Worst Ads Ever! (SkepticOverlord's Ad Hitlist), page 22

Originally posted by Ian McLean
reply to post by theyreadmymind

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I totally agree, but as I mentioned the problem is in no way "ATS only", so it's a little unreasonable to expect them to spearhead a solution. And the dangerous elements are in ad code that delivered by providers external to ATS, which they don't have (much) a priori control over.

Here's the standard advice for disabling animated elements on web pages, for photosensitive and epileptic-prone people:
blogoscoped.com...

It disables GIF and Flash animation on the Firefox browser.

If they don't have control over it, then that falls under my 'technical reasons' argument. If that is the case, then this whole thread is kind of pointless, isn't it? Thanks for posting those disabling instructions though. Epileptics take note.

ATS has been popping up this add quite a bit on my machines.
Easy Google Profits

The problem with this add is that it’s a scam, made to look like a newspaper article. There is no product, and they bill you a bunch of money while never providing anything for it. They are under investigation in several states for pulling this crap.

Better Business Bureau
On April 20, 2009 the Utah Division of Consumer Protection issued a Final Order by Default against Google Money Tree LLC and Google Treasure Chest LLC ("Respondents"). The Respondents are ordered to cease and desist from: a) failing to ship goods or furnish services within the time advertised or otherwise represented after receiving payment; b) charging consumers for consumer transactions that have not been previously agreed to by consumers; c) indicating that a specific price advantage exists if it does not; d) failing to make refunds to consumers within 30 days of receiving valid requests for refunds; e) sending goods or providing services to consumers pursuant to a negative option plan; and f) any act in violation of the Utah Consumer Sales Practices Act. The Respondents were assessed and ordered to pay an administrative fine in the amount of $12,500.

On April 24, 2009 the Texas Attorney General's Office announced charges for operating a fraudulent work-at-home scheme against Infusion Media Inc, GoogleTreasureChest.com, InternetIncomeInitiative.com, and Jonathan D. Eborn ("Defendants"), whose "GoogleMoneyTree.com" promised six-figure earnings for conducting specialized Google and Yahoo Internet searches. According to the state's enforcement action, GoogleMoneyTree failed to clearly inform purchasers that they had been enrolled in monthly memberships and had only seven days to cancel their trial membership. Purchasers who failed to cancel within seven days were automatically charged $82 on their credit card statements each month. In addition to the unexpected credit card charges, customer complaints obtained by state investigators indicate that GoogleMoneyTree failed to actually send the "free kit" and refused to honor customer refunds. The state is seeking an injunction, civil penalties of up to $20,000 per violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, as well as restitution for purchasers.

You should really remove it before you have a member get scammed by these criminals.

reply to post by defcon5

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Thats the ad that is supplied by Casalmedia.

What I want to know is why I am getting a popup even when I stay signed in? According to prior posts by the Overlord this isn't suppose to be happening.

Internet advertising sucks. At least sell stuff relevant to the site instead of ripoff scams.I thought the culture was different here, but i guess eventually everyone get turned to the dark side by their greed.

The Maidenform one (takes you here: www.maidenform.com...) is starting to get on my nerves.

Just a tad.

Another "hey if I was at Starbucks and someone checked out my screen that could be weird" deal.

For the second time since the introduction of the Media Portal I had to watch an advertising video before I could see the video that I wanted to see, one uploaded by myself.



I am not someone that is easily affected by violent images, but an advert of a fight may not be well accepted by some of our members, after all, if there is an automatic language censor and we are asked not to post violent images or videos, I think we should not accept that from sponsors, specially in a place where I was not expecting an advert to appear (I thought this "glitch" had been corrected long ago).

This is just one more thing that makes me think that the Media Portal needs to be much changed from what it is now, as it is, I only use it because I am forced to do it, but whenever I need to post a photo with the EXIF data or a video that I do not want to be highly compressed and resized I have to look to other, less intrusive, options.

PS: as anyone can see, I hate the Media Portal.
Having to watch ads before the videos does not help.

PPS: sorry if this was addressed before, searching for "ads" does not help, and I could not find a specific Media Portal thread.

Edited to add that it happens with all videos. Is this on purpose?

[edit on 11/6/2009 by ArMaP]

www.cursormania.com this is a pop-up that popsup before you are logged in.

if you visit that site and download what it asks you get filled to the brim with spyware and malware, wich will destroy your computer.

Take a lookat the user reviews on norton:safeweb.norton.com...

not very good at all for such a big website.

reply to post by JoshNorton

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We just ran a header trace and believe we have discovered the culprit ad...

It should be taken care of shortly.

Springer...

reply to post by Springer

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Thanks very much, on top of things a usual Thanks again

reply to post by SkepticOverlord

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Hey Bill

I appreciate that response but I would hazard a guess that many here at ATS will not read yours and the others response here and they are not tech savvy enough to know it's not a real warning but an ad and chances are they will click something.

Just a thought.