Money taken from logged in, gullible, forum users by spam advertising

Technical Details

Forum version : #phpBB2
Position : Founder
Concerned browser(s) : Google Chrome
Screenshot of problem :
Who the problem concerns : A few members
When the problem appeared : 1st time reported was the beginning of December 2020 2nd time March 12th 2021
Forum link : ( link is hidden, you must reply to see )

Description of problem

I have an older free forum with no adverts for logged in members. Twice, that I know about, on logging in, a member has seen an advert pretending to be a message, telling my users that they have won a mobile/cell phone. In December last year a user paid 2GBP 'postage' for this 'competition win' and had 50GBP taken from his account. I didn't report it here as it was very difficult to ascertain what exactly had happened from the user, despite him saying he saw the spam advert several times afterwards too. He also got his money repaid by his bank. However in the last few days I have another member reporting the same thing, although he was astute enough not to click on it , or answer anything. As he has also seen it several times now, at my request, he got a screen shot for the message that leads to the 'competition' to win a phone. Obviously this is not acceptable and I need it removing from my forum . Thank you in advance

Hello,

This is an advertisement from the Google advertising network. You can report this content to Google by clicking on this icon and follow the instructions that appear:

Thank you for the reply The Godfather, it never occurred to me this was Googles doing

I presume that symbol only appears next to the ad when you see it? This will give a headache, as despite using Google Chrome myself, I have never seen it.

This symbol is displayed for all Google banner ads. By clicking on it, you can set your preferences (say that the content does not interest you so as not to see it anymore) but also report it to their team. And yes, you have to see this specific advertisement and click on the symbol.

I wish my lot were more web savvy

My advice is to make a topic telling your members not to click on ad's like that if seen.

Sadly we can't do anything about who clicks on what on your forum.

When your request is complete, please mark it as Solved.