2 mo. ago • 89%

When did the Pirate Bay become full of malvertising?

I hadn't been to the Pirate Bay in quite some time. I occasionally pop over to look for old videos. I went today and a big popover for a dubious software upgrade came up. Then, another saying that my system is infected and offering to clean it. That's obviously fake, but it was blocking my access to the user interface so I wasn't able to complete my search. Closed it. That's unfortunate.

45 comments

First Rule: don't rawdog internet, especially torrent search sites. Always use protections.

Second rule: always check if you're on the right site. It's relatively easy to find torrent search sites, but even easier to find phishing sites (i.e. sites that claims to be the original site, but they actually aren't).

135
- The bay in particular is like a door to fucking Narnia...
  
  It's never in the place it was last time, so bookmarks "expire" when the main site has to move, which seems to be multiple times a year
  
  62
  
  Yeah, but Narnia in this case always has its entrance documented on Wikipedia.
  
  42
If you're browsing for torrents without a serious adblocker... why?

72
- Funny how many people think I don't have ad-blockers. I have several.
  
  -13
  
  I mean you're complaining about seeing popup ads on TPB. Sure doesn't sound like you have an ad blocker.
  
  17
  
  If you're using a recent version of Chrome, Google has stunted the capabilities of many ad blockers. Suggest using another browser and/or using something that catches this stuff before it gets to your browser like a properly configured pihole. Otherwise, configure your ad blockers more aggressively, especially for sites that are less likely to screen their ads.
  
  7
  
  You just need one: uBlock Origins.
  
  If you're still seeing ads then the adblocker isn't turned on.
  
  6
  
  then how are you seeing ads? something smells fishy on your end. we, who use good ad blockers, don't see the shit you described even on fake sites
  
  2
  
  Sounds like you have several pretty fucken useless adblockers, just get 1 that works, ie uBlock origin.
  
  Several adblockers and youre still seeing ads smh
  
  2
  
  A misconfigured filter can break uBlock Origin, so make sure your filters aren't broken.
  
  1
Bro fucked a $2 whore without a condom and wonders why his pee burns

59
You sure you went to the real pirate bay? There's a fuckton of imitators full of crap.

55
- thepiratebay.org. I won't ask a question like this again. Even though well-meaning, everyone has assumed I don't know what I'm doing.
  
  -12
  
  it sounds like you don't. I went there with Firefox mobile and ublock origin, nothing but pb search box and some categories. NO ads or popups.
  
  17
how are you using torrent sites without an ad blocker like ublock origin?

35
thepiratebay.org ?

Use an adblocker, of course. Never had an issue.

30
- Yep, and I use multiple. Whatever was going on was super over the top. Someone else suggested the site had been highjacked. That would make sense.
  
  -8
  
  even hijacked it would still block stuff if your blocker was worth anything.
  
  6
  
  using multiple adblockers can cause conflicts and can sometimes outright negate the functionality of all of them. ublock origin updated regularly will block all of your ads no problem, anything more than that is both redundant and somewhat harmful.
  
  4
  
  No, it wouldn't make sense. The official piratebay.org domain has never been hijacked, not even governments have managed to seize it
  
  2
Sadly almost all these comments are wrong. I work in a computer shop and we see the scam you're talking about all the time. It happened because you unknowingly opened an ad. So you clicked on a button that looked legitimate like "download" or "next" or whatever, and that pops up full screen. The fix is a good ad blocker like ublock origin. Google's being a piece of shit right now about ad blockers so I recommend something Firefox-based for effective ad blocking.

26
The domain gets highjacked occasionally, same as 1337x

Use proxybay to check which links are working and use adblockers and vpn

26
🌎 🧑‍🚀🔫🧑‍🚀 Always has been.

23
Maybe use the search engine built into qbittorrent?

19
- I've been using qbittorrent for ten years, and now you're telling me it has a search engine built-in?
  
  23
  
  Yep! Just need to add the appropriate plugins. This is also an easy way to access trackers whose websites have been taken down
  
  Unofficial search plugins · qbittorrent/search-plugins Wiki - https://github.com/qbittorrent/search-plugins/wiki/Unofficial-search-plugins
  
  17
  
  How did I not know this too...
  
  6
  
  Omg. This changes everything
  
  4
when you turned off your ad blocker

18
- I'm pretty sure he wasn't using any in the first place. Time for him to use uBO.
  
  1
Something like 10 or 15 years ago.

11
The front page of the official site has always been pretty clean. But if you click that search button or try to go through results without a decent ad block, they lay it on pretty thick.

8
That's why we use Radar, etc, so we don't have to use those sites.

If you do visit them, make sure you're ad-blockered up the wazoo.

8
20 years ago?

6
First time?

They've been like that since the dawn of piracy.

4
PSA: qBittorrent has a search function, no need to go to sketchy mirrors anymore.

4
- It does? What does it search?
  
  2
  
  torrents
  
  3
Edit: improved sentence structure

Like all websites, there are fake ones and then there are official ones.

Many will be clones of what the original website looked like.

2
Long, long ago

1
Might want to scan your computer for spyware. I used to have that issue a long long time ago.

1

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