I think my account has been hacked

  • Unknown's avatar
    barbarah · Member ·

    I was trying to set up comment moderation on my blog today after a series of spam comments got through. When I tried to test commenting on my blog with my husband’s phone, I was immediately taken to a page that said happy.goodluckspace.com across the top and “You are the chosen! Apple is giving out a free gift” in the middle. Every time I tried to get on my blog from his phone, I got this page. I asked my son to try to get to my blog on his phone, and he was able to until he tried to comment. Then he was taken to a page that said “Congratulations Dear AT&T Mobility LLC User, we are holding an anniversary celebration…” and so one. I got screenshots of both.

    It’s not happening on my computer or phone, but I don’t know if that’s because I am logged in. PLEASE tell me this is not the kind of ads WordPress is using now, and please tell me what I can do about this.

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • Unknown's avatar
    barbarah · Member ·

    My son suggested it might not be that my account was hacked, but rather one of the ads WordPress is using is throwing this kind of thing. Is this a possibility? I don’t have a problem getting into my account on my computer or my phone – just on my husband and son’s phones.

  • Unknown's avatar
    barbarah · Member ·

    Just bringing this back up to the top to hopefully get an answer soon.

  • kokkieh · Staff ·

    Hi there,

    You have not been hacked. This is one of our advertisers not following the rules, and placing ads that hijack your browser session on a mobile device to redirect you to spammy sites.

    This is currently an issue across the entire ad industry. You can find more more information about similar problems here: https://www.wired.com/story/pop-up-mobile-ads-surge-as-sites-scramble-to-stop-them/

    We take ad quality very seriously, and do our best to identify any bad ads such as these and remove them as quickly as possible.

    If you have any additional information about the ads, that may help us identify these specific ads faster so we can remove them. Specifically, as much of the following information as you can provide would be very useful:

    • Your device, browser and operating system.
    • Your IP address (you can find this by visiting whatismyip.com from the device where you’re seeing the ads – take a screen shot and upload to your media library at My Site ->Media ->Add, please don’t post it here in the public forums)
    • The exact URL of the page/post that showed the ad.
    • What was being advertised​.
    • The URL that the ad takes you to.
    • If possible, a screenshot of the ad that hijacked the browser and also upload that to your media library.

    These details can also be submitted to us privately via the form at https://en.support.wordpress.com/about-these-ads/

  • Unknown's avatar
    barbarah · Member ·

    Thank you. The more I talked about the situation with others, the more I realized it was probably an ad problem and not a hacking of my blog. It happened just after deleting a bunch of spam from one person, so that probably made me a little more paranoid. I will get that info. in as soon as possible.

  • Unknown's avatar
    gemmacevans · Member ·

    Hi barbarah,

    No problem, it’s always best to check if you are in any doubt :)

    I will get that info. in as soon as possible.

    Thanks — this will help us track down the ad you are seeing. Your browser and operating system information can be found by visiting supportdetails.com.

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