1-8XX Pop-Up Alert Scam

If you are seeing a random “Call Toll Free Support 1-8xx” pop-up (or similar to the pictures below) and asking you to call a 1-8xx phone number to fix your computer, then your system maybe infected with adware - a potentially malicious program and/or an injected pop-up scam alert.

1-8xx is a malicious website which is used by cyber criminals to promote their remote support services. The 1-8xx bogus pop-up ad will state that you computer is infected and that you need to call their paid support service to remove the infection. This is a bogus claim, and an attempt to make you pay $300 or higher as well as get your credit card number for their “services”.

Other common symptoms include:

• Advertising banners are injected with the web pages that you are visiting.
• Random web page text is turned into hyperlinks.
• Browser popups appear which recommend fake updates or other software.
• Other unwanted adware programs might get installed without the user’s knowledge.

You should always pay attention when installing software because often, a software installer includes optional installs, such as this program that is causing the 1-8xx redirect. Be very careful what you agree to install.

Always opt for the custom installation and deselect anything that is not familiar, especially optional software that you never wanted to download and install in the first place. It goes without saying that you should not install software that you don’t trust.

The 1-800 pop-ups are caused by an ad-supported extension for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome, which is distributed through various monetization platforms during installation. The malicious browser extensions is typically added when you install another free software (video recording/streaming, download-managers or PDF creators) that had bundled into their installation this adware program.

When an adware extension is installed on your computer, whenever you will open a new tab within Internet Explorer, MS Edge, Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, etc. an ad from 1-8xx will pop-up. These are injected and must be REMOVED. They will not just go away.

-Source malwaretips.com