“You’ve Made The 5-billionth Search” Scam
“You’ve Made The 5-billionth Search”, you are the winner of a hidden prize. Is it real? Well, “You’ve Made The 5-billionth Search” is a scam message generated by various suspicious websites that have nothing to do with Google or its search engine. Websites presenting this fake message can be popping up on your web browser as a result of a potentially unwanted program such as adware, browser hijacker/extension that is currently residing on the computer system. These sorts of programs are ad-supported and the most probable infection vector with such a program is through other third-party apps installers. Usually, free programs are set to deliver and install extra undesired apps. They vary from a typical media player, torrent downloader program, screen recorder to counterfeit software updates, and other hijackers.
"You've Made The 5-billionth Search" Scam Summary
| Name | “You’ve Made The 5-billionth Search” Gift Reward Scam |
| Type | Adware/Survey Scam |
| Short Description | Tricks victims into filling out fake surveys with the main purpose of getting them to enter their personal details in those surveys. |
| Symptoms | You start to receive pop-ups and browser redirects to fake web pages that claim that you have been lucky enough to made the 5-billionth search which makes you a winner of a hidden reward. First you need to complete a survey. |
| Distribution Method | Bundled downloads. Web pages which may advertise it. |
| Detection Tool |
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User Experience | Join Our Forum to Discuss "You've Made The 5-billionth Search" Scam. |
“You’ve Made The 5-billionth Search” – Real or Fake Message?
The “You’ve Made The 5-billionth Search” is definitely a scam message that is one of the Google Rewards Program scam series. It is notifying users about their lucky chance to participate in a short survey and win a hidden present. To sound more legitimate, it is stating the name of the previous 5-billionth search winner.
However, what you should know about these kinds of surveys is that they are typically related to personal information theft. Including names, e-mail addresses, and sensitive data like passwords, financial credentials, and so on.
The scam message “You’ve Made The 5-billionth Search” appears like the following:
Here is the text displayed by this online scam:
You’ve made the 5-billionth search.
You were evaluated as the winner of today’s 5-billionth search query a few minutes ago by our system!
Our last winner was Brad Jenkins from Brussels, Belgium, who won a Samsung KU6179 Ultra HD TV on 14.05.2018 with his 5-billionth Search.
We are proud to announce that you are our next winner.
Every time the 5-billionth search is reached, we proclaim a winner and reset the counter.
You may choose one of three hidden prizes below. In addition, you will be entered in our Hall of Fame and receive a winner’s certificate.
Behind every blue cup is a prize. Click on a prize cup to uncover it.
For technical reasons, we are not allowed to keep your invitation open for more than 15 minutes. Choose one of the prizes below and follow the instructions on your screen.
Each of the three “Choose” buttons opens a pop-up window with a short description of the unlocked award. Awards vary from gift cards for popular brands to the latest iPhone model. In order to get it, however, users should accept to participate in a quiz. This is a very cunning tactic to get inexperienced users to become euphoric and fast-click their way and eventually fill up their sensitive credentials, thinking that by doing this they will claim the prize.
Users who initiate the beginning of the given survey might be required to provide personal information, such as:
- Their name.
- Their e-mail address.
- Credit card kind.
- Physical address.
- Language and region.
- Telephone number.
Privacy violations make us more vulnerable to cybercrime attacks. And what we know from the recent news is that security researchers have observed more than 15 billion user credentials for sale on underground forums. So you need to change your passwords, activate two-factor authentication wherever it is possible, and eventually contact your bank for a credit card password reset.
The main reason why users start seeing deceptive web pages that generate “You’ve Made The 5-billionth Search” pop-up scam in their web browser is an unnoticed installation of a PUP (potentially unwanted program) on the operating system – macOS or Windows. These programs are lurking on the web by being introduced as various “useful” applications, extras added to software installers, software updates, cracks, and so on. These distribution tactics often tend to trick users into giving permission for the installation of PUPs. However, users stay unaware of this process until they start noticing some strange issues during their browsing.
What is an online scam?
Online scams are designed to lie to you and trick you into doing some action, be it giving them personal information they can use or clicking somewhere so they can gain benefits from that. Online scams may endanger computer systems or try to work with social engineering and stress users into acting quickly without giving it much thought. That is how the majority of them work and the texts and visuals behind them are constructed in order to manipulate users on a psychological level so that they can believe what the scams say.
How to Get Rid Of “You’ve Made The 5-billionth Search” Scam
In order to remove the fake “You’ve Made The 5-billionth Search” notification you first need to reset browser settings. You can see how to reset to default browser settings in the instructions below. In addition, you need to make sure that your PC is clean from potentially undesired/malicious programs. To totally clean your computer, we advise you to follow all the steps from our removal guide.
The tools we suggest help for your maximum online security. As experts who are investigating malware attacks on a daily basis, we ensure you that properly protecting your device is crucial. Act now, don’t be sorry later.
Gergana Ivanova
Gergana has a bachelor's degree in Marketing. She has been with the STF team for five years, researching malware, reporting on the latest computer infections, and following digital marketing trends.
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- Guide 1: How to Remove "You've Made The 5-billionth Search" Scam from Windows.
- Guide 2: Get rid of "You've Made The 5-billionth Search" Scam from Mac OS X.
- Guide 3: Remove "You've Made The 5-billionth Search" Scam from Google Chrome.
- Guide 4: Erase "You've Made The 5-billionth Search" Scam from Mozilla Firefox.
- Guide 5: Uninstall "You've Made The 5-billionth Search" Scam from Microsoft Edge.
- Guide 6: Remove "You've Made The 5-billionth Search" Scam from Safari.
- Guide 7: Eliminate "You've Made The 5-billionth Search" Scam from Internet Explorer.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
How to Remove "You've Made The 5-billionth Search" Scam from Windows.
Step 1: Boot Your PC In Safe Mode to isolate and remove "You've Made The 5-billionth Search" Scam
Step 2: Uninstall "You've Made The 5-billionth Search" Scam and related software from Windows
Here is a method in few easy steps that should be able to uninstall most programs. No matter if you are using Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista or XP, those steps will get the job done. Dragging the program or its folder to the recycle bin can be a very bad decision. If you do that, bits and pieces of the program are left behind, and that can lead to unstable work of your PC, errors with the file type associations and other unpleasant activities. The proper way to get a program off your computer is to Uninstall it. To do that:
Follow the instructions above and you will successfully uninstall most programs.
Step 3: Clean any registries, created by "You've Made The 5-billionth Search" Scam on your computer.
The usually targeted registries of Windows machines are the following:
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
You can access them by opening the Windows registry editor and deleting any values, created by "You've Made The 5-billionth Search" Scam there. This can happen by following the steps underneath:
Tip: To find a virus-created value, you can right-click on it and click "Modify" to see which file it is set to run. If this is the virus file location, remove the value.
Before starting "Step 4", please boot back into Normal mode, in case you are currently in Safe Mode.
This will enable you to install and use SpyHunter 5 successfully.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Get rid of "You've Made The 5-billionth Search" Scam from Mac OS X.
Step 1: Uninstall "You've Made The 5-billionth Search" Scam and remove related files and objects
1. Hit the ⇧+⌘+U keys to open Utilities. Another way is to click on “Go” and then click “Utilities”, like the image below shows:
- Go to Finder.
- In the search bar type the name of the app that you want to remove.
- Above the search bar change the two drop down menus to “System Files” and “Are Included” so that you can see all of the files associated with the application you want to remove. Bear in mind that some of the files may not be related to the app so be very careful which files you delete.
- If all of the files are related, hold the ⌘+A buttons to select them and then drive them to “Trash”.
In case you cannot remove "You've Made The 5-billionth Search" Scam via Step 1 above:
In case you cannot find the virus files and objects in your Applications or other places we have shown above, you can manually look for them in the Libraries of your Mac. But before doing this, please read the disclaimer below:
You can repeat the same procedure with the following other Library directories:
→ ~/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchDaemons
Tip: ~ is there on purpose, because it leads to more LaunchAgents.
Step 2: Scan for and remove "You've Made The 5-billionth Search" Scam files from your Mac
When you are facing problems on your Mac as a result of unwanted scripts and programs such as "You've Made The 5-billionth Search" Scam, the recommended way of eliminating the threat is by using an anti-malware program. SpyHunter for Mac offers advanced security features along with other modules that will improve your Mac’s security and protect it in the future.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Remove "You've Made The 5-billionth Search" Scam from Google Chrome.
Step 1: Start Google Chrome and open the drop menu
Step 2: Move the cursor over "Tools" and then from the extended menu choose "Extensions"
Step 3: From the opened "Extensions" menu locate the unwanted extension and click on its "Remove" button.
Step 4: After the extension is removed, restart Google Chrome by closing it from the red "X" button at the top right corner and start it again.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Erase "You've Made The 5-billionth Search" Scam from Mozilla Firefox.
Step 1: Start Mozilla Firefox. Open the menu window
Step 2: Select the "Add-ons" icon from the menu.
Step 3: Select the unwanted extension and click "Remove"
Step 4: After the extension is removed, restart Mozilla Firefox by closing it from the red "X" button at the top right corner and start it again.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Uninstall "You've Made The 5-billionth Search" Scam from Microsoft Edge.
Step 1: Start Edge browser.
Step 2: Open the drop menu by clicking on the icon at the top right corner.
Step 3: From the drop menu select "Extensions".
Step 4: Choose the suspected malicious extension you want to remove and then click on the gear icon.
Step 5: Remove the malicious extension by scrolling down and then clicking on Uninstall.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Remove "You've Made The 5-billionth Search" Scam from Safari.
Step 1: Start the Safari app.
Step 2: After hovering your mouse cursor to the top of the screen, click on the Safari text to open its drop down menu.
Step 3: From the menu, click on "Preferences".
Step 4: After that, select the 'Extensions' Tab.
Step 5: Click once on the extension you want to remove.
Step 6: Click 'Uninstall'.
A pop-up window will appear asking for confirmation to uninstall the extension. Select 'Uninstall' again, and the "You've Made The 5-billionth Search" Scam will be removed.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Eliminate "You've Made The 5-billionth Search" Scam from Internet Explorer.
Step 1: Start Internet Explorer.
Step 2: Click on the gear icon labeled 'Tools' to open the drop menu and select 'Manage Add-ons'
Step 3: In the 'Manage Add-ons' window.
Step 4: Select the extension you want to remove and then click 'Disable'. A pop-up window will appear to inform you that you are about to disable the selected extension, and some more add-ons might be disabled as well. Leave all the boxes checked, and click 'Disable'.
Step 5: After the unwanted extension has been removed, restart Internet Explorer by closing it from the red 'X' button located at the top right corner and start it again.
