Ask Are pop-up ads prevalent on torrent sites?

[Brajet]

Just a quick one for tonight...

A customer brought in her MacBook this morning, saying that she is still getting popups even after we cleaned it up less than a month ago. Queue me expecting a dumbass who managed to get MacKeeper twice in less than a month.

I popped in on the bench and fired it up, do the usual quick check of Safari. No popups, no hijacked search results. Hmm. Ran through my standard check of extensions, startup apps, running processes, nothing. Curiouser and curiouser (not really, I'm jaded enough to be bored by this stage).

So I though I'd give her a call and find out what was going on.

Her: "Oh it's only when I go on dodgy sites. Do you think that might be it?"

Me: "Yes. Maybe sites like The Pirate Bay and other torrent sites that are in the history?"

Her: "Oh no that's not me but I'll get that other person to stop. I go to other dodgy sites. I'll stop doing that now though."

 

[Anthony Joshua]

Torrent sites rely heavily on pop-up ads because they don't usually charge users for downloads. These ads are everywhere, from exit-intent pop-ups to automatic pop-ups when you click a download link. Many users on Reddit complain that it's annoying and sometimes risky, since malicious pop-ups are possible. That's why some people use private torrent clients, VPNs, or adblockers to reduce the number of pop-ups. Still, it's very normal to see them on almost every torrent site.

 

[Felix😎]

Pop-up ads are rampant on torrent sites like The Pirate Bay because that's how they generate revenue. These ads are often filled with malware or unwanted redirects, so even a clean MacBook can get hit quickly if someone visits those sites. It's not surprising her issues came back. You might want to recommend installing an ad blocker or even switching to a safer browser, but ultimately, avoiding those sites is the best solution.