One of the most frequent problems is that of scam advertisements, the maximum expression of which is the sudden appearance of a web page or a popup that warns the user of having won! Usually, this page is festive, with a variable message which can be: “Congratulations, you have won!“or”You have been selected“or”Congratulations, you are the millionth visitor“,”you won an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy“and so on. The popup is often also personalized and even if it does not write our name, it can understand where we are connected, with which internet provider (it may be that the message is about a loyalty bonus to Fastweb customers), with what type of computer or smartphone, with which browser and from which search engine (in the figure above there is a clearly fake prize from Google). There may also be fake comments at the bottom that try to make the page look like of the winnings as real. The worst part is that they often have a button to press to redeem the prize that can lead to participate in a survey, to fill in personal data or to download a file that is always malware.Before figuring out if you can remove this type of message, it’s important to note that it always comes, without a shadow of a doubt and without exception, of a scam. There is no possibility that a website can give us something by pure chance just for clicking a link. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t and in this case it isn’t one hundred percent.
What are “Congratulations you won!” Popups?
Searching on the internet solutions to avoid running into this message, you could find guides and tips on how to remove these pop-ups by downloading programs that if they are not scams, we are not far away. In fact, in most cases the appearance of pop-ups “You won“in your phone or computer browser it is not related to the presence of malware. There is, therefore, no problem with the phone or with the web browser, the problem, however, is the web page or the link that was clicked. Inside that site that was being viewed, there was some code that led to the new page with the scam message. It is the typical “redirection“, which is the automatic loading of another page from the original one.
This type of scam appears mainly from smartphones, especially from iPhones, but it also happens in the web browser of a Windows PC or Mac. The strange thing is that, sometimes, it also appears when opening popular sites such as Repubblica, such as Corriere or Gazzetta.
But how did a fake message like that come when you open a legitimate website like that of a newspaper or blog?
It is simply generated by bad advertising on the site, usually linked to gambling or dating sites. The announcement inside the site contains JavaScript code that automatically redirects from the current web page to a new web page which contains a scam popup message. No site owner might want such a garbage on their site and not even serious internet advertising dealers, but it may happen that some evildoer may be able to hide harmful advertisements, perhaps appearing every 100 visits so as not to catch the eye.
These same ads are not displayed by all users who view the Web page, but be targeted only to a certain type of user (perhaps to those who often go to betting and gaming sites). When it happened, several months ago, even on How2do.org, I noticed it by pure chance after having opened a hundred pages simultaneously to test, otherwise it may be that I would not even have noticed. Of course, I requested the removal of these ads and they should no longer appear to anyone.
How to Delete “You Won” Ads
Now that we know what they are generated from, we can well guess that removing them completely is practically impossible. The problem is with the website you visit and its code, so it cannot be resolved, only the owner of the site can do it.
Theoretically, however, this should not happen very often, unless you click random links on Facebook or other social networks. In any case, every time this popup appears, close it immediately by going back, without absolutely clicking any button or link inside it. Sometimes the “back” button of the browser may not be enough (because going back you go back to the site with the redirect code) and you will have to close and end the tab. Be careful also not to be fooled by fake closing buttons and, in the case of particularly persistent pages, closing the browser may become the only solution.
If you are experiencing this type of redirect on a website that you are familiar with and has always been clean, you could contact the site owner and report the problem.
Blocking advertisements could be the most obvious solution, but then, there would be other problems, since the blocks could also interrupt navigation on some sites and prevent their correct functioning.
The best thing is, of course, that of ignore these scam pages when they suddenly appear, both those in which it is said that we have won, both those that say that our PC is infected, both those that say that to see a certain video you need to download a plugin or register on the site, both those that ask to activate the notifications and etc.
In case the Congratulations pop-up comes up often, then there may also be a problem on the PC or phone.
On PC, it can be easily solved by doing an antimalware scan with MalwareBytes and an adware scan with ADWCleaner, one of the best tools to remove malware hijackers that make site redirects.
On Android smartphones it is possible, if you are not able on your own, to use an antivirus app to remove malicious apps.
On iPhone, Android and PC it can be useful to empty the cache of Safari or Chrome browsers, to remove harmful cookies or other codes that can lead to the frequent appearance of advertising pop-ups.
Finally, it is important to know how to block automatic pop-ups and redirects on Chrome and Firefox.
READ ALSO: If a site gives an error or opens a different page, solutions to “browser hijacking”