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Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads

techcrunch.com

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Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads

#51

Post by kuschku »

rcheu wrote: post #48
spriggan3 wrote: post #44

Will they do that on their own sites too ? like youtube or blogger ? because yes, I got plenty of "Your computer is infected by a virus, Please call Microsoft hotline" popups from those.

I don't have Adblock on for Youtube and I've never gotten a popup like that. All of their ads are video ads. Are you sure you don't actually have a virus (that's causing the popups, not due to the message itself)?

The in-video popups (at the bottom, about 20% of the height of the video) very often advertise malware for me, too.

Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads

#54

Post by cremno »

nxzero wrote: post #33
gruez wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it doesn't. https://feeding.cloud.geek.nz/posts/how-safe-browsing-works-...

I've seen requests passed to Google, which is how I noticed it in the first place. This source appears to show at least for downloads the browser is sending data to the API: "From Firefox 32 on, downloads are checked against the local list and a remote list if the local list does not return a hit." SOURCE: http://www.ghacks.net/2014/07/23/prevent-firefox-sending-dow...

That article ends with a link to https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Features/Application_Reput... which contains:

>These lookups are Windows-only, because we rely on signature information in order to suppress remote lookups and signature APIs are only available on Windows. If the binary is unsigned or its signature does not match a known good publisher and the filename ends in a known executable extension, Firefox sends a remote lookup to the application reputation service.

This is more precise than your post including the quote.

Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads

#55

Post by newjersey »

putaside wrote: post #49
ProAm wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep definitely blocking ads. That is insanity without. 8|

A new trick is to use so many trackers that it won't fit on the screen when listing them all: http://i.imgur.com/AauOwVB.png (This is from a site which detects adblockers, and begs you to turn it off, because it's killing their business model)

I swear imgur redirected me to an album page earlier.

But now https://i.imgur.com/AauOwVB.png it works. Strange.

Ads like the paint.net ad runs afoul of

> Mimicking site content, news articles, or text ads

> Google doesn't allow ads that mimic publisher content or layout, or news articles and features. Ads may also not contain screenshots of Google AdWords text ads or otherwise simulate an AdWords text ad in any way.

https://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/176108?hl=en

Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads

#56

Post by jimrandomh »

tyingq wrote: post #22

From the article: "Others pretend to be “Download” or “Play” buttons, as if clicking them would provide access to the video content or stream the user had wanted. " These are actively being served through Google Adsense, right now. Here's a few example, live sites, where I see "Download" buttons in an ad, in a context that would be confusing. http://www.getpaint.net/index.html http://downloads.tomsguide.com/PaintNET,…

It's really weird that Google isn't dealing with them. Maybe they're geotargeting everywhere-but-Mountain-View or something? Malware ads on AdSense are neither uncommon nor subtle, but Google's acting like they're not there.

Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads

#57

Post by kbenson »

JohnTHaller wrote: post #47
tyingq wrote: post #22

From the article: "Others pretend to be “Download” or “Play” buttons, as if clicking them would provide access to the video content or stream the user had wanted. " These are actively being served through Google Adsense, right now. Here's a few example, live sites, where I see "Download" buttons in an ad, in a context that would be confusing. http://www.getpaint.net/index.html http://downloads.tomsguide.com/PaintNET,…

I see fake download buttons, full screen ads, ads opening new windows/tabs, and ads opening Google play automatically from Adsense on a regular basis. I gave up reporting them years ago. I only see them when using chrome on Android these days. I generally use Firefox with an ad blocker on both windows and Android to combat it. I disable on some sites to support them, donate where I can, subscribe to YouTube red/Googl…

> ads opening Google play automatically from Adsense

Are you sure they are ads, and not the site redirecting you based on your useragent? I've had some sites that have apps do that, but I've never had an add automatically direct me to the Play store before.

Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads

#58

Post by vox_mollis »

jimrandomh wrote: post #56
tyingq wrote: post #22

From the article: "Others pretend to be “Download” or “Play” buttons, as if clicking them would provide access to the video content or stream the user had wanted. " These are actively being served through Google Adsense, right now. Here's a few example, live sites, where I see "Download" buttons in an ad, in a context that would be confusing. http://www.getpaint.net/index.html http://downloads.tomsguide.com/PaintNET,…

It's really weird that Google isn't dealing with them. Maybe they're geotargeting everywhere-but-Mountain-View or something? Malware ads on AdSense are neither uncommon nor subtle, but Google's acting like they're not there.

It's really weird that Google isn't dealing with them

It's never "weird" for a company to choose not to attack its own revenue base.

Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads

#59

Post by putasidemobile »

newjersey wrote: post #55
putaside wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A new trick is to use so many trackers that it won't fit on the screen when listing them all: http://i.imgur.com/AauOwVB.png (This is from a site which detects adblockers, and begs you to turn it off, because it's killing their business model)

I swear imgur redirected me to an album page earlier. But now https://i.imgur.com/AauOwVB.png it works. Strange. Ads like the paint.net ad runs afoul of > Mimicking site content, news articles, or text ads > Google doesn't allow ads that mimic publisher content or layout, or news articles and features. Ads may also not contain screenshots of Google AdWords text ads or otherwise simulate an AdWords text ad in any way.…

It showed me an album page on Android too. And a Google ad for a free to play Flappy Bird clone (called Flappy Bird).

Clicking on the ad I was greeted with a landing page, with tiny gray jpeg letters telling me that this free game service costs only 5 Euro a week (automatic renewal). The company behind it, Mobster Ltd. leads me to a dead end on Cyprus and a whole lot of internet complaints.

So please do not click that link or Google may be forced to block imgur. Sorry.

Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads

#60

Post by ori_b »

tyingq wrote: post #46
ori_b wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> These are actively being served through Google Adsense, right now. There should be a button to report them. Please report them.

Sure. But it's just funny that Google's approach is to mark these sites with big red warnings when Google itself is the source of the actual problem.

Yep. But spam detection and flagging is a hard problem. Google tries to detect and flag malicious creatives and stop them from serving, but it's not perfect. (I've touched that subsystem in a past life).
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