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.

  • Daemon Silverstein@thelemmy.club
    135·
    3 months ago

    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).

      • irotsoma@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        3 months ago

        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.

      • Tattorack@lemmy.world
        6·
        3 months ago

        You just need one: uBlock Origins.

        If you’re still seeing ads then the adblocker isn’t turned on.

      • darkstar@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        2·
        3 months ago

        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

      • thermal_shock@lemmy.worldEnglish
        31·
        3 months ago

        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

      • thermal_shock@lemmy.worldEnglish
        17·
        3 months ago

        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.

    • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
      19·
      3 months ago

      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.

      • EP51L0N@sh.itjust.works
        4·
        3 months ago

        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.

      • AniviaDeutsch
        2·
        3 months ago

        No, it wouldn’t make sense. The official piratebay.org domain has never been hijacked, not even governments have managed to seize it

  • criticon@lemmy.ca
    26·
    3 months ago

    The domain gets highjacked occasionally, same as 1337x

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

  • monsterpiece42@reddthat.com
    26·
    3 months ago

    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.

  • linearchaos@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    3 months ago

    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.

  • Blackmist@feddit.ukEnglish
    8·
    3 months ago

    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.