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ad redirection

Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2018 9:30 am
by Wolffan
I don't know if this is the right place for this, but here goes.

I had set my adblocker to whitelist the TwoKinds site. Note the past tense. This morning when I selected TwoKinds from my bookmarks, I saw the sight very briefly then was redirected to a page advertising MacKeeper software. For those who don't know, MacKeeper is scumware, borderline malware. Apparently TwoKinds is a 'questionable site', and I should download (and pay for) MacKeeper to clean my Mac after visiting the site. I closed the MacKeeper window, opened a new window, selected TwoKinds... and got redirected to MacKeeper again. I closed that window, opened a new one, selected TwoKinds and moved quickly to turn on my adblocker for the TwoKinds site. A check with MalwareBytes indicates that if MacKeeper dropped something on my system, MalwareBytes can't find it. Closing the window, opening a new one and going back to TwoKinds after the adblocker was live did not result in a redirect. Someone in charge of the site administration might want to have a chat with the ad syndicate providing ads for the site. In the meantime the adblocker will be on. I might turn it off after a few weeks; if MacKeeper comes back, I'll turn it back on and it'll stay on permanently.

If this is not the correct place to post this, could someone please advise where is the correct place and I'll post it there.

Re: ad redirection

Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2018 12:22 pm
by Dadrobit
Wolffan wrote: Wed Jun 27, 2018 9:30 am I don't know if this is the right place for this, but here goes.

I had set my adblocker to whitelist the TwoKinds site. Note the past tense. This morning when I selected TwoKinds from my bookmarks, I saw the sight very briefly then was redirected to a page advertising MacKeeper software. For those who don't know, MacKeeper is scumware, borderline malware. Apparently TwoKinds is a 'questionable site', and I should download (and pay for) MacKeeper to clean my Mac after visiting the site. I closed the MacKeeper window, opened a new window, selected TwoKinds... and got redirected to MacKeeper again. I closed that window, opened a new one, selected TwoKinds and moved quickly to turn on my adblocker for the TwoKinds site. A check with MalwareBytes indicates that if MacKeeper dropped something on my system, MalwareBytes can't find it. Closing the window, opening a new one and going back to TwoKinds after the adblocker was live did not result in a redirect. Someone in charge of the site administration might want to have a chat with the ad syndicate providing ads for the site. In the meantime the adblocker will be on. I might turn it off after a few weeks; if MacKeeper comes back, I'll turn it back on and it'll stay on permanently.

If this is not the correct place to post this, could someone please advise where is the correct place and I'll post it there.
Go ahead and send an email to keenspot@keenspot.com reporting what happened. Unfortunately, Keenspot is very 'meh' at their security quality control, (I've gotten malware attempts from the site as well) but the more that folks contact them, the more chance we have of something happening about it.

Re: ad redirection

Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2018 12:14 am
by Wolffan
Thanks. Will email KeenSpot.

Re: ad redirection

Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2018 2:11 pm
by DarkTheImmortal
Sounds like adware. I had it happen to me once and had to manually remove things from my registry. Malware bytes didn't find it either, since it's not technically malware. My suggestion is to Google how to remove it, assuming it is the same type of thing i had.

Re: ad redirection

Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2018 4:05 pm
by Dadrobit
DarkTheImmortal wrote: Thu Jun 28, 2018 2:11 pm Sounds like adware. I had it happen to me once and had to manually remove things from my registry. Malware bytes didn't find it either, since it's not technically malware. My suggestion is to Google how to remove it, assuming it is the same type of thing i had.
Maybe in the case of the MacKeeper incident it was local malware, I dunno, I'm not a Mac user at home. But in addition to not finding anything bad on my own computer after several different scans, I've heard reports from others experiencing the exact same "Authentication Required" attacks on the TK site, so we know that those are connected to the site itself.

Re: ad redirection

Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2018 8:26 pm
by Turaiel
Dadrobit wrote: Wed Jun 27, 2018 12:22 pm Go ahead and send an email to keenspot@keenspot.com reporting what happened. Unfortunately, Keenspot is very 'meh' at their security quality control, (I've gotten malware attempts from the site as well) but the more that folks contact them, the more chance we have of something happening about it.
This is the right answer. Unfortunately we do not have direct control over which ads get shown on Twokinds. Keenspot tries to work with the ad providers to prevent this type of thing from happening, but unfortunately things get through. All we can do is let them know whenever something comes up.

Re: ad redirection

Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2018 2:20 am
by Wolffan
The MacKeeper thing only popped up when going to TwoKinds, and went away after I turned my adblocker on, so I'm sure it's adware hosted here.
I wrote Keenspot. No reply as yet. It seems that they not only don't care about basic site security, they also don't care about lost ad revenue as I explicitly mentioned my adblocker.

Re: ad redirection

Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2018 10:04 pm
by Turaiel
I can at least assure you that Twokinds' server is not serving you malware. It's being sent along with ads from our ad providers.

Re: ad redirection

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2018 1:59 am
by Wolffan
oh, I'm sure that it's an ad, which means that it's KeenSpot's problem, as they're responsible for the ads. I assume that TwoKinds gets a cut of the ad revenue, which is going to be zero from me thanks to my adblocker until KeenSpot gets back to me, which they haven't yet and which I'm not holding my breath while waiting. Sorry about that. I'll buy some books or something to support the site, but the adblocker stays on.

Re: ad redirection

Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2018 2:43 am
by Turaiel
If you really want to, there's a PayPal button that appears where the bottom ad would normally be if you block ads. No pressure of course!

Re: ad redirection

Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2018 9:30 am
by Wolffan
We'll see.