Fake Antivirus Update - How to remove

Fake Antivirus Update for Windows 10 is a predatory and dishonest marketing tactic for dubious PC optimizers. It’s used to trick people to install stuff they don’t want, like PC Cleaner Pro, by showing them what looks like an official Windows message (it’s not). Fake Antivirus Update is m is adjacent to various adware sites and should not be trusted.

The site that shows the Fake Antivirus Update is not affiliated with Microsoft and should not be trusted:

Classification	Scam, scareware, trojan.
Dangers of falling for Fake Antivirus Update	Downloading unsafe and expensive programs, seeing more malicious ads.
Where the ad comes from	Redirect sites and notification spammers, adware viruses.
Stop the Fake Antivirus Update pop-ups	Block malicious websites, install security updates, remove malware (manually or with SpyHunter, other anti-malware programs).

Why is Fake Antivirus Update bad?

Fake Antivirus Update webpage mimics the look of a Windows security settings page, complete with a pop-up that looks straight out of Windows 10. People who see it can very easily be fooled into thinking that they’re looking at the real Windows system settings. So, whatever this Fake Antivirus Update offers them to download, they may trust it, believing that it’s endorsed by Microsoft. This is extremely shady, manipulative, and dishonest. People don’t deserve to be tricked like this.

Here’s the main text of Fake Antivirus Update:

Your PC may be infected by viruses. An urgent update is recommended for PC Cleaner to protect the system from viruses and prevent further damage to the system in your personal data, such as the loss of applications, photos or other files.

The pop-up that appears after a few seconds just says:

Antivirus Update is prepared

Click the button below to download update

Fake Antivirus Update doesn’t outright claim that your computer is infected, unlike many other scam sites, such as Windows Security has been Compromised, Windows Support Alert, and the 5 viruses pop-ups,. But that doesn’t make this okay. It’s an obviously deliberate copy of Windows settings, it’s clearly meant to make people trust the page. Windows updates are extremely important for security and this fake update is very scummy in how it steals people’s trust. A similar “you may have viruses” type of ad was used by TotalAV.

Know that fake windows security warnings are pretty common online. They are used by tech support scammers to sell bogus security plans. One of the clearest signs of them and Fake Antivirus Update being fake is the URL of the warning: it never is the official one. Scammers use tricks to make their URLs look legit, so here's a good article on how to spot them. Also, your computer won’t warn you about your security in your browser; it will warn you on your desktop.

If you encounter Fake Antivirus Update, just ignore it and don’t download or agree to anything. Avoid even clicking your mouse anywhere on the page, as it might be programmed to trigger who-knows-what. Just close the browser tab. If you can’t get out of the browser, open Task manager by pressing the Ctrl, Shift, and Esc buttons together and then quit your browser.

Where is Fake Antivirus Update from?

I saw Fake Antivirus Update on Protectyourpc-al.club. This URL belongs to a large family of URLs with misleading messages: fake gift card and phone giveaways, fake instant cash loans, etc.

I suspect that many of the victims of this Fake Antivirus Update prompt have their computer infected with adware. Or that they frequent pirating sites, as those are usually full of malicious ads. Malicious ads, notification spammers, online ad redirects, and similar dangerous sites promote Fake Antivirus Update, along with other scams. Does your browser receive unwanted pop-ups from sites like Message-alert.info? Then visit this article on how to block them.

It looks like Fake Antivirus Update may be used to sometimes advertise Onesafe software. That’s not great. For example, take a look at these VirusTotal pages of their Drive Manager and PC Cleaner. Looking at web analytics, it looks like the Onesafe website gets a good chunk of its traffic from adware sites and shady redirects, so it’s not surprising that it would use misleading ads like Fake Antivirus Update.

How to stop Fake Antivirus Update

One thing you can do to avoid Fake Antivirus Update and other misleading ads is to block malicious URLs. Some antivirus and anti-malware programs have web security tools and can block suspected malicious sites from loading on your computer. This isn’t 100% effective, but it’s a good way to avoid problems online.

You may also want to make sure that:

• you have no malware on your PC (if needed, scan it with SpyHunter or another good program),
• there are no suspicious browser extensions installed on your browser,
• you have installed the newest security updates for your operating system, browser, media player, PDF reader, and other programs,
• you’re careful on sites that show lots of aggressive ads and do not trust the pop-ups there,
• if you downloaded something from Fake Antivirus Update, delete it or uninstall it.

Automatic Malware removal tools

How to remove Fake Antivirus Update using Windows Control Panel

Many hijackers and adware like Fake Antivirus Update install some of their components as regular Windows programs as well as additional software. This part of malware can be uninstalled from the Control Panel. To access it, do the following.

• Start→Control Panel (older Windows) or press Windows Key→Search and enter Control Panel and then press Enter (Windows 8, Windows 10).
• Choose Uninstall Program (if you don't see it, click in the upper right next to "View by" and select Category).
• Go through the list of programs and select entries related to Fake Antivirus Update . You can click on "Name" or "Installed On" to reorder your programs and make Fake Antivirus Update easier to find.
• Click the Uninstall button. If you're asked if you really want to remove the program, click Yes.
• In many cases anti-malware programs are better at detecting related parasites, thus I recommend installing Spyhunter to identify other programs that might be a part of this infection.