remaining open tabs. There's a set of recommendations given in the post you made to the Apple user group that I plan to revisit. I might seek an ad blocking plugin for Safari, but I'm kinda stubborn about using the native features of a mobile program. Safari has seemingly been better than chrome on this issue. Will report back what I do.


____
I'm a member, but this began yesterday morning before I'd logged back into DU. I'm familiar with Malwarebytes and will look into their solutions, etc.

[ooky]

32. If you are using Iphone or Ipad you don't need to download anything.

You need to clear your cache to get rid of it.

Settings>Safari>Clear History and Website Data.

That's all you should have to do to get rid of it. Works for me every time. Its also great to do when an accumulation of website data slows you down.

Its one of the big reasons I like Iphone and Ipad.