system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why are dodgy websites rigged to redirect you to arbitrary webpages depending on where you click? Are they just ads? Do the number of clicks benefit the website or its revenue somehow?
gpt
So it depends.  For legitimate ads then yes the website can be paid per click, so the more people it gets to click on the ads the more revenue it potentially makes.

For non legitimate sites or dodgy sites they could be sending you even more dodgy websites where malware or other malicious code can be injected, for example key loggers, activity trackers etc.

How does clicking on a link to a website give you a virus?  Well there are several methods but one of the simplest is that each time you open a webpage it downloads some data to help it run.  If it's a dodgy website then it can embeds malicious code in the portion that is downloaded.  This is a simple answer to a complicated topic but hope it gives an overview.