Okay, so I've been using armorgames.com for a while now without any sort of problem. I've always had adequate virus and malware protection on my computer. Starting some time in the past 5-7 days, I would click on armorgames.com and get instantly redirected to one of those "your PC may be infected!!" popups that's one of those obviously fake 'ersonal virus protection' software downloads. I wouldn't mind it, I wouldn't care, I'd treat it like I treat that Cursor Mania popup and just ignore it... but it closes my active windows when the link opens!
Sometimes it happens when I open the armorgames.com homepage... sometimes it happens when I click on certain games (most often with Mini Defense, not sure if that counts for anything) ...and sometimes it happens when I click on my profile. Normally, I wouldn't post something this simple on a community forum, but it is ONLY occuring with armorgames.com and no other websites.
I've tried updating virus and spyware protection, I've tried scanning my computer multiple times... I've tried everything I can think of. Now I turn it over to you. Is anyone else experiencing this? Can it be stopped? I wanna play more games.
So you suggest that AG completely remove it's source of income? Don't you think that sounds slightly unreasonable? Advertisements are the only reason that we can make this site free.
The only way you make this site free is that enough of us are coming to visit it that you can advertise on it and get lots of hits. If you let these fake scanners keep taking over the site than enough of us won't keep going to AG we'll just go to the other places. Then no ads will help you if you can't get the hits when no one comes to AG cause its infected with malware.
NYTimes.com did it, they rely on advertisers to stay free. They said it was the only way. They even reformed their ad policy after.
The ones behind it are computer guys so they got it all designed so you can't possible control where it's coming from or when it's going to happen. If you google'd you'd know. There's like 20 or so addresses that all funnel in to the 91.212.127.2 website.
It's a little different than an ad, actually. it doesn't just show up on AG, you have to click on something, and after you click on it, then it shuts AG down and goes into its thing.
Yielee, I honestly don't know where your hostility is coming from, and why you feel the need to attack everything I say. First of all, these issues don't 'keep' arising as you say. This is the first time it has ever happened to AG. And as I assured you earlier, AG is working to fix it. End of story. AG is not constantly infected with malware, as you seem to think it is. This has never happened before and it is an isolated incident. If you want to avoid it in the meantime, use Firefox with Ad-Block.
And I promise you, you aren't the only one here who knows how to use Google. And NY Times is not the only one who knows how to fix such problems. I recommend that you leave it up to the good judgement of our site CEO and developers. I assure you, they know quite well what they are doing.
its not an ad... it LOOKS like an ad, but its not. If it were an ad it would be deleted when the company found out it was using microsoft graphics, which is illegal. read the above information. the site that you got it from is probably still there in your history!
Right, but doesn't it integrate through the advertising system?
ummm because AG wasnt responsable.
Thanks =) I am glad that someone else can see that too! AGs main weakness in this is that it is a very popular site. They are obviously targeting large sites (such as NY Times).
Well i wasn't hostile to Carlie but this whole situation. First of all, it's not a virus, it's a hijack advertisement. This is being run on internet explorer if you have pop-ups blocked. It starts whenever you click on a button on the ag homepage, which means it's java-based and ritten into the code. So any ad that gets turned on whenever you click on a button on a page is that source, so all they have to do is just to turn off all ads that are click-related, until they figure out where this is coming from.
There's also no virus attached to it. It's a third party thing. The AG website goes to some national company that hosts a advertisement for multiple companies. This company recruits others to host their ads on AG through them. One of the company's switched out their ad for the pop-up scanner thing. This third company has a set time for there ads to run. Whenever they feel like it, they can show a legit ad, or else run the scanner. That's just their control. AG is not responsible for doing the scanner ad.
But they are responsible to stop it from being done. That's what I'm annoyed at. They could stop it easy, and they could also launch a campaign so that the internet talks about it and get some free advertising.
Also, I don't know why there people in the programming department or whomever are working on this don't just write to the NYTimes people and find out what's going on and who's behind it and what to do about it.
It's just really easy to stop, but their just trying to track it down I guess, which is silly since they don't have control over it. They have to contact the National ad agency who then has to go through their system to track it down.
What I am mad at also is this time it was harmless. Next time it could be very serious as these things are getting more dangerous all the time. So AG should have a policy just to protect there players first.
So. Yeah. Switched to Firefox and downloaded and updated Microsoft Security Essentials. Haven't had the problem since. I really appreciate what Carlie and the rest of AG are doing to help solve the problem! In my humble opinion, if you like AG and playing free games then do yourself a favor and do some of the quick fixes mentioned by the people who were kind enough to offer their advice.
It was never my intention for my post to start a blamestorm or create a sitewide argument over what the origins of the stupid malware/virus/trojan thing are. And hey, you can sit there and blame AG or whoever for your computer issues... but the fact is this stuff happens everywhere, and you take that risk whenever you click or enter a website.
Don't blame AG. It's not like THEY wrote the malicious program!
This exact same thing happened at another gaming website, and it's not hard to figure out that's its a third party redirect and also I got the View Source thingy from the old AG and the redirect and so I can compare to see what's different once they fix this. And anyway, here's what this gaming administrator said about this same thing he's all "Well we tried this third party for ads, but we're going back to just google" etc. You can read it for yourself. It's not a virus, it's a redirect from a third party that hosts ads for gaming websites.
First, what your not understanding is it's not an outdated thread. It runs from Oct to Dec 09, which is about 3 months, pretty recent to find such a similar thing going on.
What your also not understanding is that TA first assumed it was a virus coming from the players' PCs, just like your doing now.
It took TA 3 months to figure out that it was a redirect coming from his website. So he switched out the third party so it wouldn't redirect no more. He then asks if everything is normal, and if it isn't to let him know.
So everyone says it's normal, and it's been normal ever since.
TA switched off the third party just like NYTimes did. That solved the problem.
Here's from another site where they demonstrate it's coming from the 3rd party:
That said, Userplane advertising is out of control. I know you blocked it before for this exact reason, but since its come back online, I've been getting a ton of complaints from my users about malware attacks. My guess is these are just aggressive ads, the verbage is like this:
[quote]Attention! This computer might be vulnerable for spyware and virus! This PC should be scanned for threats. Antivir scan shall do an online virus test for your computer
then it has a behavior where when you think you are closing it, it wants to install itself.
Userplane needs to deal with these ads. They are chronically mismanaged compared to google and facebook ads, and it is really a bummer because its such a good service otherwise.
This and overly aggressive visual and audio ads just ruin the userplane experience.
Anyway, I know its not your fault what ads they put in, but the situation is back to where it was before... not good. Please feel free to pass this criticism along to them, and contact me if you need more info. [/quote]
I think AG switched to a new advertising partner, just like these people did with Userplane and Games Media.
It's not a virus, it's a redirect from a third party that hosts ads for gaming websites.
Thanks Yielee, I was "redirected" earlier today by:Blinkx, this ad is from 2008. I was using Firefox and I have a Mac so the ad-block is only disabled when I'm on AG. Because I was using Firefox I was quickly able to access security and put up blocks so it couldn't happen again and then rebooted. Before I did I photocopied this program, about 11 pages worth, so my copier has a record of it.
Should I report this to Carlie? Since you say it's a redirect and my computer didn't detect a virus, I agree with you and I don't think it's malicious just bothersome.
Research? You mean you read she had a Mac and know that Macs don't get viruses? Or did you mean that you went to Kong and read that they are having the same exact problem.
It's easy. Both Kong and AG have similar sites with similar issues occuring at the same time. It's the same 3rd party that there using. They should get together and see what they got in common to stop it.
yes just a min. ago i got "you have a virus please downlaod .... ECt. yet i know it's a virus dont download it!.. has armor games been hacked? and i have been using armor games forever and thats never happend until recently.
KK, the point was just that you should have learned from his mistake. Guess you also missed what the FBI reported back on page 3:
"The scareware is intimidating to most users and extremely aggressive in its attempt to lure the user into purchasing the rogue software that will allegedly remove the viruses from their computer. It is possible that these threats are received as a result of clicking on advertisements contained on a website. Cyber criminals use botnets to push the software and use advertisements on websites to deliver it. This is known as malicious advertising or malvertising."
