Equames.com ads (spam) - Free Instructions

What is Equames.com ads?

Equames.com redirects users to ad pages

Users see the Equames.com URL just before they get redirected to an ad

Equames.com is a redirect virus that redirects users to dangerous pages that promote malicious browser extensions, scam surveys, adult sites, fake software updates, and potentially unwanted programs.^[1] If users experience this behavior often, this means that they most likely are infected with a PUP that performs such tasks in the background without their knowledge.

If adware is causing such issues, people can also experience an increased amount of pop-up ads, banners, and other types of commercial content. People should be careful with this program, and immediately exit pages that it redirects to. In this article, we will talk more about how to identify inline scams and how to identify dangerous pages.

The way adware works is by lurking in the background of the machine and initiating unwanted behavior. The purpose of developing such programs is for the creators to generate revenue. Every redirect, every ad you click on makes them money. Generally, PPC advertising^[2] is a great way for website owners to monetize their page and cover the costs, but in the past years, this function is abused more often by shady individuals.

Equames.com can lead to pages that try to trick users into providing their data or downloading PUPs

How to stop redirects?

It would be best if you used professional security software like SpyHunter 5Combo Cleaner or Malwarebytes for this. It can scan your system for viruses and eliminate them with all the related files. It can also prevent infections in the future by warning you about suspicious programs.

If you want to proceed with manual removal, you can find the instructions for Windows and Mac below. Keep in mind that PUAs can be disguised as legitimate apps and it can be difficult to identify them, so we strongly suggest using anti-malware tools so you would not delete the wrong files by accident.

Instructions for Windows 10/8 machines:

1. Enter Control Panel into Windows search box and hit Enter or click on the search result.
2. Under Programs, select Uninstall a program.
3. From the list, find the entry of the suspicious program.
4. Right-click on the application and select Uninstall.
5. If User Account Control shows up, click Yes.
6. Wait till uninstallation process is complete and click OK.

Windows 7/XP:

1. Click on Windows Start > Control Panel located on the right pane (if you are Windows XP user, click on Add/Remove Programs).
2. In Control Panel, select Programs > Uninstall a program.
3. Pick the unwanted application by clicking on it once.
4. At the top, click Uninstall/Change.
5. In the confirmation prompt, pick Yes.
6. Click OK once the removal process is finished.

Mac:

1. From the menu bar, select Go > Applications.
2. In the Applications folder, look for all related entries.
3. Click on the app and drag it to Trash (or right-click and pick Move to Trash)

To fully remove an unwanted app, you need to access Application Support, LaunchAgents, and LaunchDaemons folders and delete relevant files:

1. Select Go > Go to Folder.
2. Enter /Library/Application Support and click Go or press Enter.
3. In the Application Support folder, look for any dubious entries and then delete them.
4. Now enter /Library/LaunchAgents and /Library/LaunchDaemons folders the same way and terminate all the related .plist files.

Take care of your browser

After scanning your machine for PUPs and malware, you should make sure there is nothing left that could cause harm. All the redirects and commercial content might have cluttered it with junk and shady websites could still be using cookies^[3] to track your activity. This step can be made easy with the maintenance tool FortectIntego that can fix corrupted system files, clear the device from unnecessary items, and more.

If you want to do this yourself, let's start by checking if you have any add-ons that are not supposed to be on your browser:

Delete malicious extensions from Google Chrome:

1. Open Google Chrome, click on the Menu (three vertical dots at the top-right corner) and select More tools > Extensions.
2. In the newly opened window, you will see all the installed extensions. Uninstall all the suspicious plugins that might be related to the unwanted program by clicking Remove.

Change your homepage:

If when you open your browser a different page opens up then previously, you can change it back.

1. Click menu and choose Settings.
2. Look for a suspicious site in the On startup section.
3. Click on Open a specific or set of pages and click on three dots to find the Remove option.

Clear cache and web data from Chrome:

To stop illegitimate pages from collecting data about your browsing behavior, you need to delete cookies.

1. Click on Menu and pick Settings.
2. Under Privacy and security, select Clear browsing data.
3. Select Browsing history, Cookies and other site data, as well as Cached images and files.
4. Click Clear data.

Reset Google Chrome:

If the previous methods did not help you, reset Google Chrome to eliminate all the unwanted components:

1. Click on Menu and select Settings.
2. In the Settings, scroll down and click Advanced.
3. Scroll down and locate Reset and clean up section.
4. Now click Restore settings to their original defaults.
5. Confirm with Reset settings.

Instructions for Internet Explorer, MS Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari can be found below this article.

Safety measures to take while browsing the internet

There is a lot the user himself can do to protect his own privacy and security. You should not think that the Internet is a completely safe place and click on random links without thinking about it. Cyber-attacks have increased significantly in the past few years, especially during the pandemic as people spend more time online.

The first thing you should pay attention to when you land on a page is to see how the URL starts. Is it HTTP or HTTPS? The main difference between these is one uses end-to-end encryption and the other one does not. Websites starting with HTTP are vulnerable, so if you provide it with personal information, anyone who knows how – can get to it. The other thing that you might have already noticed is a lock next to the link. If the page is locked, this means that the connection is secure, and your information (like passwords or credit card numbers) is private when it is sent to the site.

When it comes to online scams, fraudsters use social engineering tactics to fool users into performing an action. One of the most popular ways users get infected with PUPs is through fake software updates. Flash Player is commonly used as bait in this type of scheme. What you should know is that it was discontinued in 2020 and replaced by HTML5,^[4] so any website that states otherwise should be immediately exited.

Other techniques scammers use are scareware and giveaways. Scareware is used to, of course, scare people into downloading some “magic” tool that will take care of a dangerous threat that is hiding in their system. You should know that random websites cannot scan your machine and detect viruses, so you should always ignore such warnings.

Also, keep in mind that Google or Microsoft does not randomly pick visitors and shower them with gifts. Most of the time, these scams are meant to lure out people's personal information like name, address, and phone number.

You may remove virus damage with a help of FortectIntego. SpyHunter 5Combo Cleaner and Malwarebytes are recommended to detect potentially unwanted programs and viruses with all their files and registry entries that are related to them.