Wsawani.com ads: what it is and how to remove it

From our report of Feb 2022 · not reviewed since

Wsawani.com takes advantage of less IT-savvy individuals to make a profit with pop-up ads

Wsawani.com is a fake website created to generate revenue from pop-ups ads.

It tricks people into subscribing to push notifications by using deceptive tactics. Such pop-up ads can have links leading to dangerous websites that try to fool people into providing personal information or downloading PUPs (potentially unwanted programs), and malware.

The scam site works by asking people to press the "Allow" button, which gives permission for the site to start spamming people with annoying pop-up ads. The site may contain a deceptive message, and image but there is nothing else to explore on the site.

In the past few years, there has been a significant increase in push notification spam pages. We previously wrote about sites like Media-news.xyz, Myhugewords.com, and See-what-is-buzzing.com. Such websites can generate quite a lot of profit if distributed successfully across the Internet. Besides, they are very easy to produce, hence why there are so many of them.

You should learn about the social engineering techniques that fraudsters use nowadays to prevent this from happening again. On many such pages you can see messages like:

There have been a couple of different-looking messages associated with Wsawani.com, like "Please tap the Allow button to continue." All of these messages might remind many users of a captcha verification process but it is not quite the same. A legitimate captcha confirmation may ask you to identify certain objects in pictures or just simply to check a box but never to press "Allow" on a browser prompt.

Also, always be wary of words in the fine print. On the bottom of the Wsawani.com page, you can see a sentence that states:

The sponsored content that people may see from this page includes ads for adult, gambling, and scam websites. If there are any other people using the affected machine, especially children, we suggest taking care of this threat immediately. You will find all of the removal solutions in the guide below.

From our report of Feb 2022 · not reviewed since

Stop the intrusive pop-ups

Instructions are available for MS Edge, Chrome, Chromium, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari.

You will also need to clear your browsers from cookies and cache to make sure your data is safe.

They are used by almost every website to track your activity. Cookies can be sold to advertising networks and other third parties or hacked by threat actors if the website does not have necessary security protocols in place. Because you were probably browsing through shady sites, this step is essential. We also have an automatic solution for this - .

Besides that, it can fix various system errors, corrupted files, and registry issues.

Google Chrome (desktop):

Google Chrome (Android):

MS Edge (Chromium):

• Open Google Chrome browser and go to Menu > Settings.
• Locate the Privacy and security section and pick Site Settings > Notifications.
• Look at the Allow section and look for a suspicious URL.
• Click the three vertical dots next to it and pick Block. This should remove unwanted notifications from Google Chrome.
• Open Google Chrome and tap on Settings (three vertical dots).
• Select Notifications.
• Locate the unwanted URL and toggle the button to the left (Off setting).
• Open Mozilla Firefox and go to Menu > Options.
• Click on Privacy & Security section.
• Under Permissions, you should be able to see Notifications. Click Settings button next to it.
• In the Settings – Notification Permissions window, click on the drop-down menu by the URL in question.
• Select Block and then click on Save Changes. This should remove unwanted notifications from Mozilla Firefox.
• Click on Safari > Preferences...
• Go to Websites tab and, under General, select Notifications.
• Select the web address in question, click the drop-down menu and select Deny.
• Open Microsoft Edge, and click the Settings and more button (three horizontal dots) at the top-right of the window.
• Select Settings and then go to Advanced.
• Under Website permissions, pick Manage permissions and select the URL in question.
• Toggle the switch to the left to turn notifications off on Microsoft Edge.
• Open Microsoft Edge, and go to Settings.
• Select Site permissions.
• Go to Notifications on the right.
• Under Allow, you will find the unwanted entry.
• Click on More actions and select Block.

From our report of Feb 2022 · not reviewed since

Scan your system for potentially unwanted programs

If you notice an increased amount of commercial content like pop-ups, banners, surveys, and others, or you often get redirected to strange websites, you may have adware installed in your system. PUPs are most commonly spread on unofficial sites that distribute freeware.

Because the owners of these pages provide programs for free, they need to make money in other ways, so they include additional programs in the installers that perform tasks in the background. People do not notice that other files were installed because they normally rush through the installation process. If you want to avoid PUAs, always choose "Custom" or "Advanced" installation methods, read the Terms of Use, and Privacy Policy.

The most important part is checking the file list and seeing if there is anything that you do not need. If you see them, just untick the boxes next to the names. Removing PUPs, once they are inside is quite complicated. They are often disguised as "handy" tools that do not cause any suspicion.

It is unclear which app could be causing the problems, so we suggest using or anti-malware tools that can automatically scan your machine and eliminate it completely. If you know what you are doing and want to do it yourself, here are the guides for Windows and Mac machines:

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

• Enter Control Panel into Windows search box and hit Enter or click on the search result.
• Under Programs, select Uninstall a program.
• From the list, find the entry of the suspicious program.
• Right-click on the application and select Uninstall.
• If User Account Control shows up, click Yes.
• Wait till uninstallation process is complete and click OK.
• Click on Windows Start > Control Panel located on the right pane (if you are Windows XP user, click on Add/Remove Programs).
• In Control Panel, select Programs > Uninstall a program.
• Pick the unwanted application by clicking on it once.
• At the top, click Uninstall/Change.
• In the confirmation prompt, pick Yes.
• Click OK once the removal process is finished.
• From the menu bar, select Go > Applications.
• In the Applications folder, look for all related entries.
• Click on the app and drag it to Trash (or right-click and pick Move to Trash)
• Select Go > Go to Folder.
• Enter /Library/Application Support and click Go or press Enter.
• In the Application Support folder, look for any suspicious entries and then delete them.
• Now enter /Library/LaunchAgents and /Library/LaunchDaemons folders the same way and terminate all the related .plist files.

From our report of Feb 2022 · not reviewed since

More from our earlier report on Wsawani.com

• Go to your browser settings and disable push notifications
• By continuing your navigation or clicking "Allow", you accept our terms of use and privacy policy and agree to receive sponsored content.