Google “congratulations” pop-up scam/spam from FRF web site?

[TeachTexas]

After analyzing the data thread for this site sent to me while using; I found no malicious or redirecting connections. This site is not secured and it tells you so in the information header for the site. It also does not have https in its URL. If you chose to use the site without any precautions or additional security on your part then it is on you if you have problems. Simple ad blockers or privacy settings can and do remove many of the simple intrusive things found on the internet. These things are not on the site you visit or on your site necessarily. They could be from web crawlers watching traffic on an unsecured connection and you get to be the lucky target.

Just do the simple things and move on, life will be easier.

[Timon]

Originally Posted by TeachTexas

After analyzing the data thread for this site sent to me while using; I found no malicious or redirecting connections. This site is not secured and it tells you so in the information header for the site. It also does not have https in its URL. If you chose to use the site without any precautions or additional security on your part then it is on you if you have problems. Simple ad blockers or privacy settings can and do remove many of the simple intrusive things found on the internet. These things are not on the site you visit or on your site necessarily. They could be from web crawlers watching traffic on an unsecured connection and you get to be the lucky target.

Just do the simple things and move on, life will be easier.

So you're saying that the operators of the forum don't want to fix the problem?

[TeachTexas]

Originally Posted by Timon

So you're saying that the operators of the forum don't want to fix the problem?

The problem is not theirs to fix. It originates outside their control. The only thing they could do would be to make the site a secured https site but there are thousands of sites on the web that are not https. If they want to go secured that is their business. I am on many forums that do not use a secured connection and it is very simple to install protection on my part and go on.

[67L48]

Posts have shown how to fix the symptoms ... stopping the adware from causing the redirects. There isn't a way, however, to eliminate the adware without better web design.

This site is free from egregious malware. However, you can scan it and find weaknesses in the code where things can be injected into scripts. Also, this site runs vBulletin 3.8.8. Anything lower than about version 5.4 will be outdated and contain vulnerabilities.

Through various plugins used, advertising services, and running woefully outdated forum code, this site is, in fact, the problem. But, as you can read, the forum representatives have been very consistent: there is no problem.

So, either use one of these 3rd party apps to block the symptoms, find another device to browse that doesn't use iOS/Safari, or leave. One of those are your options.

Good Luck.

[Janet H]

We will not be moving to vB 5.x (lots of issues with later versions of vBulletin). We keep this version of our software patched and believe it is safe. IOS users are reporting issues with ads that hijack their browsers and there have been many suggestions about good solutions on this thread.

Looking ahead it is likely that FRF will change software platforms for the forum and have been considering Xenforo as an alternative but this is a massive undertaking and we will move cautiously.

The page where you login is secure (https) and we store no financial data or other sensitive info for members. Member account info is not shared, loaned or sold to third parties. If you find that you are seeing suspicious ads or getting unwanted e-mails, please run a scan on your device and for heavens sake, don't post your e-mail address in public.