I’m sure we’re all familiar with those download sites riddled with ads that put up their own fake ‘Download’ buttons, but this one takes the cake.
I went to download something, clicked on the one I wanted in the list of packages, it did a ‘Your download will start in…’ countdown, and then…no download started. The area I had just clicked on did get replaced by a big box with one of those fake download ads, though. The package I’d clicked on had been scrolled down the page to below this box, and I clicked on it again, and this time I got a popup window with a Download button…that said ‘Ad’ in the title bar.
I finally noticed that at the bottom of the page there was a “Do you accept this site’s cookies…” prompt and an OK button. Fair enough, they might want me to agree to that before allowing downloads, but that bar hadn’t appeared until after I’d clicked to start the download. And now, trying to navigate to it, I couldn’t actually press it because there was another partially-transparent fake Download ad layered on top of that prompt, where you might inadvertently click on the fake ad part depending on your window size.
After finding the teeny little ‘X’ to dismiss that ad, and agreeing to the prompt, and re-clicking the package again, I finally actually got the download I wanted.
I know these sites have to sustain themselves somehow, but ad fakery to this degree ought to be illegal.