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Help Plagued by ads

Z

Zlig

Newbie
Hi,

I have been plagued by ads from "Mobogenie" for the last few months. Nothing I do, save disabling java, stops this incredibly annoying spam.

It happens when I browse to certain websites such as Sky News, and the message or variations of it read something like this:

"The page at Adserving says: Mobogenie - Play NOW"

Does anyone experience similar issues? I do not have any of their software installed on my Galaxy S3 running Android 4.3.

I have Avast installed and it hasn't detected anything amiss. I have also unsuccessfully ran a host of adware detection apps, all to no avail.

Is there a gaping huge hole in Android's security, or is there something I'm doing wrong? :mad:
 

Attachments

  • MoboGenie.jpg
    MoboGenie.jpg
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It's being put out as part of the web page - no popups - so the programs can't see it. You'll just have to learn to ignore iit.
 
That's easy enough by simply disabling javascript. But I'm surprised that Android users accept being spammed and Google does nothing about it. :confused:
 
What exactly should google do? Disable javascript by default?? Well, Google doesn't own internet and can't say what www-page can do or cant do. If it is javascript, you can always turn it off by yourself and it has nothing to do with Android.
 
I had never visited the site before, but did just now to see what happens. From your screenshot I could see that you're on news.sky.com, so that's where I went, both with my laptop's browser [SeaMonkey] and my phone's browser [the stock Android browser]. I did not get the annoying ad you're getting. More accurately, I didn't get ANY ads. I do not have JavaScript disabled.

I can't tell from your screenshot which browser you're using; which one is it? Have you tried adjusting its pop-up settings? Also, have you tried using other browsers?

That's easy enough by simply disabling javascript. But I'm surprised that Android users accept being spammed and Google does nothing about it. :confused:
Click to expand...
Well, THIS Android user isn't getting the ad. :) Which leads me to believe it's not a Google/Android problem, but something else.
 
mrex said:
What exactly should google do? Disable javascript by default?? Well, Google doesn't own internet and can't say what www-page can do or cant do. If it is javascript, you can always turn it off by yourself and it has nothing to do with Android.
Click to expand...

I would suggest that they analyse and plug any weaknesses in Android which unscrupulous advertisers are aware of and using to their advantage.
 
I am using Dolphin - I have noticed this problem on some other sites but definitely not every site. Someone suggested that this behaviour is being caused by a rogue application I installed, so I removed all free applications I installed before the behaviour started.

The behaviour doesn't happen each and every time I visit Sky.com, but my suspicion is that something on my phone is interacting with advertising scripts on certain sites to generate these ads.
 
Zlig said:
I would suggest that they analyse and plug any weaknesses in Android which unscrupulous advertisers are aware of and using to their advantage.
Click to expand...

There is no weakness in Android. The weakness is in the doofus who messed-up that particular ad banner; it should display as a pop-up or overlay but the code is malformed. The URL displayed is that of the ad server, hosted by BlueAds.
 
Having suffered through months of these unsolicited spam banners, whether we call it a weakness or otherwise is unimportant. All I know is that I am being spammed on my Android phone, and sadly it appears that there is no solution in sight which is all I am looking for.

Out of interest, what would you call this phenomena, where a malicious advertiser appears to have hijacked my system to promote his product without my consent?
 
Zlig said:
That's easy enough by simply disabling javascript. But I'm surprised that Android users accept being spammed and Google does nothing about it. :confused:
Click to expand...

Just incase you didn't realise Google are an ad company, most of their $$$$ comes from ads. It's not in their interest to help you in blocking ads. You can always try a third-party ad blocker, but you won't find them on Google Play though.

I've never seen this thing you're seeing. I don't look at sky.com because most of their stuff is not available outside of the UK. Sky are commercial TV, so it's very likely you will be seeing ads on their site, including popups. Also the ads you see are very much determined by the country you're in. I've never seen ads for this "Mobogenie" thing. What browser are you using, have you got popups disabled?

BTW this is how news.sky.com looks for me. There are ads there, but nothing intrusive or annoying IMO. Google Chrome browser.
attachment.php

sky.jpg
 
ok take this for what's it's worth because I am not Android techy...however, I can kind of remember stuff...
anyway from what I remember hearing or reading or whatever..
It is a Google algorithm...actually two...one on what ads you click and the other on the web pages visited...dolphin I recall, had problems with this. Mabey a couple more browsers but I recall Dolphin for sure...

anywho...
try to do a search on google then refresh like 10 times and that will teach...actually more like reset your google stalker:p..........so to speak ...i think...maybe....
:)
 
@mikedt
"Just incase you didn't realise Google are an ad company, most of their $$$$ comes from ads. It's not in their interest to help you in blocking ads."

I'm sure they don't condone the sort of thing I'm experiencing, irrespective of what their main source of income may be! Ads are one thing, but these are intrusive pop us which interfere with the "normal" use of my phone.
 
@huh
Thanks for your suggestion. Unfortunately the problem seems to be coming from the phone itself as I also experience the same problem with Firefox.

It looks as though a solution to this is going to be hard to come by. Thanks very much to all of you who came up with constructive suggestions though :)
 
Thanks for your reply MoodyBlues.

No it's not rooted. And yes I'd be happy to perform a factory reset, but my concern is how to create a full backup to restore from, without backing up the cause of the problem.
 
Zlig said:
Thanks for your reply MoodyBlues.
Click to expand...
You're welcome. :)

No it's not rooted. And yes I'd be happy to perform a factory reset, but my concern is how to create a full backup to restore from, without backing up the cause of the problem.
Click to expand...
Okay, thanks for the info. How about this: Let's move this to the S3 board and see if fellow owners can suggest anything. There may be device specific things that can be done.

If you've only installed apps via Google's Play Store, you should be able to reinstall any/all of those after a reset and, hopefully, be rid of the problem. What I'd do is reinstall things one at a time, then test the web site you're having the ad problem on and see if it reappears. Once you hit on the culprit app...well, you can do whatever you see fit! Like leave a nasty review on its Play page. :eek:

If you've installed anything from sources other than Play, it's very possible something nasty was included in one of them.

One thing you might try before resorting to a reset is to uninstall/reinstall apps one at a time to see if the problem goes away. But--if you're like me and you have A LOT of apps installed--that could be a very, very tedious process.

Hang in there. We have tons of helpful, knowledgeable members. Enough brainstorming and hopefully this will get solved!
 
Thanks MoodyBlues, great advice. As you suspect I've only installed software via the PlayStore. I'll go for your suggestion and wait to see if anyone can help solve this mystery before resorting to a factory reset.
 
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