How to remove Infos-et-potins.com ads

Infos-et-potins.com ads can bring you to malicious websites

Infos-et-potins.com is a fake website created by crooks to benefit from intrusive push notifications that show ads to users. In most cases, users do not venture to this website intentionally but are redirected by a booby-trapped link on torrents, cracks, illegal video streaming, and similar sites. Adware could also be one of the reasons why the redirects occur, which also comes with increased activity of pop-ups, banners, auto-play videos, in-text links, and other ads.

Once on the Infos-et-potins.com site, users can be easily tricked into pressing the “Allow” button within the push notification prompt, which would immediately allow the site to send information directly to users' screens. Pop-ups could show up at any time, regardless of user activities or site visits, and would be shown on top of any other app running at the time.

The most dangerous trait of Infos-et-potins.com ads is that they might include links to malicious websites, for example, you might be asked to participate in a fake survey and get entangled with a get-rich-quick scheme.^[1] Thus, we recommend not interacting with them and instead, taking correct steps to eliminate the unwanted activity.

Scam methods explained

Online fraud occurs because the internet is simply too vast to be effectively moderated at all times. Many scam sites are relatively quickly disabled, although some might remain active for months or even years before being reported. Also, since push notification scam websites do not hold any information within them, they are extremely easy to reproduce under a different web address.

The push notification feature is legitimate and is widely used by various websites. Upon site entry, people are offered to receive notifications from that particular site so that they can receive relevant information directly on their screens in real-time. However, the feature is also abused by malicious parties, where users are led to believe that the “Allow” button is meant to bypass some type of artificially created barrier, as such:

• If you are 18+ tap Allow
• Can't play this video! Perhaps, your browser doesn't allow video playback. Click “Allow” button to play video
• Click “Allow” to continue streaming
• Just one more step! “Allow” to continue
• Click Allow to confirm you're not a robot, etc.

These phishing^[2] methods are used by plenty of other websites, so if you have seen a few of these scams, you should immediately recognize them next time. Always remember that no legitimate website would lock its content behind permission to show push notifications. Regardless of what the message on the page is saying, pressing the “Allow” button will always result in that particular website delivering information to your screen without restrictions.

Remove intrusive ads 

Many users look for Infos-et-potins.com ads removal instructions after scanning their machines with anti-malware and finding out that the problem remains. In fact, most are sure that they have been infected with malware since the activity of push notifications is so intrusive – ads show up at random times without warning, which can be easily misinterpreted.

In reality, the push notification feature itself is not malicious, although deceptive websites might use it to deliver malicious links. This can be easily remediated as long as you know how to prevent these notifications from being shown. Below you will find the step-by-step guide that should help you remove the annoying pop-ups once and for all.

Google Chrome

1. Open Google Chrome browser and go to Menu > Settings.
2. Scroll down and click on Advanced.
3. Locate the Privacy and security section and pick Site Settings > Notifications.
4. Look at the Allow section and look for a suspicious URL.
5. Click the three vertical dots next to it and pick Block. This should remove unwanted notifications from Google Chrome.

Mozilla Firefox

1. Open Mozilla Firefox and go to Menu > Options.
2. Click on Privacy & Security section.
3. Under Permissions, you should be able to see Notifications. Click the Settings button next to it.
4. In the Settings – Notification Permissions window, click on the drop-down menu by the URL in question.
5. Select Block and then click on Save Changes. This should remove unwanted notifications from Mozilla Firefox.

Safari

1. Click on Safari > Preferences…
2. Go to the Websites tab and, under General, select Notifications.
3. Select the web address in question, click the drop-down menu and select Deny.

MS Edge

1. Open Microsoft Edge, and click the Settings and more button (three horizontal dots) at the top-right of the window.
2. Select Settings and then go to Advanced.
3. Under Website permissions, pick Manage permissions and select the URL in question.
4. Toggle the switch to the left to turn notifications off on Microsoft Edge.

MS Edge (Chromium)

1. Open Microsoft Edge, and go to Settings.
2. Select Site permissions.
3. Go to Notifications on the right.
4. Under Allow, you will find the unwanted entry.
5. Click on More actions and select Block.

Internet Explorer

1. Open Internet Explorer, and click on the Gear icon at the top-right of the window.
2. Select Internet options and go to the Privacy tab.
3. In the Pop-up Blocker section, click on Settings.
4. Locate web address in question under Allowed sites and pick Remove.

Check your device for adware

If you noticed that your browsers are showing ads way more frequently than they should be and you commonly see websites of dubious content, it is worth checking your device for adware infection. The best way of doing this is by using SpyHunterCombo Cleaner, MalwarebytesMalwarebytes, or another reputable anti-malware and scanning the device with it.

Security software can also check your device for malicious processes or files and remove them as necessary. Keeping up-to-date security software running is very important to prevent the intrusion of malicious programs in the first place.

If you indeed find adware or malware on your system, we also recommend cleaning your web browsers from various cookies^[3] and other caches. Otherwise, the removal process might not be successful. For that, we recommend using FortectIntego PC maintenance utility or referring to the manual guidelines at the bottom of this post.