I have something seriously wrong with my computer. Every time I use Internet Explorer to surf the Internet, I can see many unwanted pop-ups and one of them that comes frequently is from AlertTechHelp.com which keeps saying my computer is at risk and I need to call a number to get tech support. I have Norton installed on my PC and it doesn’t show me any viruses at all. Is it a scam? Or do I really need to call this number and let someone I don’t know to fix my PC? I am confused now. Is there anyone had the same issue before? Please help.
If your browser keeps redirecting you to AlertTechHelp.com and displaying endless ads, then your system must have been infected with adware or some kind of browser hijacking malware. Adware is the abbreviation for advertising-supported software which may seem as a regular program, but in reality it performs suspicious operations and tries to promote various commercial websites once it is installed. This application aims to bother computer users by showing them various ads which can be in different forms such as in-text, pop-up, pop-under, contextual and banner advertisements, and with all kinds of contents. It can affect Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome. AlertTechHelp.com pop-up mainly displays fake alert telling users that their system have been seriously attacked by some threats, then it pushes innocent uses to call a number to get support which turns out to be a telephone support scam. The purpose of this pop-up is to deceive the user into calling the support number listed on the webpage, where the user will be sold various PC protection products at a high subscription rate. So you had better stay away from the pop-up and don’t call the number in any cases.
Every single day, innocent people are tricked into spending hundreds of dollars on non-existent computer problems because of support scam. Although AlertTechHelp.com pop-up message may keep appearing on your web browser and interrupt your browsing activities, you must know that there are no other viruses on your computer and calling the support number is unnecessary. The bad guys always ask you to provide personal information or sensitive account information (such as passwords or credit card numbers) via email and then steal your information. Understand that these pop-ups are not caused by any viruses, and your computer has not been affected. This is a “hijacker” which is just a JavaScript pop-up, and is limited to your web browser. Technically speaking, those pop-ups are not malicious but they can be very annoying. And they could probably slow down your PC performance or disconnect your Internet. In a word, AlertTechHelp.com pop-up belongs to a scam which is straightforward: pretend to be calling from Microsoft, gain remote control of the machine, trick the victim with fake error reports and collect the money. Once it is displayed on your system, you have to remove it permanently as soon as possible.
If you open your browser window (includes IE, Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome etc.) and notice immediately that your home page has been changed to a page you do not recognize, then your browser may have been hijacked by adware. For this type of adware, it can keep giving you AlertTechHelp.com pop-up ads. Other malicious activities can be shown on your computer after hijacked are listed below:
1. It can not only change your web pages, but also alter other settings to add toolbars, pop-up advertisements, and bookmarks that you did not create.
2. It can modify the homepage settings of your web browser, more commonly by reducing your internet security options. And the worse thing is it prevents you from changing them back.
3. New toolbars or Favorites are installed that give you icons and links to web pages that you don’t want.
4. It may block you from visiting certain website you’d like to visit and show an error page instead.
5. It will display constant pop-up ads, sometimes in such large amounts that you are not able to close neither the ads nor the browser.
AlertTechHelp.com pop up hijacks your browser to redirect your web search results and changes the homepage and browser settings. To completely uninstall it from an infected system, manual removal is the first choice because sometimes antivirus software cannot pick up the exact computer threat timely or remove it permanently. Now most browser hijackers are quite similar to spyware and adware threats and therefore cannot be removed with the help of popular antivirus products. Users can follow the manual guide here to get rid of this browser hijacker completely.
1. Clear all the cookies of your affected browsers.
Since this tricky hijacker virus has the ability to use cookies for tracing and tracking the internet activity of users, it is suggested users delete all the cookies before a complete removal.
Google Chrome:
Click on the “Tools” menu and click the “Clear browsing data” button.
Select “Delete cookies and other site data” to delete all cookies from the list.
Internet Explorer:
Open Internet explorer window
Click the “Tools” button
Point to “safety” and then click “delete browsing history”
Tick the “cookies” box, then click “delete”
Mozilla Firefox:
Click on Tools, then Options, select Privacy
Click “Remove individual cookies”
In the Cookies panel, click on “Show Cookies”
To remove a single cookie click on the entry in the list and click on the “Remove Cookie”
To remove all cookies click on the “Remove All Cookies” button
2. End the malicious process from Task Manager.
Once AlertTechHelp.com adware is installed, computer user may notice that CPU usage randomly jumps to 100 percent. At any time Windows always has many running processes. A process is an individual task that the computer runs. In general, the more processes, the more work the computer has to do and the slower it will run. If your system’s CPU spike is constant and remain at a constant 90-95%, users should check from Task Manager and see if there is a suspicious process occupying the system resources and then end it immediately.
(The name of the virus process can be random.)
Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to quickly bring up Task Manager Window：
3. Show hidden files and folders.
Open Folder Options by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking Appearance and Personalization, and then clicking Folder Options.
Click the View tab.
Under Advanced settings, click Show hidden files and folders, uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) and then click OK.
4. Remove all the malicious files related to AlertTechHelp.com ads hijacker manually.
%AppData%Local[random].exe
C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\*.exe
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main StartPage
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
AlertTechHelp.com is a fake message caused by an adware and it usually enters users’ computers without any permission and knowledge. The message claims that your system is serious infected and you need to call a tech support (sometimes claiming to be Apple or Microsoft) to get it fixed. But don’t be tricked by that for this is just a common phone scam. If you actually call the number, the criminals who create this fake pop up will ask you to install software giving them remote control over your computer and then steal your personal information. Considering that AlertTechHelp.com pop-up can provide nothing good and cause tons of problems on a computer, you had better get rid of it without any hesitation.
Note: If you are not a computer expert and have no idea how to perform the removal, please contact experts from YooCare Online Tech Support for further help. This application provides no uninstall feature and hides from the user in order to obstruct its removal as much as possible so you had better remove Happy2Save manually instead.
Published by on May 17, 2015 1:12 am, last updated on June 19, 2016 2:37 am
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