I’ve been frustrated with the same problem on both an iPhone 7 Plus and the new iPhone X. You’re right that there is surprisingly little information about the issue online. I don’t believe it has anything to do with Kohl’s as I saw the exact same display while browsing a local television news site. In fact, I’ve never been on the Kohl’s site, so again, I don’t believe it has anything to do with them.
I’ve tried a number of approaches, including the ones listed here with no luck. The only thing that has worked is to install a third-party content blocker. I recommend you look into 1Blocker in the App Store or at https://1blocker.com. It has excellent reviews and I’ve used it without incident. I believe they have a free trial, as well. For what it’s worth, I have no connection to this app and there are other alternative products available. I’m just telling you that 1Blocker resolved this problem, at least so far, for me.
A few versions of iOS ago, Apple opened the Safari browser to support content blockers like 1Blocker. It’s unfortunate that such tools are necessary as they add some complications to the system and can, in fact, interfere with some legitimate web site features. Still, the option to have content blocker support in Safari is significant and, especially given this problem, I‘m very glad it’s there.
Good luck!
I was getting that pesky ‘Congratulations Amazon User’ on my iPad, too. It was driving me insane, showing up on multiple websites and making my iPad nearly unusable. But I solved it! First I deleted any Amazon apps - in my case, Amazon Music and Amazon Video. Next, I went to settings and cleared Safari‘s history. And then for good measure, downloaded the free Adblock app and activated ‘block popups’ Success! Hope this works for you.
I've had this problem for some time. maybe you've solved it by now. Great, if you have. I've tried a lot of things. Then this morning I found this conversation and tried a few more. Each time, the problem immediately came back. For me, it happened every time I went to the Foxnews website. As soon as I started scrolling down the list of stories, it would pop up and take over. But it doesn't have much to do with Fox I think. It just exploits a weakness in that particular website. Anyway, I do actually do a lot of shopping on Amazon. That's why I have their app on my phone. This morning I decided to delete the Amazon app and see what effect it might have. I deleted the app and cleared all my website data. Lo and Behold, after visiting the Foxnews website many times, there has been no more interruption by the pesky Amazon "Congratulations" ad. I hope that's the end of it.
Unfortunately, I can’t answer these questions. I can only relate my experience with Safari as I turn to Chrome very infrequently. Once I installed 1Blocker and activated it in Safari settings (Settings -> Safari -> Content Blockers) I haven’t seen the issue again. It’s been a couple months now without a problem. I don’t believe that 1Blocker is the only tool that can solve the problem. I expect that other third-party content blocker apps will work too.
If if you can put up with it, perhaps it’s worth seeing what Google bakes into the updated Chrome in February.
Best of luck!
— Robert
here is how i stopped it. delete your iPad backup on iCloud or wherever you back up too. then erase everything on your iPad and setup as new. I think when iPad backed up, it, backed up the problem to your iPad backup, so when you restore the iPad it just reinstalls the congratulation amazon user.
As a website owner who was struggling with this issue, the problem lies with the affected websites. Some of the ads being served by their ad networks are affected with malicious scripts that cause the redirects whenever ads from that ad network are served to you. Ultimately the website owner will have to identify and block those advertiser URLs from their ad networks. I had to go into my Google Adsense and block a series of suspicious advertiser URLs based on the unusual activity I saw when using a Charles debugging tool. As soon as I blocked them, the ads no longer appeared for me or any of my visitors. Stopped instantly.
Another option for folks is to stop using mobile safari. THe ad seems to exploit something in that browser. This is going by the info that those using mobile safari have the dangest time getting rid of it while folks that are using another browser seem to never see it.
So something else to try.
I used to use WeBlock which runs your connection through a proxy server. Presuming it still works, it would block ads across the device, in apps, on browsers, everything.
THe downside i ran into is that my work wifi blocks proxy servers so if i used the adblocker I could not use my device at work.
Okay, I have the solution - after a week it is still gone on all browsers. In safari (or chrome or whatever) go to https://www.amazon.com/adprefs and choose the option “Do not Personalize Ads from Amazon for this Internet Browser”. It writes a cookie (requires cookies be allowed) that somehow stops all these scam ads from seeing Amazon apps are installed on this (phone). Solved!
Same issue, and it’s especially annoying because it’s affecting MY website which I own and promote links on social media. I can no longer promote my reviews the way I want to because I know mobile users will get that stupid pop up.
It’s a malvertising campaign with bad actors in the Google Adsense network. Basically, AdSense needs to catch these low quality, redirect type ads in their network and remove them - at least that’s how it was explained to me the one time I was lucky enough to get chat support through Google. Apparently redirect malvertising is something they struggle with but eventually catch.
The only temporary solution would be if the website host removed all Adsense code from their pages, which would cost them their revenue. And this isn’t ideal since the desktop sites are working fine - just mobile is affected.
I had been experiencing this issue for 2 to 3 weeks or so. I finally got fed up today and resolved the matter with help from some answers on this very discussion board. Basically, I just heeded what some of the users above stated which is to remove recently added apps from your iPhone. I know for a fact I added the Google Hangouts app about 2 weeks ago and Google Maps about 2 or 3 weeks ago as well (FYI, a friend of mine had accidentally removed the Google Maps app so I had to reinstall it). After removing those two programs—the only programs I have added recently—the problem has ended cold turkey. The obnoxious pop up had been popping up every so often on random websites with no rhyme or reason. Today, it was popping up on a TooFab website article about the upcoming Real Housewives Atlanta Reunion altercation between NeNe Leakes and Kim Zolciak. For the hundredth time, I tried clearing my cache and shutting off my phone. Well it allowed me to utilize my Safari again but as soon as I clicked onto that website it popped up. Again, it wasn’t until I came to this website and got the idea to remove recently added apps did I finally get rid of the problem cold turkey. I can now view the website in question with no issue. My guess is some of these apps are not safe and you have to be careful which apps you’re adding. Are there bad versions of apps. One would think it be safe to install Google Hangouts and Google Maps on your phone. Not sure which app was the culprit but I would assume Google Hangouts as I have previously had Google Maps. The apps worked just fine and were the real thing too. I need Google Maps on my phone but I’m a little concerned about downloading it and if I download the right thing after this pop up disaster.
Dump Safari since apple doesn’t want to solve this issue and download/use Opera until they fix it or just continue using Opera without worry.
Norton AdBlocker seems to have worked for me. Time will tell.
New Corp Australia webiste.
Both iOS (Safari) and Andriod (Chrome) products.
This is becoming nightmareish on my Air 2...and it also affects Chrome and Firefox browsers. Within the last several days, this most annoying of all exploits has increased almost exponentially in both breadth and persistence...
It seems clear that the hack is being distributed via one or more corrupted ad servers. I have been successful in prodding tech support at one of my most frequented sites (Find A Grave) to start doing something about it. For a short time, they took down the ad server and the exploit disappeared. While I’m confident they now know they are acting as a vector, the corrupted ad server is, once again, visiting this curse upon their Apple OS customers. Ad revenue, not Apple OS customer angst, reigns supreme.
We’ll not see this rectified until...
A. Apple closes the security hole in it’s OS or...
B. The corrupted ad server(s) rid themselves of the parasite(s) they are knowingly distributing.
I’m not holding my breath for either.
No, it is not ”in Safari”. Other browsers, to include Chrome and Firefox, are also subject to the exploit.
The problem is that a corrupted ad server(s) is acting as a vector for a hack that is exploiting a security hole in the Apple OS.
For the record (and at least temporarily), one of the websites I frequent that served up this exploit like clockwork is currently clean. It’s plausible that the responsible, corrupted ad server has been cleaned...for now.
Similar solution seems to work for me..... The pop up occurred mostly when I used certain bookmarks. I deleted the bookmarks, then make new bookmarks from scratch. So far after a couple of days these pesky pop ups have not come back..
I keep getting this Congratulations Amazon.com User
