Pop-up appears after clicking ‘Close and accept’ on ‘Privacy & Cookies’ message

  • Unknown's avatar
    nopopesincepius · Member ·

    Hi,

    I would like to report an anomaly that I am observing when I visit a number of wordpress dot com blogs, all of which appear to have advertising on them.

    I have:
    (A) performed a simple test on three such blogs (my own and two others), and
    (B) noticed two online forum threads discussing a similar anomaly.

    A) The test I performed was as follows:
    1. I open the home page of the blog.
    2. If I do NOT click ‘Close and accept’ on the ‘Privacy & Cookies’ message, I can navigate around the blog with no observable anomalies.
    3. If I DO click ‘Close and accept’ and THEN navigate to another page within the blog, I get a pop-up message which reads as follows:
    ‘Do you want to open or save sp dot js from tag dot sp dot advertising dot com?’
    4. I always click ‘Cancel’ at this point, and exit the blog.

    FYI:
    a) I tried and FAILED to reproduce the same results on a wordpress dot com blog that does NOT appear to have advertising on it.
    b) I have not observed this pop-up when visiting any other Web site.
    c) My browser is IE11 on Windows 7.

    B) The online forums I have seen that discuss a similar anomaly are as follows:
    1. On 4th July 2019, a user on the Norton Community forum reported getting the same pop-up when visiting a fourth wordpress dot com Web site – one that I have not previously heard of.
    2. On June 3rd 2019, a user on the WordPress dot com Community Support Forum reported what looks like a similar anomaly in the topic titled, ‘I’m seeing an unwanted pop-up on my page from FB link’.

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

  • kokkieh · Staff ·

    Hi there,

    It is impossible to determine what’s going on here if we can’t actually see it.

    Please provide the exact URLs of the sites where you’re seeing this. It will also be helpful if you can take screen shots of the pop-ups you’re seeing and upload those to your media library at My Site ->Site ->Media.

    Then you say this is on IE11 in Windows 7 so I assume you’re using a PC. Please check if the same thing happens if you use a different browser like Firefox or Chrome. If it doesn’t, the pop-up is likely coming from a browser toolbar installed in IE – that is a common issue with that browser, and toolbars like these often get installed without you even knowing it when you install other software.

    In that case a good malware scanner like Malwarebytes should help you get rid of it, though I would also strongly recommend you consider switching away from IE permanently – Microsoft’s own security chief has said IE is not secure to use as a day to day browser: https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-security-chief-ie-is-not-a-browser-so-stop-using-it-as-your-default/

    1. On 4th July 2019, a user on the Norton Community forum reported getting the same pop-up when visiting a fourth wordpress dot com Web site

    We have no way of following up on a report on the Norton support forums.

    2. On June 3rd 2019, a user on the WordPress dot com Community Support Forum reported what looks like a similar anomaly

    Can you please provide a link to the thread in question so we can see the details of that case?

  • Unknown's avatar
    nopopesincepius · Member ·

    Hi,

    Thanks for replying. This is my blog on which I performed my test (and experienced the anomaly):
    https://nopopesincepius.wordpress.com/

    I would rather not provide the other blog names in case this anomaly is local to me, in which case I have data privacy concerns for the other blog owners. I mentioned that I have experienced the anomaly only on sites that appear to have advertising on them. I selected random ones for testing purposes.

    I will look at uploading a screen shot. I am a relatively new member, so I need to look up how to do a lot of things.

    Yes, I am using a PC. I do not currently have any other browser installed. I will need to look into that as well.

    I did not interpret the pop-up as indicating malware on my PC because I have only observed it in the particular testing described, I always click “Cancel”, and I have not observed any warnings from my security software other than tracking cookies, which it removes after scanning, at which time the “Privacy & Cookies” message appears again.

    Here is a link to the WordPress dot com Community Support Forum thread I mentioned:
    https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/im-seeing-an-unwanted-pop-up-on-my-page-from-fb-link/

  • fstat · Staff ·

    Hi there,

    Thank you for the links. I don’t have Internet Explorer installed on my system to test it out, but every other major browser (Chrome, Firefox, Opera) doesn’t have such issues. I strongly suggest that you switch to another browser.

  • Unknown's avatar
    nopopesincepius · Member ·

    OK,

    Thanks for the advice. I thought my experience was worth reporting and this was the only means I could find to do so.

    I am happy to close the topic (if that is the right protocol).

    Have a good day.

  • supernovia · Staff ·

    @nopopesincepius I think it’s okay to leave it open in case someone else is running into the same thing, especially since it’s happening to you every time.

    Quick question too: in the error messages you got, did it say “dot” like that or are you phrasing it that way to avoid creating links? I’m assuming that but I do want to be sure.

  • supernovia · Staff ·

    I’ve checked around, and most of my colleagues suspect your browser has been hijacked with malware. IE is not longer being updated, so it’s another good reason to go ahead and switch to something newer if you can.

  • The topic ‘Pop-up appears after clicking ‘Close and accept’ on ‘Privacy & Cookies’ message’ is closed to new replies.