Dishonest and unwanted adverts

[Dave2002]

I was looking at scores on IMSLP - a pretty decent library of music scores, and I noticed this :



OK - so many organisations are now trying to gain extra revenue by allowing advertising but there are problems when
reputable organisations have sites which include adverts which are clearly dishonest - as in this case.

So much for the major IT providers trying to - or agreeing to - police the mess they have created!

The IMSLP web site is probably unaware of which adverts are being put onto its pages.

The Internet is becoming an unmanageable and hostile place ....

[kernelbogey]

The top one appears in the Guardian from time to time. The claim is so implausible I just ignored it. But I wonder if I should complain to the Guardian.

@Dave - did you click to see how it tries to justify its claim? (It looks like a torch battery and a bit of wire strapped to an old nail!)

[Petrushka]

The top one appears in the Guardian from time to time. The claim is so implausible I just ignored it. But I wonder if I should complain to the Guardian.

@Dave - did you click to see how it tries to justify its claim? (It looks like a torch battery and a bit of wire strapped to an old nail!)

That advert has been appearing on my Guardian page as well and for some time. It's obviously nonsense, what my late father would have called 'a bit Heath Robinson', and I laugh and move on but do share your concern about whether the Guardian (and others) are aware of who is advertising on their site. Aren't there supposed to be laws against fake adverts?

On a similar topic: There was a mention on this Forum a week or two back for Takt1, the concert website, to which a link was provided. I read the post but didn't click on the link. Within the hour I was getting adverts for these people popping up on the Guardian page. I stress that I did not click on the link in the post on here but scrolled through. What cookies are enabled on the Forum to prompt advertising at the mere mention of a product?

[Dave2002]

The top one appears in the Guardian from time to time. The claim is so implausible I just ignored it. But I wonder if I should complain to the Guardian.

@Dave - did you click to see how it tries to justify its claim? (It looks like a torch battery and a bit of wire strapped to an old nail!)

There are several ways in which that could be dishonest - or even dangerous.
No - I'm not going to click on adverts like that - they could be leading to even more problems.

One kind of way it might be dishonest is an attempt to "rewind" or slow down an electricity meter. There might actually be ways of doing that - though that would depend on the meter. Trying to do anything with electricity wiring in the region of the meter is not a good idea unless for a legitimate purpose and carried out by qualified and authorised people. In the past we have had work done on gas and electricity meters, and sometime that has to be notified to the suppliers who will shut off everything until the work is completed.

Another way is that it might just be a "gadget" which doesn't work at all, but some scammer will take money off you to send you one, or send you the details of how to make them.

That kind of thing is just so dishonest - like another one I've seen which purported to give an endless supply of energy and cut one's bills. There may be people stupid enough to believe that they've made something equivalent to a perpetual motion machine, but people who are advertising their "products" are far more likely to be dishonest scammers out to trick some foolish people who will fall for their promotions.

Oh - and the scammers maybe only have to con even a few percent of the apparently gullible population to make a profit.

[kernelbogey]

Yes, it looks like a primitive electromagnet - so my first thought was that it would be an illegal device which might purport to affect an electricity meter (though presumably of the old and vanishing kind with a revolving wheel).

Re Pet's post: I was the original poster with a link to the Takt1 site. I can't imagine how the Forum could have prompted those adverts on the Guardian. (Will an administrator please respond?) However, I have noticed that if I ever click (as I have) on an advert for shoes, that company keeps bombarding me with their adverts on the Guardian - and even other shoe companies. I once followed the link from a Guardian advert for a leisure site, just to check opening times, and adverts for it kept turning up for weeks on my Guardian webpages.

I think in the case of the Heath Robinson Patent Electromagnet and Meter Scarifier, the space is almost certainly part of a package deal the Guardian made with a third party (advertising wholesaler, as it were) and they have no direct control over who advertises. Which is not to say that they shouldn't be concerned.

Although I am not a member of FB, don't buy from *m*z*n, and avoid G**gl* as far as is possible, the Guardian obviously has electronic links to all of them, and I have no idea what that might mean for the abllity of any of them trawling my search history on the Guardian site.

[Dave2002]

The adverts are probably served randomly, according to some algorithm - Google or otherwise - which works with a bank of adverts. The informative site holders try to get revenue by agreeing to have some adverts on their site, but they may have little control over what adverts are served out. Some of the adverts will be served out based on demographics - what Google (for example) knows about the viewer, while some may be general.

Some can be offensive and counter to the measage which the original site owner wants. For example, adverts for porn could appear next to serious articles - though most providers wouldn't do that too obviously - unless perhaps the algorithms detected that a user reading a particular site liked that kind of advert. It's a minefield - and should never have been allowed to get to this state.

[french frank]

What cookies are enabled on the Forum to prompt advertising at the mere mention of a product?

The only cookies allowed are those which affect forum membership: to keep you logged in if you request it, to show which threads you've read - can't think of others off hand but there may be some. We have never allowed any sort of advertising cookies. We did have Google analytics which allowed us to see which forums/threads were most popular, and which addresses (eg the BBC) were accessing the forum. But that was dropped a while back.

[Cockney Sparrow]

This sort of advert is common on local newspaper websites and no doubt many others. I'm surprised its a surprise. I don't give a moment's attention to them - I think they are scattergun adverts there to pick up..... well, the sort of unfortunate individual who would be ensnared by them.

I always uncheck the consents to cookies & analysis on websites. Often its easy - a few selections. Some make it almost impossible, with screeds of text pointing out the other holders of the info - so I just exit that website. In Firefox there is a particularly handy extension "Print Friendly & PDF" - make a PDF out of a webpage, with ability to delete photos, paras, etc. There I have to spend a minute or two deselecting "legitimate interest" from a lot of apparently interested parties. I reboot my PC about every 3 days so I keep one page of these open and then it applies thereon for the session.

I was advised by someone I trusted to know, that the more irrelevant and simplistic the advert that appeared in my web-browsing was, the less targeted it would be because I was blocking access to my preferences. Some organisations will pay for that advertising at a very cheap rate. To get a more targeted batch of addressees, more needs to be paid.

[Dave2002]

This sort of advert is common on local newspaper websites and no doubt many others. I'm surprised its a surprise. I don't give a moment's attention to them - I think they are scattergun adverts there to pick up..... well, the sort of unfortunate individual who would be ensnared by them.

The kind of adverts one gets on some lower end sites include:

“This woman makes £1000 a week working from home”,
“Smart ladies in <your area> are free on Tuesdays”,
“This man’s invention boosts his car mpg to 60mpg for just a few pence”,
“You too can invest in a profitable business for only £200”,
“You don’t need to pump iron to get a body like this <man> or <woman>”,
“People in <your area> are getting smiles like this”,
etc, etc.

Almost all are complete trash. You shouldn’t have to ignore them - they shouldn’t even exist!

[kernelbogey]

There was once:

They laughed when I sat down to play....

Possibly the origin of Bob Monkhouse's:

They laughed when I said I wanted to be a comedian:
They're not laughing now.

[Simon B]

On the specifics of these types of devices, should anyone be interested:

Most of them amount to... a capacitor. A single cheap and elementary electrical component found in just about every piece of domestic electrical equipment in one form or another.

This might sometimes yield a reduction in the current drawn by the devices in your home by compensating for the properties of some of them. Less often it might do the opposite. This is irrelevant either way as all of this effect is associated with "reactive power" for which UK domestic customers are not charged. Industrial customers often are but will need much more expensive and carefully managed mitigation measures to do anything about it. Anyone interested (approximately nobody at a guess) is invited to google "Power factor" or get themselves a degree in Electrical Engineering.

As is self-evident, the only ways to reduce your bills by 50% while remaining on the same tariff are fraud, defying fundamental laws of nature or turning off devices which account for 50% of your current usage.

On the more general matter of the adverts: The Guardian et al have no relationship with the advertisers. At best they may be able to exert weak and indirect influence via Google and the like.

[kernelbogey]

As is self-evident, the only ways to reduce your bills by 50% while remaining on the same tariff are fraud, defying fundamental laws of nature or turning off devices which account for 50% of your current usage....

Thanks Simon!

And it's claiming a 90% saving!

[kernelbogey]

The Guardian 'search' facllity is curated by G**gl*. Articles in the paper have buttons to facilitate 'sharing' of the article via F*c*b**k, Tw*tt*r, Inst*gr*m and other social media. I am wondering - without holding my breath - whether there is a reciprocal agreement with these outfits.

Furthermore, I have read that Mr Z*ck*rb*rg's Patent Data Hoover works on anyone visiting the internet, regardless of whether they have joined any of his pl*tf*rms ().

[french frank]

The Guardian 'search' facllity is curated by G**gl*. Articles in the paper have buttons to facilitate 'sharing' of the article via F*c*b**k, Tw*tt*r, Inst*gr*m and other social media. I am wondering - without holding my breath - whether there is a reciprocal agreement with these outfits.

Furthermore, I have read that Mr Z*ck*rb*rg's Patent Data Hoover works on anyone visiting the internet, regardless of whether they have joined any of his pl*tf*rms ().

In the days when I frequented said F*c*b**k, I 'shared' Guardian articles by copying the article's url rather than 'sharing' via Google or whatever. But in the days of Trump I used to check CNN's website regularly and there was always a series of clicklbait thumbnails beneath each story. Helpfully, CNN distinguished the ones that were their own news stories, and the other enticing titbits I ignored.

[Serial_Apologist]

I don't see the advert referred to in the OP as qualitatively different to many regularly shown on TV, such as the one in practically every ad break on Channel 5 in the mornings showing a split screen, in which a worker in a call centre answers the phone of a woman in the right portion of the scree who has just returned to find burglars have deen in her house - she says - to which the woman in the call centre says don't worry, one of our expert technicians will be along within 24 hours to fix you up with our burglar alarm. Such a thing just wouldn't happen in real life: the firm would need to know who the caller genuinely was and have all manner of information before proceeding. Yet this kind of repeat advertising deliberately targets the vulnerable, because flogging what must surely be questionable merchandise, to go by the advert, is what successful capitalism is all about. And another thing: exhibiting junk food adverts on prime time daytime TV should have been banned long ago.