Worst Ads Ever! (SkepticOverlord's Ad Hitlist)

I have a more serious concern at the moment with one of the ads.
I am constantly getting this and other banners for quickcreditscore

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/9aaefc717147.jpg[/atsimg]
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/3fc9e0f60818.jpg[/atsimg]

So I looked at the site and saw that they offer a "free" credit check

Investigating further I found pages and pages of complaints that this company takes money from your credit card without your permission like this

This company initiall charged me £29.95 without my knowing and as soon as I found out I cancelled my membership and also called my credit card company. The credit card company contacted them and confirmed my cancellation but the following two months another £29.95 twice was taken. I am now in the process of disputing these charges.

link

This

This web site is linked to rewardsnow.co.uk They are in fact one and the same company. I had dealings with them and both companies took money for the same enquiery. They are well known for their scams by most Banks and the Trading Standards

link

and this

I have no idea how this company has got hold of my bank details but they have charged me a sum of 19.95 twice. I have contacted the company and they have sent me an e-mail saying they have cancelled the subscription I did not want but they refuse to refund my money.

link

I know ATS doesn't know about all of the ads that appear but could someone PLEASE take a look into this as I hate to think of any ATS users being scammed by this company.


Edit to add
Yet another one
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/01ad8a6d2b87.jpg[/atsimg]

Originally posted by davespanners
I know ATS doesn't know about all of the ads that appear but could someone PLEASE take a look into this as I hate to think of any ATS users being scammed by this company.

I would hope they would take down ads that are proven scams. I know their advertising agency puts them up and not ATS but they still have the power to take down certain ads. Hopefully they'll take those down.

Yes I am hoping a mod replies to this.
I realise it isn't the fault of anyone at ATS but would hope they would at least look into it.

reply to post by davespanners


SkepticOverlord has been made aware of this. It should be taken care of as soon as he logs on. Thanks for the heads up and leg work looking into it.

reply to post by GAOTU789


Thats excellent!

Majic just U2U'd me with the same info

Thanks all at ATS for looking into my concerns

I just wanted to update this.
The ads seem to have gone from the top banner but are now all over the side banner on the recent posts page
There are at least 4 different versions of this
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/615f7d2f8a3f.jpg[/atsimg]

Ats is running stupidly slow at the moment. I am getting fed up of pre-broadband speeds on supposedly the best conspiracy site on the net.

one of the culprits may be geo.gorillanation.com an ad server i think. but it is just as slow when not loading this.

with all of your billions of pounds and cant you upgrade the servers?

reply to post by davespanners


I jumped the gun on saying the adds were gone, they are all very much still there. Oh well, I guess I will stop complaining about them now

reply to post by davespanners


If you make Bronze member status, you won't have to look at those ads anymore.


Oh wait, we're not even sure they do that anymore.


I guess maybe you'll find out when you get 300 flags.

reply to post by davespanners


Just curious; do you still see the ads for that company or did they finally do something about it?

I wouldn't know because I don't see those adds when I'm on ATS.

reply to post by FortAnthem


They are still showing up a lot.

I'm guessing they are geo targeted to the UK users anyway, or maybe because I made a post once about being offered a credit card that I turned down..

No one else seems bothered by them

Originally posted by MR BOB


one of the culprits may be geo.gorillanation.com an ad server i think. but it is just as slow when not loading this.

edit on 12-12-2010 by MR BOB because: (no reason given)

Yes thanks for someone else noticing. I have had problems with this add server causing slow load times as well.

TheRugged.com just locked up my comptuer (From this site)

It opened up about 10 ie windows, and would not let me close them (Pop-up came saying "You want to close this window? click OK)

-Yeah right

Anyway, TheRugged.com is what my status bar was trying to load. Then I had about 50 audio tracks running telling me about their product(s). Too hard to figure out what they were saying.

This is the first time it has happened, I will be more specific when/if it happens again.

EDIT--
I hate to complain about an ad, since they make your site cost effective. I have even used your ads before (electronic cigarettes was one I think) I know I have used the game ones (I am such a geek)

Not trying to "proof by authority" or anything, just wanted you to know I wasn't some "ad hater" Just "this ad" hater.

reply to post by adigregorio


I can confirm it is "TheRugged.com" that is causing my first error.

It has happened again, though this time it changed my main window to an ad (Kinda annoying considering I was reading a thread) Then it opened 5 more windows.

Less is more ATS!!

Every time I load a page i now have a stupid banner, which it seems it's not to be spoken about, as every thread I see on it has been locked.

I really hope this is as tempory as it has been suggested. It shrinks into a little button, surely the little button is enough? we don't need it jamming down our throats every time we go t o a new page. It's more than a minor annoyance, like that silly thing which popped up when we logged on (now thankfully gone)

i can see which way this is going. Every feature ATS has will soon become a big stupid ad, floating accross your screen every 15 seconds...just incase we forget that this site has lots of features. Way to treat us like children. *applauds*

There was one on ATS earlier, I don't know what it was, but I suspect that ridiculous one for the fantasy game that pops up from time to time. I was trying to listen to Trouble by Shola Ama, J2K, Devlin and Wiley (Which is a AMAZING grime track... www.youtube.com...) when i hear this fricking plink - plonk fantasy game crap over my tunes. I tried to find whicch thread it was on, maybe before I logged in though to have my say as I've noticed you get more ads... I actually closed the post, feel sorry for any OP landed with that!

reply to post by Acidtastic


That banner is irritating as HELL!

It pops up every time you star or flag a post and every time you open a new page and stays around for about 15 seconds and you can't even x out of it.

Its obvious that ATS is censoring all dissent into this damn banner even though every thread created to complain about it gets loads of member flags, meaning that the members here agree; that bar SUCKS and we all want it to go away!

If we're not allowed to make a thread about it, I recommend all members who have a beef with that banner post their rants here until the management finally gets it through their thick skulls that THE BANNER NEEDS TO GO!

I also recommend that the members also boycott ATS live until this situation is resolved.

--Nevermind, it won't matter.--

TheRugged.Com is still acting up somthing fierce, I am not mad. Just putting some substance to this post.

I know how to get rid of the ATS live bar/icon, use internet explorer 6 ! You see, I am holding the "internet" back and will not enjoy the full functionality. Sure some sites will take features away, but thats why I have both IE6 and firefox and sites with a big community probably will not make their site stop working with IE6.

I realized long ago that the push to update away from IE6 to give web devs a way to give you more functions was a bad idea, it gives them more function they think you need. There probably is a way to code an option to remove it in firefox, but what good would it do them if people left it closed? Any and all sites would code all the ad's they serve to pop up, shout and dance across your screen untill you bought something if they knew the users wouldn't complain/leave.

I have said in a post on ats long ago, that this forced update was a way to serve up ad's in brand new and exciting ways.

The auditory "Congratulations, you've won!" ad is by FAR the worst. Not only does it annoy the hell out of me by just shouting out all of a sudden during a quiet ATS search of new threads denying ignorance, but it FLASHES something fierce. It's like a shady sign in Vegas trying to lure me into buying crack 2 blocks over. There's a feeling that if I click this ad, then I'll probably end up robbed and in a ditch somewhere. I am left feeling like I want to punch some smiley faces out cold. It's like the ghetto ad of the internet. Even Wal-mart stopped announcing things over the PA because it was too annoying to customers. This ad is even worse than Wal-Mart! This should say something right there.

This ad is soooo annoying that it prompted me to leave the thread I was trying to read and do a search for this thread so I can post this little rant. Hope I got my point accross!