Scorecard Research Advert

[Simbu]

This just popped up in front of me. I won't be filling it in, shirley it falls foul of the ad guidelines on PH?

[Switch]

I think that might be a virus. I'll do some research. But I think its a virus.

Edit: Someone has done so research for me.

Edited by Switch on Saturday 3rd September 16:58

[Simbu]

Hmm, MS Security Essentials did find something so i'll see if it happens again! Thanks chap

[Switch]

I'd recomend you give both of these products a go, they're both free and widely accepted to be decent.
SpyBot S&D
MalwareBytes

[trooperiziz]

I've just had it too.

OSX using Chrome and only after browsing on PH. It isn't a "virus" it's definitely something to do with an advert or link from PH. The last link I clicked was the amazon kindle link on techcrunch, in the gadgets forum.

[V8mate]

Not a virus.

I just had it on an Android phone as I clicked into the Business section. Register1 ad on the main banner.

[Switch]

Thanks for giving me some more info, I'll be getting onto it tomorrow.

[Aizle]

Just had it about 30 seconds ago.

It runs down the screen from the top and stops as seen in the OP.

[Switch]

Hi Gang!
Right, we've been unable to replicate this at PH HQ.
Some internet research suggests that its a tracking cookie (or similar) that's put on your computer by another site (ie not PH, but some other more seedy website of ill repute) and then pops up on PH because of some unknown trigger in its code which is activated by PH

Other people report it popping up when browsing other (non PH) forums.

[anonymous-user]

So now we know all the above have been on Spankwire or the like?

[Aizle]

What a bunch of wkers.

[trooperiziz]

Hardly likely to be an ill repute website, as it was on my work machine and it has only shown once, on PH.

[Switch]

trooperiziz said:

Hardly likely to be an ill repute website, as it was on my work machine and it has only shown once, on PH.

Ill repute doesn't mean porn. It might just be a website that's not properly run.

And thinking seems to be that it picks a website you use a lot to appear on. For it's purposes it would show up more and you (not utterly incorrectly) assume its an issue with that website, and not some sort of virus etc

[trooperiziz]

Switch said:

trooperiziz said:

Hardly likely to be an ill repute website, as it was on my work machine and it has only shown once, on PH.

Ill repute doesn't mean porn. It might just be a website that's not properly run.

And thinking seems to be that it picks a website you use a lot to appear on. For it's purposes it would show up more and you (not utterly incorrectly) assume its an issue with that website, and not some sort of virus etc

Oh indeed, I was refuting those other nefarious characters on this thread

I suspect it is the techcrunch article I mentioned.

[Rockatansky]

I've just had this appear also.



FF 6.0.1, spybot all up to date & clear, Avast likewise.

[V8mate]

trooperiziz said:

Hardly likely to be an ill repute website, as it was on my work machine and it has only shown once, on PH.

Indeed. I don't buy the techie response.

It's only happened to me once and it was on my phone. The only site I use on my phone is PH!

[Highrisedrifter]

It's a tracking cookie as mentioned above. Most sites have them in some form or other and I recommend a good browser (Firefox is my preference) with a 'noscript' addon and a popup blocker to stop them.

[trooperiziz]

Highrisedrifter said:

It's a tracking cookie as mentioned above. Most sites have them in some form or other and I recommend a good browser (Firefox is my preference) with a 'noscript' addon and a popup blocker to stop them.

Thanks for the internet 101, but the issue is more that the cookie is being installed by an advert being shown on this site. Yes you can stop it coming up via noscript (a popup blocker won't do anything as it is a page script injection) but that isn't the solution.

[Highrisedrifter]

trooperiziz said:

Thanks for the internet 101, but the issue is more that the cookie is being installed by an advert being shown on this site. Yes you can stop it coming up via noscript (a popup blocker won't do anything as it is a page script injection) but that isn't the solution.

Sorry mate, didn't mean to cause an affront. You're probably aware of the fact that there are still so many non tech-savvy people about and I didn't know whether you were one. My apologies.

I couldn't tell from the pic whether it was a script or a popup, hence suggesting both.

[Switch]

Alright lets get this back on track guys.

I've had a snoop around PH with noscript for the last 30mins and I can't find the score card research script.
I'm not saying its not there before anyone bites my head off.

What I would like to know is what ads ARE being displayed at the time it shows up. Without knowing the ad I can't trace it back to the people serving us the ad.

Unfortunately is the very tools you're uncovering the tracker with that prevent us from seeing what it is that causes it..

We would expect there to be at these scripts at least as they're all things we use.
Haymarket.com
Pistonheads.com
googlesyndication.com

I will of course keep on looking into it.

Edit: I might have found something. I'll keep you guys updated.

Edited by Switch on Tuesday 6th September 00:40