[Support request] Ads appearing on website when not logged in

[Reed]

This is not generatepress related but figured you guys might have experience with this.

I have never added ads to my site. When I am not logged in, I am seeing awful popup ads appear on the website….

What could be causing this? Have I been hacked?

Website: https://frugalflyer.ca

Here is a link from one of the ads: http://faithfulfacultativeladder.com/j6tfzz0k?pqmej=62&refer=https%3A%2F%2Ffrugalflyer.ca%2Fblog%2Fcompilation-of-us-to-canada-mail-forwarders%2F&kw=%5B%22compilation%22%2C%22of%22%2C%22us-to-canada%22%2C%22mail%22%2C%22forwarders%22%2C%22-%22%2C%22frugal%22%2C%22flyer%22%5D&key=a3be4f55c10daec466103e8e0679cb96&scrWidth=1366&scrHeight=768&tz=-7&v=20.7.v.1&res=7.31&dev=r&uuid=98b8aee6-65cd-4613-b06a-0dea4c3ecf27%3A3%3A1&adb=n&adb=n

[Elvin]

Hi,

I’ve checked your site and I didn’t encounter any popup ads.

Can you link us to the page where it occurs?

What could be causing this? Have I been hacked?

Some known causes of ads showing up on the site are usually when you add scripts that applies this on the site(which you said you didn’t) or the host places ads to your site (sites hosted on WordPress.com).

Plugins with malicious scripts in it can also be one of the reasons for this. But this usually comes from paid plugins that are “cracked” or “nulled” which are downloaded from non legitimate sources.

It’s hard to tell w/o actually seeing it. I don’t see scripts that runs any ads.(on the home page atleast).

We also can’t fully determine if the site is hacked as we don’t know the history of what’s installed or who accessed the site.

If you’re in doubt about your site’s security, you can try installing WordFence to check for any malware. It’s also best to consult a WordPress security expert.

[Reed]

Seemed to be happening on blog post pages. Eg. https://frugalflyer.ca/blog/compilation-of-us-to-canada-mail-forwarders/

Doesn’t happen everytime though…

[Elvin]

[redacted/duplicate reply]

[Elvin]

I’ve checked the page but I didn’t see any things related to popup ads.

However, I saw a popup element intended for recaptcha challenge which is added by google to check if the visitor is a bot. Perhaps this is what you saw?

If this is the case then it shouldn’t be an issue as this is something Google Analytics uses for its data.

[Reed]

Nope was seeing casino ads…

Not seeing them now either… oh dear.

[Elvin]

Nope was seeing casino ads…

Not seeing them now either… oh dear.

Wasn’t able to see this or any kind of ads at all.

And since this is out of the theme’s control, it is out of our scope of support.

The most useful advice I could give is to make sure you get you plugin from legitimate sources, use security plugins like WordFence, make sure you didn’t include any “ads” related tool when you’ve added Google toolkits and consult with WordPress security experts.

[Author]

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