People are very good at avoiding ads, especially those who know that they are ads. Usually, I see pop ads on less popular websites. And I also think people who are not very much internet literate visit those sites, increasing chances of clicking those ads. But it is very annoying for the users. Why don't the website owners opt for other strategies for advertising. Eventually, new users would click at most once or twice and they will start ignoring. In fact those sites are risking of not having the users visit their sites again.
So, why do websites still use it ? If you could briefly explain why were they actually started, that would be great.