Nonstop redirects to "loompasplace.com" - how malicious could they be?

[NotASurfer]

Doing this from Safari on iPhone. The past day I keep getting hijacked from DU repeatedly. Understand if it's advertising, but worried that (a) it hijacks the browser session with no option to exit and (b) does it again if I close the window and come back again.

I can't find anything useful so far on the redirect site, whatever loompasplace is. Figured it was worth checking to make sure I'm not dealing with some iOS variety malware

[mr_lebowski]

1. Sounds like you have a fairly serious problem my friend.

If this was a PC I could help but I'm just not phone guy, and definitely not an iOS guy.

Hopefully someone with better advice comes along but if it were me I'd use Firefox in the meantime til it's sorted and keep Safari closed.

If FF and/or Chrome is doing the same, I'd get real concerned.

[NotASurfer]

5. Just using an iPhone here

Will have to try from another device. Hadn't heard of malware and iPhones being a thing yet, and it's only DU

[WA-03 Democrat]

2. I got it a lot too

I rebooted my iPhone and it has stopped. This looks like malware. Ads don’t hijack your browser.

[NotASurfer]

6. Tried that, nuked history, restarted

Maybe worked, but the redirect just reasserted itself. I'm using the last good link in Safari history to access DU

[msongs]

3. oddly, google turns up nothing for that issue nt

[Make7]

4. From Apple Discussions: Dealing with Safari popups that won't go away

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-13111

How to block pop-ups in Safari
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203987


Try the suggestions at those links (probably the Apple support one first). I haven't experienced that issue, so I can't offer first hand advice. However, I would recommend getting the iCab Mobile browser. It has an ad-blocker and a load of useful features if you're a tech person - although it is somewhat overly complicated for typical browsing. For people that really want options and control, it is one of the best browsers for iOS.

You might also want to post this in the DU Apple Users group.

[NotASurfer]

8. Thank you, was able to cross-post

That Apple discussions link seems to be on the right track, and the Apple group in DU pointed me at the same discussion.

Followed Apple's suggested cleanup. So far, so good

Linking to post with that cleanup: https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1096&pid=4487

[Make7]

9. Since a few people seem to be having the same issue, I would guess it is related to the ads here.

If it comes back, contact the DU admins via email or DUmail to see if they can find the offending ad(s) and block it.

[raccoon]

11. Tried that cleanup and it didn't work. Nt

[NotASurfer]

12. Might follow up with the DU Apple forum

Or Apple's discussions, in links Make7 shared in post 4

Google still doesn't seem to think loompasplace is a real thing, outside of this issue in DU. There's something ironic in redirects from a forum critical of the Oompa Loompa in the Oval Office going to that domain name

[Mersky]

7. Yeah, I got that loompasplace junk

I don't associate these phishing pop-up survey ad pages with my iPhone/iOS/Safari exclusively. Happened more frequently with my Android phone a couple years ago when I was running the Chrome browser. I expect it to happen when I visit certain websites like the Houston Chronicles website, chron.com. However all that, has been much less of problem after switching to iOS/Safari. Was kinda surprised when it happened upon pulling up the first website of the day... which is nearly always DU, and today was no exception.

Today's round of internet buggery was squashed when I closed the last ten of my open tabs. Included such things as DU, Wikipedia, and ticket purchasing pages for the Jeff Beck tour dates in San Antonio and Austin. Didn't have to clear my entire history, or toggle the recommended settings... Which I believe I already did a few months ago. I use duckduckgo as my search engine, and while I'd like to believe that's one of the reasons these intrusive Congratulations, user! pop-ups have decreased, I'm not sure at all.

Btw, I'd be leery of any website offering a way to clean or protect your computer or phone from these pop-up pages. I generally avoid any service that doesn't have real money/investment/history behind their name. I would love, love, love... I mean, love, for a major tech publication like Arstechnica, etc to call out exactly what's happening with this Congratulations web spam crappola.

[NotASurfer]

13. I did have a few open tabs, will stop doing that

Bad habit I guess. Things like running across the word "goujons" and after some free-association surfing ending up on a recipe on the Diabetes UK website that I think looks interesting in this case.

We'll have to do a few things differently when we reinvent the internet I guess

[Mersky]

14. Admittedly, I took the lazy experiment route yesterday, and while it worked...

I'm likely to take extra measures. Will probably clear my browser history/remaining open tabs. There's a set of recommendations given in the post you made to the Apple user group that I plan to revisit. I might seek an ad blocking plugin for Safari, but I'm kinda stubborn about using the native features of a mobile program. Safari has seemingly been better than chrome on this issue. Will report back what I do.

[raccoon]

10. Thanks for posting. I keep having the same damn problem.

Last edited Sun Jul 14, 2019, 07:11 AM - Edit history (1)

Thanks for posting. I keep having the same