Tumbleweed Plays the Sims

I’m sure you all know the new adf*y page which (i’m pretty sure) adf*y skipper can’t skip anymore, the one where it asks to send notifications and won’t let you proceed until you let them send notifications.

I accidentally just allowed one of these notifications (not at home and using a janky mouse on a pillow, keeps going crazy), so I immediately headed to my chrome settings to get rid of it.

I’m going through blocking everything before I delete it (just so I feel better about it truly being gone lol) and I see this:

I’m thinking, what the hell is a payment handler and why is it set to allow?? That super doesn’t sound good… And after some googling I find yeah, it’s probably not great.

So, what’s a payment handler? Basically, it’s when google saves your payment details to autofill later on when you’re making an online purchase. So that includes your credit card, debit card, paypal, ect, details. (Source - askcybersecurity.com) Now these are usually fine on legitimate sites but this site specifically:

You just google ‘christianivory.pro’ and every result is how to get rid of it because it’s malware. (That picture was after I cleared the cookies it had already stored, no idea what they were)

(btw, I wouldn’t recommend clicking on any of these since malware/viruses are often hidden behind fake anti-malware ads/programs)

Luckily I don’t keep any of my payment details saved so I’m pretty sure I’m fine after deleting it and MalwareBytes or Windows Defender hasn’t detected anything. I can’t say for sure what it would have done if I hadn’t of deleted it, it seems to mostly be notification spam but the fact that it was trying to access my payment methods doesn’t sound all that great. Even if having the payment methods allowed doesn’t do shit, I’ve had money stolen from me through an adf*y virus before (source - my tumblr)

Like I said, I’m pretty sure I got lucky because I don’t save those things but I’m going to offer a hypothetical situation which could be extremely likely in our community specifically;

Lets say I’m a 14 year old simmer who uses their parents computer to play the sims. I’ve recently discovered custom content and my favourite creator uses adf*y, but since I’m young and new to the community I have no idea that adf*y can be bad and I trust this creator so they would never link me to anything that could harm my computer… right? So I accept that adf*y notification and don’t think anything of it, I get the CC I really like and I’m happy. But that notification I just accepted has saved my parents credit card details. I’m sure you can guess where the rest of this situation goes.

So this is me, creator to creator, telling you need to stop. I know finding a source of income can be awful right now, but your source of income could be coming at the expense of someone else who did not agree to this.

If you think your content is worth a price then I urge you to start a Patreon, Ko-Fi or even a paypal because these are platforms that are safe for both parties and are OPTIONAL. Adf*y is not optional for the downloader.

Stop putting the younger and more susceptible people in our community at risk. As creators it is likely that we gain a larger following so stop taking advantage of that. Especially if you’re older or are someone who preaches the safety of our younger members in this space, step up and actually practice what you fucking preach instead of just saying it for likes and reblogs.

I am genuinely sick of this, I’ve been in this community for over half a goddamn decade now and I’ve posted before about adf*y, as have dozens of other people and this shit is STILL happening.

I am so close to wiping my old laptop and recording myself going through creators adf*y links and downloading as many malicious things as I can JUST to prove to people that adf*y is not safe. And no, I wouldn’t blur out blog names, I would specifically be calling people out on their shit. This isn’t just petty simblr drama, this can actually affect peoples lives.

TL:DR;

It’s Adf*y?? We all know it’s bad, stop using it for the sake of our community members!?? I’m gonna start calling people out for pretty soon?? STOP PISSING WHERE YOU EAT

how to remove notifications on chrome:

Checking/removing payment methods on chrome:

I’m sure there are some of you who will take issue with my post for whatever reason so:

1. Don’t comment saying that we should just keep downloading however many adfl*y skippers or avoidant addons or be careful about what we click, that is not the point of this post. We shouldn’t HAVE to do that just to get cc, and new/young community members DON’T KNOW THIS.

2. SimGuruDrake explicitly saying creators cannot use permanent paywalls

source (sims forums)

video on adf*y (old but still relevant info)

fun fact: pqsim4′s download links link you DIRECTLY to malicious adware, ransomware, which contain NSFW imagery (porn), as well as riskware, viruses and malware.

please reblog so people are aware of this!!

I’m sick to death of people linking LITERAL VIRUSES with their downloads! what the FUCK is wrong with y’all!

can we get a list going of creators who are still doing this?

pqsim4 & loree-sims4 have earned my frustration today but there are so many more.