Getting a weird pop up? [Merged]

[mrqwertyp]

Hi all, in case you aren’t aware, your banner ad partner seems to be serving random malware.
I suggest asking them to more carefully vet their advertisers.

here are a couple of examples that have popped up today:

 

[arn]

I don’t believe it’s malware, likely a misconfigured ad. Ad network trying to track it down.

 

[TiggrToo]

Unsure if that’s malware or just a misconfiguration.

https://www.reddit.com/r/javascript/comments/305yp7

 

[Lobwedgephil]

Have had it about 10 times in last 2 hours, starts downloads on its own on Mac.

 

[deeddawg]

Seems like maybe there’s a malicious advert? Others show fine in the banner like the SageSafe showing just now but have seen this a couple times tonight.

Screenshot is from immediately after refreshing the page.

 

[arn]

more discussion here:

Getting a weird pop up? [Merged]

Hi all, in case you aren’t aware, your banner ad partner seems to be serving random malware. I suggest asking them to more carefully vet their advertisers. here are a couple of examples that have popped up today:

forums.macrumors.com

It seems like a misconfigured ad. Still trying to find it.

 

[fernelius]

I’ve had this pop up for me on both my Mac and iPad (f.txt.js) today. Sorry that I didn’t think to do a screen capture. The second time, which was on the tablet, it was viewing the macrumors homepage. I don’t recall on the Mac...

 

[retta283]

This has been a problem for over 5 years, I believe it's a misconfigured ad from Google, or at least that was the main culprit in past years. I do not believe it is malware. I have been seeing it today on my Mac too. Might not hurt to scan your PC/Mac if you see it, but I don't believe it is malware.

 

[iMi]

I’m seeing it, too. Both macOS and iPadO.

 

[C DM]

Just started seeing that too earlier today for the first time in years.

 

[scouser75]

Same here on my Mac and iPhone. On my Mac, the 'f.txt' file automatically downloads into my downloads folder, which is quite worrying.

I'll go and checkout that link above to see if theres anything I can do to prevent this.

 

[scouser75]

So nothing to be too concerned about?

 

[laptech]

Misconfigured on purpose maybe in the hope that people will click on it anyway?

 

[fernelius]

Received another one on my Mac (that is different). Happened automatically when this page was loaded.

 

[therationalist]

I got one yesterday and googleads.js. Assumed it was a virus and closed the site down.

 

[4487549]

Mac Rumors, why is this page trying to download files to my computer?

 

[arn]

So nothing to be too concerned about?

Just annoying I think. Hope it'll be resolved soon.

arn

 

[C DM]

Just annoying I think. Hope it'll be resolved soon.

arn

Just got this, in case it might help troubleshoot things in some way:

 

[Weaselboy]

Allow Downloads Safari prompt? Here's how to fix it ... - 9to5Mac

An increasing number of people are finding a wide range of websites – including ours – are asking permission to allow downloads to your Mac from ...

9to5mac.com

9 to 5 Mac has an article up on this along with a temp fix suggestion.

 

[BaltimoreMediaBlog]

Received another one on my Mac (that is different). Happened automatically when this page was loaded.

View attachment 958140

I am also constantly getting this and at first thought I had done something wrong. I just keep cancelling it.

 

[Erin524]

It's not even asking me if I want to download it, I'll be just sitting here reading a page, and all of a sudden there's something jumping into my downloads folder. I wasn't clicking anything. It's been doing this to me a couple times an hour for the last day or two. It's really irritating.

 

[puckhead193]

I keep getting this as well...

 

[arn]

This is definitely a Google issue. And since Google helps serve ads everywhere, it's affecting many sites -- not just ours.

Last word I heard is that they are still investigating.

arn

 

[4487549]

My downloads folder is full of these files that I've tried to cancel. I've tweaked all Safari Website settings to Deny (and closed the tabs that seemed to be triggering it?). What I don't understand is that I never allowed downloads from this site, so how did this get past me and my content blocking settings?

 

[Erin524]

My downloads folder is full of these files that I've tried to cancel. I've tweaked all Safari Website settings to Deny (and closed the tabs that seemed to be triggering it?). What I don't understand is that I never allowed downloads from this site, so how did this get past me and my content blocking settings?

I never authorized the download either. It just downloads on it's own. I'm using a 2016 MacBook Pro. I should pull out my 2009 MacBook Pro and see if it has the same issue. If I can ever find my monitor for my MacMini I'll see if that does it too. (just moved, still haven't found the monitor in all my boxes I haven't unpacked yet).