Definitely a scammy ad. If you're on Android you can use a browser with an ad blocker. Don't know about iPhone because I've never owned one. Alternatively you can subscribe to steamgifts on Patreon and it'll disable ads on the site.
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I recommend him using Brave on Android (or in PC aswell) since it disables all ADs and prevents those types of things.
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how do i do that? i'm on ios and what antimalware app to use?
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doubtful from SG
Not true, it happens sometimes (and not only here). Of course it also depends on the region since all the advertisements are more or less personalized. Imho, it is probably the fault of the Google advertising service which cannot manage to reject certain bad ads from all the advertisements it has to broadcast.
These bad ads are usually pretty basic phishing ads which are easy to ignore by simply going to (one of the) the previous page(s) or by closing the tab. In any case, the golden rule: never click on online ads, even the real ones! At worst, use a search engine to find the site / shop the ad is talking about (if there is something that interests you) and hopefully it should save you from going on fake sites... And otherwise, yes, the ad blocker is a solution if you do not support this kind of ads.
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I had the same ('amazon' wheel, but it's not from amazon, ofc) a couple of days ago, so it looks like it from sg. With & without wifi. iOS. I pissed off and installed AdGuard, it works with safari.
Also, ~year ago had a similar: https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/lKu1c/cancerous-ads-on-steamgifts
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ads, ads, everywhere. How do you think they afford to keep running this site?
Edit: it was a rhetorical question ;-)
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I honestly would take the opposite view. Let's be real here, no one would go through the effort to run this site out of altruism and anyone who thinks that is a naive fool. CG has to be profiting from it, probably more so than people realize, and since the finances aren't not disclosed (nor could you trust if it as truth if it were anyway) then there are little to no hard facts to go on. All I know is there are ads on every giveaway page that is loaded, user-generated links all over the site into which SG injects it's own referral/affiliate program codes, and then patreon in addition to that.
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note: this post isn’t directed at ya, just a general reply based on comments made.
I’m happy to use a site that I haven’t directly paid any money to the host for the use of.
Yep, they might be profiting from ad revenue, affiliate links and patreon NOW, but I’m sure anyone with a decent lot of traffic on their site would rather they profited from it than to have to pay for it.
The amount of profit they might be getting, in my opinion, is none of my business, and at the end of the day, I don’t care. The use of this site, either for giving or for taking (or just for random discussions) is not a right, it’s just an option.
If any of us don’t like people profiting, it’s also an option not to use that site if we feel it breaks our moral code.
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It's all good, I appreciate the discussion.
If one deems the site finances to be none of their business and doesn't care about that then I acknowledge anyone's right to such a viewpoint, but at the same time the moment there is any inkling of any questionable ethical practice or potential exploitation then I think it becomes the business of anyone who cares to make it their business. I certainly don't expect something like this to be run as a charity and I have no problem with a reasonable level of advertising and even soliciting donations through Patreon, but where I absolutely have to draw the line is with the affiliate/referral links that are injected into every applicable link on the site for the simple reason that it is profiting off of someone else's work/activities whether they approve of it or not. The "Referrals" setting in your account here is a bit of a red herring and is largely a placebo. That is to say it only addresses part of the equation and of what you would think/hope suggested by the name. It only disables referral/affiliate links for those that you click on and not for any link that you may have created that others may click on. That means that any link you've ever posted is essentially potentially 'hijacked' and injected with someone else's referral. I understand that there are people here who won't or don't care but I do. I am not okay with that. As a particular example, if I put in a bunch of legwork posting deals for the benefit of others I don't think it's right that someone else is profiting off of my work even if it was done as nothing more than a labor of love. It just seems dishonest to me and my view of such is a personal choice. And just as I would not try to tell someone else what their rights are with any creative work of theirs is I would hope that they would afford the same to others. At the end of the day this is CG's site and he can do what he wants with it, but that doesn't mean that anyone should have to be content with blindly accepting what is put in front of them or being made to be a mere sheep without questioning things.
Aside from this and so that one may understand where I am coming from, I will say that I have an innate distrust of business persons, corporations, or for that matter any party that stands to profit from something or otherwise has a conflict of interest insofar as the perspective of the every day down-to-earth average joe is concerned. It seems like people are always trying to screw or exploit one thing or another or each other all the time. I'm not saying it's everyone and there are certainly some legitimate straight arrows and genuine people out there, but as far as I am concerned there's way more than enough of the ugly/dishonest shit or bad eggs to ruin it for everyone else. Considerable life experience has taught me this and cynicism and distrust is my default position as a result. I'm sorry if that offends anyone's personal belief system or faith in humanity but I call it like it see it and that to me is the reality, bleak as it may sound. If someone thinks that makes me seem like a cynical bastard then so be it. I'm a realist.
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It's kind of iffy that CG just hides the Patreon monthly income, but odds are they'll make a minimum of 3x68=$204 thanks to the actual reward, averaging out the extremes of $1 and $15 tiers, though it's likely that the $15 tiers affect the numbers more. So, minus the Patreon cut of 5%, Steamgifts probably runs on $193 per month as of right now.
I personally just don't know how much the server costs are, but I doubt the ads give as much as that.
Not saying they should stop. Just that it's obvious that the ads are debilitating for some people, but also that perhaps Patreon's the main engine in keeping the site running.
But unless CG is more open about the earnings and costs, I guess we'll never know.
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I have the same problem. SG is the only website that gives me that spam. Someone seems to be injecting ads that redirect the entire browser to some scam site.
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Tip: Delete the browser cache or even the browser data and it'll get rid of the malicious ad loop. You'll likely lose the open tabs and browsing history but it'll reset your browser to a usable state.
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That reminds me, I've had shit like this hijack the browser window here on multiple occasions.
Which is why I often regard Google Chrome on mobile as a pile of crap. They don't give you any power or flexibility to do anything. Thank god Firefox for android exists.
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SO i've been using my phone to enter in giveaways on the go, as i can't be on my pc 24/7.. can't let it sitting at 400 pts or your wasting away free points that can be used for a giveaway(that you might win)...
so i've never seen this problem(or bug or idk) before since i've been using steamgifts on my phone.. but since today i've run into an issue where everytime i visit my wishlist giveaways section, a large "amazon congrats you won a gift for being a loyal customer, pls start the wheel spinning to claim your prize" shows up.. i forgot to take a screenshot which is why i don't have the evidence, but for the time being i'm not seeing it again on my phone.. i assume it is likely an ad, since i dont think steamgifts would be sponsored by amazon.. its annoying because there is no close button(if it is an ad).. even a force close on the app browser on my phone does not work, because once i load up the browser app, it still goes back there which is why i can't select other tabs to even close it.. my pc has adblock extension, but in ios chrome does not have extension apps..
i would like suggestions from the community on how to deal with this in the future, so i dont run into this again(assuming its an ad)
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