Website Blocked Due to Trojan

[GerardSr]

PROBLEM: Constant & irritating notifications in Google Chrome (type Outbound) - yet successfully blocked by Malwarebytes 3.6.1.

Yet Malwarebytes & other security packages report no suspicious software or files that are the root cause; that is because security packages do not appear to check BROWSER EXTENSIONS (small packages of software that have somehow been added to your browser just like you may have added an "ADD Blocker").

Check your "BROWSER EXTENSIONS" & REMOVE ANY EXTENSION you do not recognize, do not understand or do not need:

Go to your Browser Settings; if you do not see "EXTENSIONS", see if there is another menu-pull-down & select it. Look for and select "EXTENSIONS".

In my case I removed API2.poperblocker.com & that solved my problem. Not all extensions are what they appear to be.

SOLUTION: Remove undesired extensions and RESTART YOUR BROWSER. 

[exile360]

Greetings and welcome,

Yes, this is absolutely a very common problem, and while Malwarebytes and other vendors do attempt to stay on top of these undesirable plugins/extensions, unfortunately they are often produced/altered/re-released so rapidly that keeping up with them can be difficult at times.

That said, there are a few additional tools you can try to both prevent as well as eliminate after the fact these annoying plugins to help alleviate the pain.

First, if you suspect something is up, go ahead and run a scan with ADWCleaner.  It's a standalone tool provided by Malwarebytes (thanks to a recent acquisition) that detects and eliminates many PUPs, including many undesirable/malicious browser plugins, that Malwarebytes 3 may not as it uses its own databases and heuristics separate from Malwarebytes 3.  It's completely free and provides full detection and remediation capabilities so you don't have to worry about paying for anything, though it is only a scanner and won't do anything to actually prevent such threats from making their way onto your system in the first place.

Sometimes these threats may also be detected/removed by Malwarebytes, ADWCleaner or some other PUP/malware removal tool, yet they may return whenever you launch Chrome again.  If you experience this behavior then following the instructions in this topic may solve the problem for you so it's definitely worth a try.

Second, for some additional prevention of these network nasties is the recently developed Malwarebytes browser extension beta.  While at first glance it appears very similar to the Web Protection feature already included in the Premium version of Malwarebytes 3, it actually offers additional protection in the form of behavior based blocking for many common web based threats like fake update scam pop-ups/ads as well as tech support scam sites which are frequently the source of these bogus plugins.  It also blocks things such as many ads as well as known tracking servers to help guard your privacy online, and it's completely free, at least for the time being while in beta (it may or may not be integrated as an additional component of Malwarebytes 3 in the future, however at this point its final fate has not been decided the last I heard from the Dev and Product teams from Malwarebytes).  It is also fully compatible with Malwarebytes 3 Premium and can actually enhance your experience by speeding up web blocks from the Web Protection component in Malwarebytes 3, however even if you don't run the Premium version of Malwarebytes, you may still add this extension to your browser to provide additional safety and speed (since it blocks a lot of undesirable content, resulting in faster page load times) as well as better privacy as long as you are using Chrome or any other Chromium based browser like SRWare Iron (my personal browser of choice) or Vivaldi, and it's also available for Mozilla Firefox.  Efforts are being made to port the extension to Microsoft Edge as well as Apple Safari, but so far neither of those versions has made it out to the public for testing so for the time being you'll have to use a Chromium browser or Firefox to be able to use the extension.  More info as well as download links for the extensions are available in the links below:

Chrome
Firefox

I highly recommend the browser extension to everyone who uses a compatible browser as I've experienced first-hand just how good it is at blocking those nasty tech support scam sites, including new ones that no one knows about yet because they came online too recently to be included in any databases thanks to the behavioral tech under the hood of the extension, making it an excellent addition to your security setup.

I hope you find this information useful, and also for reference, if anyone encounters an issue where they believe something undesirable has made it onto their system and none of the suggestions made in this topic have helped, or you'd just rather have expert guidance in dealing with the situation then you may read and follow the instructions found in this topic and then create a new thread including the requested logs and information in a new topic in our malware removal area by clicking here and one of our malware removal specialists will assist you in checking and cleaning your system as soon as one becomes available.  Their assistance is completely free for anyone, including individuals who are not using any of Malwarebytes' paid offerings.  Everyone who helps in that area has been vetted and verified to have completed extensive training in malware removal so you know that you are being helped by someone who knows what they're doing and has experience in dealing with malware and other threats.

Edited October 20, 2018 by exile360