Smart Captcha Solve ads (scam) - Free Guide

What is Smart Captcha Solve ads?

Smartcaptchasolve.top is a malicious website designed to scam users

Smart Captcha Solve pop-ups show up sometime later after the "Allow" button within the notification prompt is clicked

Recently, many users started complaining about Smart Captcha Solve ads showing up on their desktops at random times. The pop-ups are shown on top of the browser or even any other apps running at that time, which can interrupt whatever people are doing, be it working, gaming, or watching a video.

Initially, many users become suspicious of a virus, as the activity is very intrusive, and pop-ups are commonly associated with a computer infection. However, if the notifications are shown at the bottom-right (or top-right on Macs) of the screen, and are also marked with Smartcaptchasolve.top web address, it is likely that permission was granted to the site to deliver notifications in the first place.

Most commonly, users are tricked into doing so due to deceptive messages that they encounter on scam websites. Alternatively, it could be that the permission was granted by accidentally clicking the “Allow” button with the notification prompt. Regardless, this issue can easily be fixed – all users have to do is change some options within their browser settings, be it Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, MS Edge, Safari, or any other search tool.

Note that, while this particular activity is not caused by a virus, you should not dismiss the possibility that adware^[1] could be hiding on your system. Thus, in addition to removing the push notifications from your screen, you should also perform adequate checks to ensure that your system is free of infections.

What is the push notification feature and how crooks abuse it

The push notification feature was first introduced by Apple over a decade ago – it allowed users to receive relevant/interesting information on top of other apps, making it much more noticeable. The function was quickly adapted by other operating systems and applications, including web browsers.

While initially, the push notification feature was not commonly employed by websites, it was soon noticed as a great interactive addition that could be useful for both parties. This is why you now see almost every entertainment or other type of site offering you to receive notifications if you visit it for the first time.

Of course, you are free to deny this offer and, as long as you don't reset your browsers, the website will remember and respect your choice. Unfortunately, there are plenty of websites that are created for this only reason – to make users permit the notifications to be shown. The main goal is to send users sponsored links and ads so that they could earn free revenue from user clicks on these ads.

For that, crooks use various scam techniques, also known as social engineering^[2] attacks. The main goal is to make users think that the notification prompt is something else – they use falsified information on the particularly crafted website, for example, Smartcaptchasolve.top, Liffsandupa.xyz, Romancedating.top, or similar.

Frequent redirects to suspicious websites might be caused by adware

In fact, most of these websites use identical phrases and background pictures so, once you get familiar with a few of them, you will recognize them the next time. Below you can see a few examples you could encounter after accessing a malicious website that tries to scam you into subscribing:

• Click Allow if you are not a robot
• If you are 18+, tap allow
• Click Allow to continue
• Your download is ready. Click Allow!
• Press Allow to watch the video, etc.

As evident, none of these messages have anything reputable or legitimate about them. In fact, pressing “Block” would only forward you to another website of similar content, so you should not interact with the notification prompt at all and simply leave immediately.

Next time you encounter a website that tries to lock its content behind some type of verification, leave it immediately and do not interact with it. If you have been already scammed, you can undo this decision easily – just follow our guide below.

Stop a website from sending you notifications with these easy steps

Those who want to remove Smart Captcha Solve ads usually start scanning their devices with security software. Unfortunately, that does not fix the problem for users, and they continue to receive intrusive pop-ups which disturb online activities constantly.

Since people are tricked into subscribing to notifications in the first place and have not previously dealt with them, they are confused and don't understand what's happening. It does not help that the pop-ups don't show up straight away but rather much later when the website was closed down a long time ago.

This confusion is understandable, and malicious actors are abusing this fact – new scam websites are coming to life every day. If you have been a victim of such a scam, you should learn how to stop these notifications from being shown to you – here's how:

Google Chrome

• Select Menu > Settings > Advanced.
• Click on Site Settings > Notifications.
• Check the Allow section and find the address of the site.
• Select More Actions and pick Block.

Mozilla Firefox:

• Go to Menu and then select Options.
• Go to Privacy & Security > Notifications > Settings.
• Choose Block after picking this option from the drop-down menu.
• Confirm with Save Changes.

MS Edge (Chromium)

• Go to Menu and pick Settings.
• Select Site permissions.
• Click on Notifications.
• Find the site URL, and click More actions.
• Pick Block.

MS Edge (legacy):

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.

Safari

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

Adware might cause unexpected redirects

Essentially, potentially unwanted programs or malware have nothing to do with push notification activity itself. These are two independent issues that should be taken care of differently. If you have already removed the push notifications from the annoying websites, you are not yet done with dealing with this problem.

Security experts^[3] strongly advise users who do become victims of online scams to make sure that there is no malicious software installed on their systems. For example, adware is known to specialize in the display of pop-ups and other types of ads, although more aggressive adware might also cause browser redirects to malicious websites.

One of the main reasons why you might not know about adware residing on your system is its distribution methods. In most cases, PUPs are delivered via a software bundle package downloaded from a third-party website. Thus, if you have recently installed software from suspicious sources carelessly, you should definitely uninstall it.

This process might become more difficult when there are many applications installed on your system. Besides, some of them might not disclose their suspicious behavior until much later. Adware can also come in the form of a browser extension, so this section should be checked as well.

If you wish to get rid of adware or other malicious software quickly, we strongly recommend you scan your device with SpyHunter 5Combo Cleaner. Malwarebytes, or another reputable anti-malware. The scan barely takes a few minutes, and you can then rest assured that there is malware stealing your personal information in the background or that other viruses are being installed without our knowledge.

Finally, please take the time to clean your browsers properly, especially if the potentially unwanted application was a browser extension. Browser caches might cause prolonged ad activity, and cookies might be used for data tracking. You can clean your browsers as we explain below or perform it much quicker with a FortectIntego PC repair and maintenance utility.