Ad Spam - "Press allow to continue" - How to remove

“Press allow to continue” is a phrase used by notification spammers in order to trick people to sign up for web push notifications. These “Press allow to continue” pages are usually just pop-up ads and they should be ignored. Interacting with them can result in notification ad spam.

Even when it looks like a site requires you to allow notifications, often it does not and you can just close the notification prompt. In fact, you can disable notification prompts in your browser settings to avoid them being hijacked by malicious sites.

About “Press allow to continue” sites:

Threat type	Adware, browser hijacker.
What do the “Press allow to continue” sites want?	They want to send ads to your browser as notifications.
Problems caused by notification hijackers	Unwanted and deceptive ads are annoying, malicious sites, age-inappropriate sites, and scams may be spread by the ads shown by notification hijackers.
How to stop unwanted ads and “Press allow to continue” sites	Disable notification prompts and block unwanted notifications, use anti-malware programs and ad-blockers, remove all malware and adware (Spyhunter for PC, Combo Cleaner for Mac, others).

Why do sites say “Press allow to continue”?

They want to show you ads

In most cases, “Press allow to continue” sites seek to get access to your browser’s notifications. They use this access to deliver ads straight to your browser. Any time your browser is open, these ads can show up. Even when you don’t have the site open in your browser, it can send notifications and have them be displayed on your screen.

The “allow” in “Press allow to continue” refers to the button in notification alerts displayed by web browsers.

Pressing “Block” blocks notifications from the site and prevents it from asking again. Closing the prompt simply allows the site to ask you again later. Pressing “Allow” makes your browser accept messages from the site and display them on your screen.

Often, the result is much like getting your email’s spam folder delivered to your screen. It is not fun and it can be dangerous, as some of the ads delivered by “Press allow to continue” sites lead to malicious websites. This problem is well-known and browser developers do try to curb it, but it is still very widespread.

They spread through pop-up ads

Notification spammers that use “Press allow to continue” pages tend to spread on sites that show pop-up ads. File hosting sites like File-upload.com, torrenting sites, free movie streaming sites, online video converters, other pirating sites, and monetized URL shorteners are those that advertise notification spammers the most often.

In addition, little blogs and other small, old sites do this when they get infected with malicious code that causes automatic redirects.

“Press allow to continue” is one example of how notification sites try to trick people. Other examples include “Click Allow to win a prize”, “Press allow to prove you’re not a robot”, “Press allow to download your file”, and other lies.

For people who are unfamiliar with notification hijackers, these can really trick them. On mobile, it can be nearly impossible to avoid these hijackers.

These ads can be dangerous

Notification spammers are sites that exist purely to advertise. And their ads are often really bad:

• They are sometimes deceptively designed, made to look like missed phone calls, messages, emails, and social media DMs and friend requests. This can trick people into clicking on an ad accidentally.
• Many of them lead to controversial, annoying, and even malicious sites.

Here on 2-Viruses, we’ve seen a lot of notification hijackers, such as World-Topnews.xyz, Install.notify-service.com, Robotcaptcha7.info, Nbryb.com, and many many others. These sites show some harmless sites,  but mostly, they promote the kinds of ads that get banned by mainstream, reputable sites:

• Online casinos and adult video and chatting sites that might be unfit for children.
• More adware.
• Get-rich-quick scams and iffy health supplements that are promoted by spoofed news articles (Mydailytips.net).
• Tech support scams that lead to scammers getting access to your computer and charging hundreds of dollars for bogus support.
• Fake giveaways that lead to subscription scams ($1 phone scam).

Sure, there are plenty of sites that use notifications legitimately, for example, to deliver relevant updates, like a new email in your inbox. These sites don’t try to lie to you or trick you into allowing notifications.

But the “Press allow to continue” sites have nothing useful to offer. They just make money off of showing ads.

How to deal with “Press allow to continue” ads

How to skip the “Press allow to continue” sites

You can disable notification prompts in your browser settings. Firefox already hides them by default. Chromium browsers can do that if you change your settings.

• Chrome – open Settings, scroll down to Site settings (under Privacy and security), click on Notifications.
• Edge (Chromium) – open Settings, click Site Permissions, Notifications.
• Firefox – open Settings, Privacy & Security, scroll down to Permissions, and click on Settings next to Notifications.
• Safari – in the Safari menu, choose Preferences, Websites, Notifications.

Many “Press allow to continue” sites automatically redirect to an advertised site when they detect that your browser doesn’t display notifications.

Some sites show fake or custom notification prompts, though.

How to skip Adf.ly

There’s one site that uses “Press allow to continue” pages that causes more issues than most: Adf.ly. This is a URL monetizer that allows people to make money off of people clicking download links. This one can be harder to skip.

You could use an ad skipper site or browser extension, but these tools can get outdated quickly, as Adf.ly gets updated. You can also add Adf.ly to your list of allowed notifications for the moment and then remove it immediately after.

How to stop unwanted ads

Sometimes, you do get infected with adware and it’s more complicated to deal with it than just change some settings in your browser.

You can use anti-malware programs to block malicious sites and ad blockers to stop all the “Press allow to continue” pop-ups.

If excessive ads do torment you regularly, scan your computer with antivirus tools like Spyhunter for Windows, Combo Cleaner for macOS, and others. If malicious or advertising software gets detected, remove it. Review your browser extensions and remove those that are unused or suspicious. Check all of your browser extensions, even those that you trust.

If you encounter a “Press allow to continue” site, don’t interact with it, just close it.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Remove unwanted browser extensions

TopRemoving Ad Spam - "Press allow to continue" from Chrome

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Google Chrome window. Select “Settings”.
  
• Click “Extensions” on the left menu bar.
• Go through the extensions list and remove programs you do not need, especially similar to Ad Spam - "Press allow to continue". Click on the trash bin icon next to Ad Spam - "Press allow to continue" or other add-ons you want to remove.
  
• Press on the “Remove” button on the Confirmation window.
  
• If unsure, you can disable them temporarily.
  
• Restart Chrome.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to Ad Spam - "Press allow to continue", reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on Chrome’s menu button (three horizontal lines) and select Settings.
  
• Scroll to the end of the page and click on the Reset settings button.
  
• Click on the Reset button on the confirmation box.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

TopRemoving Ad Spam - "Press allow to continue" from Safari (Mac OS X)

• Click on the Safari menu.
• Choose Preferences.
  
• Click on the Extensions Tab.
• Click on the Uninstall button near the Ad Spam - "Press allow to continue". Remove all other unknown or suspicious entries too. If you are not sure whether you need the extension or not, you can simply uncheck the Enable check-box to disable the extension temporarily.
  
• Restart Safari.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to Ad Spam - "Press allow to continue", reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on the Safari menu on the top left corner of the screen. Select Reset Safari.
  
• Select which options you want to reset (usually all of them come preselected) and click on the Reset button.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

How to remove Ad Spam - "Press allow to continue" from Microsoft Edge:Top

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Microsoft Edge window. Select “Extensions”.

• Go through the extensions list and remove programs you do not need, especially similar to Ad Spam - "Press allow to continue". Click on the "Remove" icon next to Ad Spam - "Press allow to continue" or other add-ons you want to remove.

• Press on the “Remove” button on the Confirmation window.

• If unsure, you can disable them temporarily.

• Restart Microsoft Edge.

TopRemoving Ad Spam - "Press allow to continue" from Firefox

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla window and select the “Add-ons” icon (or press Ctrl+Shift+A on your keyboard).
  
• Go through Extensions and Addons list, remove everything Ad Spam - "Press allow to continue" related and items you do not recognise. If you do not know the extension and it is not made by Mozilla, Google, Microsoft, Oracle or Adobe then you probably do not need it.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to Ad Spam - "Press allow to continue", reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla Firefox window. Click on the Help button.
  
• Choose Troubleshooting Information on the Help menu.
  
• Click on the Reset Firefox button.
  
• Click on the Reset Firefox button on the confirmation box. Mozilla Firefox will close and change the settings to default.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.