SORRY IF YOU’VE BEEN SEEING FAKE ADS. WE’RE WORKING TO BLOCK THEM. Here’s the story.

You may have noticed over the last couple of weeks that some of your favorite websites — including PJ Media and Instapundit — have been plagued by rogue pop-up ads and redirects to spammy sites. Hundreds of millions of web sessions have been hijacked by a cyber-criminal group called the ScamCub, with millions of users being directed to gift card and adult website scams.

Typically, users click on a link at a trusted website and are instantly redirected to a site that displays a pop-up message announcing that the individual has won a gift card or other prize. The scammers do this by placing malicious code inside online ad units and hijacking U.S.-based iOS users to redirect them bogus sites. ScamClub then attempts to collect users’ personal and financial data.

“In this particular case,” ZDNet reported, “the code used by the ScamClub group hijacked a user’s browsing session from a legitimate site, where the ad was showing, and redirected victims through a long chain of temporary websites, a redirection chain that eventually ended up on a website pushing an adult-themed site or a gift card scam.” . . . While we haven’t yet completely resolved the issue, our ad folks do recommend that users clear their browsing history and cookies to try and limit the impact. Please know that we take these problems very seriously.

It’s happened to me several times. Spoiler: There’s no actual free iPhone.