iPhone keeps redirecting to spam websites

From what I can tell, the issue is being caused by a dodgy (Google Adsense) ad that's forcing a redirect on mobile browsers. Installing an ad blocker app on your iPhone or iPad should resolve it. Hope this helps.

As I said above, I'm pretty sure a rogue banner ad is the culprit behind this issue. The websites people in this thread have mentioned experiencing the browser hijack/redirect on all have one thing in common: Adsense ads.

This would also explain why the issue occurs on your iPhone but not on your friend's. Adsense ads are tailored to users' browser habits and interests, so the same ads aren't served to everyone.

If I'm correct, it means there's not much Apple or the affected websites can do to stop the redirect from happening - the ad needs to be pulled by Google.

In the meantime, you can try doing the following:

1) Report the offending ad(s) to Google.

2) Install an ad blocker app on your iPhone until they've resolved the issue.

Apparently, you did not understand my suggestion.

I suspect that Limit Ad Tracking is the cause of your problems. I sends a zero value for the unique device identifier, and those tracking servers are not handling it well. Try turning off Limit Ad Tracking, and see if it solves the problem. If that works, then you can decide if you wish to continue using those new sites.

Hi.

It is likely not a virus but instead a consequence of something Apple did to Safari with 11.

The full page redirects are a result of this:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/08/25/the-new-ios-update-could-have-a-su rprising-impact-on-digital-marketing/

In order for the publishers to maintain the revenue they rely on, the ad companies have asked the publishers to let them replace your first (or second or third) site click with a bounce off of an external site. In doing so, the ad company can, for at least 24 hours, reinstate targeting of higher value ads to you.

The problem is that every ad company wants to do this. So, you will have many redirects to many ad providers on many different news and shopping sites now.

Apple could remedy the problem by removing their new Intelligent Tracking Prevention feature from Safari 11.

Hope this helps.

Hi all,

I am pleased to join this thread as I have been experiencing this redirect issue for the past 10 days and I have tried any possible step to fix it but unfortunately this browser redirect still occurs. I don’t know the risk level of this redirect issue (pure adware, malware, ransomware). I have spent tons of hours on this issue so I will jot down anything that can be helpful.

First of all I have noticed that this browser redirects only happens on sites that have ads in it. So far I have had this issue with Italian online newspapers (repubblica.it , gazzetta.it , corriere.it) and some forums such as tomsguide.com . I These are pages I normally visit and I never had any issue in the past. All of these sites have ads in their webpages and maybe this is one of the roots that triggers this issue. If I surf on pages such as Wikipedia, Apple website or other pages that do not have ads in them the browser isn’t redirected.

I would also like to point out that so far the issue only happened on iPhone or iPad, none of the desktop devices connected to my network have been impacted (i.e. laptop that runs windows 7). Besides, the redirect occurs regardless of the ways the devices are connected online (wi-fi or 4G).

Having said so, I will point out all the steps of the issue, the devices impacted and the troubleshooting I have done so far:

Issue

- While surfing the internet Safari redirects to the incriminated site mentioned in this thread

- If I click on the backwards button to go back to the page I was visiting I am redirected again to a page normally happyrewards.org but lately I have been redirected to other pages

- The page displays a message saying that I have won a Tesco Voucher or I have been selected to test a new iPhone X or I have won one of the new iPhones

- In order to get rid of this I need to close the browser

Devices impacted:

- Ipad Mini 4 (iOS 10.3.3 and the upgraded to iOS 11)

- Two Iphones SE (iOS 10.3.3)

Troubleshooting:

- Closed browser, turned on flight mode and deleted cache and cookies from Safari > Issue persists

- Reset network settings > Issue persists

- Erase all settings > Problems persists

- Erase all content and settings > Problem persists

- Reset the iPad via iTunes and installed new operating system > Problem persists

- Deleted all the iPhones and iPad iCloud back-ups from iCloud > Problem persists

- Downloaded Opera and Chrome > Problem persists

- Surfed with Private mode on > Problem persists

- I have tried all the above mentioned steps one more time and tried to connect to a different Wi-Fi from a different router > Problem persists

- Reset router > Problem persists

When the redirect doesn’t happen

- Java script turned off and Block all cookies activated (obviously, the pages do not load correctly).

- Surfing pages without ads

Yesterday I have left my iPad to the Apple reseller I bought if from for some diagnostic and they advised me that they have never experienced such issue. They said that once you wipe out everything from the iPad and reinstall everything then the redirect should disappear. I am still waiting for their response on the diagnostic tests. In the meanwhile, I have also got in touch with Apple and opened a case accordingly. I have also checked with my internet provider and they said that everything looks ok.

At this stage I don’t know what could be the steps to solve this issue.

My unsolved questions are the following:

- Can this be a case of DNS poisoning?

- Can somebody control the devices remotely through a hidden Java script or flash script?

- Is it possible that one of the devices on the network has an adware software installed and this is controlling the other devices that at one stage shared the same connection?

- Will a site blacklist solve this issue?

- At a stage the impacted devices have been connected to the same Wi-Fi and exchanged Facebook messages or normal messages. Can this be the reason why the issue occurs on all these devices?

Options:

- Should we report these websites to Google?

- Can Apple jump in and add a patch or something to the operating system to fix this?

If you type the incriminated URL in Google you will come across threads external to this Apple forum where the issue is flagged. In most of the cases the issue happened in the past 15-30 days, so I guess this might be kind of new and there are other people affected.

P.S. I have also noticed that when I surf the sites that trigger this issue, and I check the cookies in the Website Data (Settings>Safari>Advanced>Website Data) I notice a large amount of Ad cookies.

Please get back to this thread so that we can share as much information as possible to solve this issue.

Thanks

This isn't so much of a solution as a workaround.

I had the same issue with a couple of news sites and they both had a pop up ad as soon as I opened the home page. If I tried to close the ad or just wait it out, it kept automatically redirecting me to nljpergeriihrgerg.arotrk.com/ after a few seconds.

But when I clicked on the ad to "visit advertiser" and let the ad open in a new tab, the redirect stopped occurring and I could continue to browse the news site as normal (and other sites with the same issue) with no further problems.

Not sure if that would work for you, but worth a try.

Hi anger232, I just tried your link, and it worked fine for me. I must ask again:

Are you blocking all cookies?

Are you using Private browsing?

Is JavaScript disabled?

Because I believe it's one of these ways of limiting web access that's turning what should be a hidden URL for tracking into a redirect.

I checked it as well:

1) the redirection happens if:

Are you blocking all cookies? No/Yes

Are you using Private browsing? No/Yes

Is JavaScript disabled? No

2) the redirection does not happen if:

Are you blocking all cookies? No/Yes

Are you using Private browsing? No/Yes

Is JavaScript disabled? Yes

If JavaScript is disabled most of the news sites won't work properly because they use AMP to load the images and other dynamic content, it's not an option to do this.

Mine has been doing this with any wikia page, plus random others, such as horrorfreaknews and it redirects to a “Walmart gift card” won type page. I even get a small pop up with an “ok” button that says something along the lines of “dear my isp user etc”. As in it actually lists my isp’s name. I’ve had to switch to using puffin more often because the browser redirects are beyond irritating and don’t happen in puffin. Which means java script has little to do with it btw since puffin can run java.

Does it only happen on this website? If so, my advice would be to not go there.

Are you allowing cookies, and not using private browsing, since they may prevent the site from working correctly.

Could you identify the site URL, so I could try it?

Just one more question. Has anyone with this problem enabled Settings > Privacy > Advertising > Limit Ad Tracking?

I wonder if these sites are not handling the resulting false device ID correctly.

It must be something you folks are doing, because I am able to access any of the sites you reference without difficulty.

Actually, I do want to understand the issue. But since I am able to visit these news sites without redirection or other difficulty, I believe it is something in your configurations. Remember, websites make changes from time to time, so they can suddently work differently, even though you change nothing on your device. Since several of you experience a similar redirect, it is possible that these news providers all subscribe to the same tracking/ad service, and its software has changed in some way. If it were a virus, as you suggest, why does it not affect me?

I too have been getting this issue as well. All devices iOS are doing it and it doesn't matter the browser used. Firefox, Chrome, Safari. They all are redirecting from certain sites. My iMacs at work are not doing it and neither are my pcs. This is an iOS issue and it started when iOS 11 was installed. It really is stupid annoying when nearly half the time my phone or iPad redirects to sites or the app store.