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IME it's a real close button but the ad opens the thing when it closes, regardless of how it closes.
by immibis 10mo ago
IME it's a real close button but the ad opens the thing when it closes, regardless of how it closes.
- jordwest 10mo agoA common trick is that the first click on the X will go to the ad, but if you return and click the X again it will close, gaslighting you into thinking you just misclicked the first time. Another trick that I’ve noticed on the Reddit app is that the tappable area is much larger for ads than normal posts. If you tap even near the ad it will visit the ad
- DrewADesign 10mo agoAlso making the hit area smaller than the close graphic itself is a popular one.
- Groxx 10mo agoNo, I mean there are ads with a "close button" in the corner, and then a few seconds later the real close button will appear and it'll weirdly overlap it. Because the first one was fake, just part of the image asset of the ad. They're very very clearly click-fraud tricks, and most platforms will ban them if they're caught. But by clicking on the ad, it closes the ad, and there's no way to go back and report them, nor incentive for ad-viewers to do so. By design, IMO. The whole industry runs on scams like this, there's no incentive for large platforms to proactively block any of them because they lead to money moving through them, where they can extract their rent. They only move against the most egregious, to keep fraud at the same barely-acceptable level as all the others.
- mbirth 10mo ago> The whole industry runs on scams like this Wasn’t there an article here a few days ago about Facebook specialising in hiding such malicious ads from testers and law enforcement to maximise gains?
- Groxx 10mo agoYep: https://www.reuters.com/investigations/meta-created-playbook-fend-off-pressure-crack-down-scammers-documents-show-2025-12-31/ https://www.reuters.com/investigations/meta-created-playbook...
- mbirth 10mo agoAnd here's the HN discussion about it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46446838 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46446838
- transcriptase 10mo agoYes. Basically the internet version of the Volkswagen emissions scandal. if(testdetected == 1) ecm.lowemissions else lmao.fuckyouregulators
- red-iron-pine 10mo agothe difference is that the average rube and/or average lawmaker have some basic understanding of how cars work. petrol goes in, toxic gas comes out, so make toxic gas less. most of them have 0% understanding as to how data mining works or how online ads (and scams) function
- immibis 10mo agoIt was about advertising for scams, not tracking. That's easier to understand than a car.