“You have won(1) Microsoft Gift today” scam (Free Instructions) - Survey Scam
“You have won(1) Microsoft Gift today” scam Removal Guide
What is “You have won(1) Microsoft Gift today” scam?
“You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today” – a pop-up scam that seeks to mislead Windows users
“Congratulations user, You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today” is a popular scam[1] which affects users who have a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Program) installed on their computer. Typically, users get infected with adware, browser hijackers, and similar PUPs without knowing about it because of bundling.
Once it gets into your machine, You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today virus performs the following (and not limited to) activities:
- causes countless redirects to third party websites;
- generates various intrusive ads;
- collects personal data;
- misuses system’s resources to mine crypto-currencies;
- installs other unwanted adware and malware.
Typically, “You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today” popup offers you a tempting prize (like iPhone, iPad, PlayStation or Samsung Galaxy smartphone) for completing a short survey which is designed to be easy to complete.[2] After agreeing to finish it off, you are given two minutes of time. Otherwise, the prize is promised to be given to somebody else.
The “You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today” alert typically displays the following message:
“Congratulations user, You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today!
Every Friday we randomly select 10 lucky visitors to receive an promotional gift from our sponsors. This is our way of saying “Thank you” that you are a faithful user.
Note: 10 randomly selected lucky visitors received this invitation and there are only few prizes.
You only have 0 minutes, 0 seconds to answer the following questions before prizes are awarded to another lucky visitor! Good luck!
Question 1 of 3: Who founded Microsoft?
(97% answered correctly)
- Bill Gates
- Mark Zuckerberg
- Warren Buffett
We highly recommend ignoring them because, as you must have already understood, they aim to swindle your personal information. Instead of revealing it, make “You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today” pop-up removal your priority.
Visually, “You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today” scam, and its website themes are identical to Microsoft official website.That is why these sort of scams can be quite deceiving to a user. However, these surveys have nothing in common with Microsoft and are designed to trick you into proceeding with the scam.
Beware that after completing the survey, you can be prompted to enter your phone number and agree to pay $5 a week for a service you certainly don’t need. Hence you should ignore this pop-up, leave the web page you were redirected to and remove “You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today” scam from your computer immediately. For that, please use FortectIntego because it is almost impossible to detect adware responsible for such notifications manually.
PUPs get into users’ systems with bundling
Typically, potentially unwanted programs get into your machine without your consent. There is a deceptive marketing campaign called “bundling” which is often used to infiltrate users computers with malware and adware.
Users who often tend to look for free software on the internet skip the most of installation steps. However, It is highly recommended using “Advanced/Custom” installation mode instead of “Recommended/Quick” because software installer usually hides optional installs there.
Always deselect any software you are not familiar with and unquestionably do not attempt to install software from unreliable sources. Furthermore, security specialists from virusi.hr[3] remind not to click on any suspicious ads and try not to visit websites with questionable content (gambling, pornographic, etc.)
Removing “You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today” virus from your computer
You can remove “Congratulations user, You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today” malware from your computer using professional security software. You can also remove this adware manually, by using step-by-step guide written by our experts.
In this case, make sure you carefully follow every step in exact order to ensure a full You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today virus removal. Otherwise, these ads may come back right after rebooting the computer or your web browser.
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.
Getting rid of “You have won(1) Microsoft Gift today” scam. Follow these steps
Uninstall from Windows
To get rid of “You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today” ads, you have to follow the guide and uninstall adware from the device:
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Click Start → Control Panel → Programs and Features (if you are Windows XP user, click on Add/Remove Programs).
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If you are Windows 10 / Windows 8 user, then right-click in the lower left corner of the screen. Once Quick Access Menu shows up, select Control Panel and Uninstall a Program.
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Uninstall “You have won(1) Microsoft Gift today” scam and related programs
Here, look for “You have won(1) Microsoft Gift today” scam or any other recently installed suspicious programs. -
Uninstall them and click OK to save these changes.
Delete from macOS
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If you are using OS X, click Go button at the top left of the screen and select Applications.
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Wait until you see Applications folder and look for “You have won(1) Microsoft Gift today” scam or any other suspicious programs on it. Now right click on every of such entries and select Move to Trash.
Remove from Microsoft Edge
Follow these steps to remove all questionable add-ons that might be related to adware:
Delete unwanted extensions from MS Edge:
- Select Menu (three horizontal dots at the top-right of the browser window) and pick Extensions.
- From the list, pick the extension and click on the Gear icon.
- Click Remove.
Clear cookies and other browser data:
- Click on the Menu (three horizontal dots at the top-right of the browser window) and select Settings > Privacy, search, and services..
- Under Clear browsing data, pick Choose what to clear.
- Select Cookies and other site data and Cached images and files. (apart from passwords, although you might want to include Media licenses as well, if applicable) and click on Clear.
Restore new tab and homepage settings:
- Click the menu icon and choose Settings.
- Then find On startup section.
- Click Remove next to any suspicious startup page.
Reset MS Edge if the above steps did not work:
- Press on Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager.
- Click on More details arrow at the bottom of the window.
- Select Details tab.
- Now scroll down and locate every entry with Microsoft Edge name in it. Right-click on each of them and select End Task to stop MS Edge from running.
Instructions for Chromium-based Edge
Delete extensions from MS Edge (Chromium):
- Open Edge and click select Settings > Extensions.
- Delete unwanted extensions by clicking Remove.
Clear cache and site data:
- Click on Menu and go to Settings.
- Select Privacy, search and services.
- Under Clear browsing data, pick Choose what to clear.
- Under Time range, pick All time.
- Select Clear now.
Reset Chromium-based MS Edge:
- Click on Menu and select Settings.
- On the left side, pick Reset settings.
- Select Restore settings to their default values.
- Confirm with Reset.
- This will disable extensions and reset startup pages but will not delete bookmarks, saved passwords, or browsing history.
Remove from Mozilla Firefox (FF)
These instructions will show you what steps you need to take in order to delete “You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today” virus from Firefox:
Remove dangerous extensions:
- Open Mozilla Firefox browser and click on the Menu (three horizontal lines at the top-right of the window).
- Select Add-ons.
- In here, select the unwanted extension and click Remove.
Reset the homepage:
- Click three horizontal lines at the top right corner to open the menu.
- Choose Settings.
- Under Home, set your preferred homepage and new tab settings.
Clear cookies and site data:
- Click Menu and pick Settings.
- Go to Privacy & Security section.
- Scroll down to locate Cookies and Site Data.
- Click on Clear Data…
- Select Cookies and Site Data and Temporary cached files and pages, then click Clear.
Reset Mozilla Firefox
If clearing the browser as explained above did not help, reset Mozilla Firefox:
- Open Mozilla Firefox browser and click the Menu.
- Go to Help and then choose Troubleshooting Information.
- Under Give Firefox a tune up section, click on Refresh Firefox…
- Once the pop-up shows up, confirm the action by pressing on Refresh Firefox.
Remove from Google Chrome
Follow the instructions to delete adware-related entries from Google Chrome:
Delete malicious extensions from Google Chrome:
- Open Google Chrome, click on the Menu (three vertical dots at the top-right corner) and select More tools > Extensions.
- In the newly opened window, you will see all the installed extensions. Uninstall all suspicious extensions related to the unwanted program by clicking Remove.
Clear cache and web data from Chrome:
- Click on Menu and pick Settings.
- Under Privacy and security, select Clear browsing data.
- Select Browsing history, Cookies and other site data, as well as Cached images and files.
- Click Clear data.
Change your homepage:
- Click menu and choose Settings.
- Look for a suspicious site in the On startup section.
- Click on Open a specific or set of pages and click on three dots to find the Remove option.
Reset Google Chrome:
If the previous methods did not help you, reset Google Chrome to eliminate all the unwanted components:
- Click on Menu and select Settings.
- In the Settings, scroll down and click Advanced.
- Scroll down and locate Reset and clean up section.
- Now click Restore settings to their original defaults.
- Confirm with Reset settings.
Delete from Safari
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Remove dangerous extensions
Open Safari web browser and click on Safari in menu at the top left of the screen. Once you do this, select Preferences.
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Here, select Extensions and look for “You have won(1) Microsoft Gift today” scam or other suspicious entries. Click on the Uninstall button to get rid each of them.
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Reset Safari
Open Safari browser and click on Safari in menu section at the top left of the screen. Here, select Reset Safari....
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Now you will see a detailed dialog window filled with reset options. All of those options are usually checked, but you can specify which of them you want to reset. Click the Reset button to complete “You have won(1) Microsoft Gift today” scam removal process.
After uninstalling this potentially unwanted program (PUP) and fixing each of your web browsers, we recommend you to scan your PC system with a reputable anti-spyware. This will help you to get rid of “You have won(1) Microsoft Gift today” scam registry traces and will also identify related parasites or possible malware infections on your computer. For that you can use our top-rated malware remover: FortectIntego, SpyHunter 5Combo Cleaner or Malwarebytes.
How to prevent from getting adware
Choose a proper web browser and improve your safety with a VPN tool
Online spying has got momentum in recent years and people are getting more and more interested in how to protect their privacy online. One of the basic means to add a layer of security – choose the most private and secure web browser. Although web browsers can't grant full privacy protection and security, some of them are much better at sandboxing, HTTPS upgrading, active content blocking, tracking blocking, phishing protection, and similar privacy-oriented features. However, if you want true anonymity, we suggest you employ a powerful Private Internet Access VPN – it can encrypt all the traffic that comes and goes out of your computer, preventing tracking completely.
Lost your files? Use data recovery software
While some files located on any computer are replaceable or useless, others can be extremely valuable. Family photos, work documents, school projects – these are types of files that we don't want to lose. Unfortunately, there are many ways how unexpected data loss can occur: power cuts, Blue Screen of Death errors, hardware failures, crypto-malware attack, or even accidental deletion.
To ensure that all the files remain intact, you should prepare regular data backups. You can choose cloud-based or physical copies you could restore from later in case of a disaster. If your backups were lost as well or you never bothered to prepare any, Data Recovery Pro can be your only hope to retrieve your invaluable files.
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- ^ Mary Landesman. Top Online Scams. Lifewire. Tech how-to guides and tutorials.
- ^ Identifying Survey Scams. SurveyPolice blog. Online surveys news and updates.
- ^ Virusi. Virusi. Cyber security news and reports.