PremiumReader ads: what it is and how to remove it

Remove its permission in the browser. The bottom line of each notification names the browser, so open that browser's notification settings and look under Allowed. Remove download.com and any other site you do not recognise.

In Chrome and Edge this is under the site settings for notifications; in Firefox it is under Settings, Permissions and data, Notifications. Do this in every browser profile, because each one keeps its own list.

Restart the browser and wait a few minutes. If a message still arrives, read its bottom line again: the sending address can differ from the site you remember, and that is the entry still left in the list.

No. Notifications from download.com are adverts written to look like system messages. A website cannot scan your files, so it has no way to know whether your PC is infected; it shows the same warning to everyone who allowed its notifications. Real Windows Security messages name Windows Security in the bottom line, not a browser and a website.

If you want to be sure, open Windows Security from the Start menu and run a quick scan there. Then remove download.com from the browser's notification settings so the fake warnings stop arriving. Do not call any number or buy anything the notification or its page suggests.

Because that is its whole purpose. PremiumReader ads is a push-notification spam site, and its operators are paid for every ad it displays and every click it gets. In this case the ads take the form of desktop notifications.

They are chosen by ad networks that accept almost any advertiser, which is why so many look like warnings or prizes. The ads are not a sign that your PC is broken or infected with something worse; they are a sign that something on it, or in the browser, has permission to advertise. Removing that permission or program stops them.

No. The site download.com exists to push visitors towards ads, and the pages it leads to include fake virus warnings, fake updates, prize scams and notification prompts. Visiting it once does not infect an up-to-date PC, but anything you click or download there is a gamble.

Do not enter personal details, do not allow notifications and do not call phone numbers it shows. If it opens by itself, close the tab and check the browser's extensions and notification permissions. Blocking the single domain helps little, because the operators register new names regularly.

Each notification shows the name of the browser and the site in its small print. In the cases we saw, the messages from download.com came through Chrome, Edge and Firefox. Permissions are stored per browser and per profile, so removing the site in one browser does not affect another.

If you use several Chrome or Edge profiles, check each one. If you sync the browser with an account, remove the permission while signed in, otherwise another computer may still hold it and keep receiving the same messages.

Look for notifications from download.com. That is the trace PremiumReader ads leaves, and it shows up as desktop notifications. Ads that appear on every site, including ones that never carried ads before, point to something on your PC or in the browser rather than to the sites themselves.

A quick test is a private window, where extensions are off by default: if the ads disappear there, an extension is responsible. If they appear even with the browser closed, the source is a notification permission or a program in Windows.

Probably not. Clicking an ad usually only opens a page, and a page cannot install programs on an up-to-date Windows PC without your help.

You are at risk only if you then downloaded and ran a file, allowed notifications, entered card or login details, or called a phone number shown on the page. Delete any download and run a full and offline scan.

Change passwords you typed, from a clean device. Call your bank if you gave card details. If you called a number or allowed remote access, see the next question.

The number belongs to scammers, not to Microsoft or an antivirus company. If you only talked, hang up and do not call back. If you let them connect to the PC, disconnect it from the internet, uninstall the remote access program they used, such as AnyDesk, TeamViewer, ScreenConnect or UltraViewer, and run a full and offline scan.

If you paid or gave bank details, call your bank at once on the number printed on your card. Change any passwords you typed while they were connected, and report the call.

No. Allowing notifications stores a permission in the browser and nothing else. No file is downloaded and no program is added to Windows, which is also why antivirus scans find nothing. The risk comes later, from the notifications themselves: they lead to scam pages, fake updates and phishing forms.

Remove the permission in each browser where you allowed it. If you clicked a notification and downloaded something afterwards, delete that file and run a Microsoft Defender full scan and offline scan.

No program removes PremiumReader ads itself, because there is nothing on the PC to remove: the notifications come through a permission saved in the browser, and only the browser's settings take it away, as the steps above show.

What Fortect can do is check the rest of Windows. Its free scan looks for malware, unwanted programs and damaged system files, which is useful if you clicked the ads, downloaded something from the pages they opened, or are not sure what else changed on the PC.

If the scan finds nothing and the notifications stopped after you removed the permission, this problem is solved. Use Microsoft Defender as a second opinion whenever you have downloaded files from pages like these.