Zationtothe.online ads (scam) - Free Guide

What is Zationtothe.online ads?

Zationtothe.online is a dubious website you should not interact with

Crooks use various tricks to make users subscribe to notifications that later deliver ads

Initially, it might seem like Zationtothe.online could be just a regular website that offers users to see the most recent news within the sports world, although this is not the truth. Instead of providing anything useful at all, the site asks visitors to enable notifications by pressing the “Allow” button via the prompt. This is a very typical trick used by scammers to proliferate ads and links to suspicious websites.

As soon as the request is fulfilled, users would start receiving pop-up ads at the bottom-right (Windows) or top-right (Mac) desktops without any further permission. These notifications might start showing up right after the permission is given, although often this does not happen straight away, and users notice the activity only later, not realizing that it is connected to their previous actions.

The pop-ups are disruptive, intrusive and might also be dangerous if the embedded links are clicked on. Thus, if you have been experiencing this issue, you should never interact with the ads and deny permission for them to be shown via your web browser settings.

What are push notifications and how are they abused by cybercriminals

Many users refer to push notifications at the corner of their screens as pop-up ads. However, this is not entirely correct when speaking in technical terms.

To make it very clear – the push notification feature is not malicious itself and is used by millions of websites. It is a type of an API (Application Programming Interface)^[1] that allows website developers to display notifications at the system level, as long as the correlating application (in this case, your browser) is in operation or running in the background.

Many web browsers run processes in the background even if they are not in use, hence users might see these notifications at any time, which is also independent of which websites are being browsed at that particular time.

This activity is completely justifiable as long as users agree to receive these notifications fairly. For example, if you access a website you are interested in, you can subscribe to receive notifications by clicking the “Allow” button at the top. While in theory, this should work great, the reality is that most users simply find these prompts annoying and usually block them or close them down immediately, according to Mozilla's findings in 2019.^[2]

Legitimate website owners are not the only ones who use the push notification feature. Scammers use websites like Zationtothe.online, Spinachtighten.com, News-tabiva.cc, Huronews.com, and many others, to trick users into believing that the notification prompt is required to be pressed due to one reason or another. But more about this in the next few paragraphs.

Scam operation and how to get rid of the Zationtothe.online pop-ups

In most cases, users do not access push notification scams, fake updates, and similar malicious content on purpose but are rather redirected from another website. First of all, random redirects are very common on high-risk websites – gambling, torrents, X-rated, you name it. Redirects on these sites can occur after clicking on a fake “Download” button or even clicking anywhere on the page – automatic scripts are used for that.

Redirects from such sites never mean anything good. Push notification scams are among the most common places you could be redirected to, although you could also be exposed to further malicious content when trying to interact with the site. The best course of action, of course, would be to Close down the web browser tab immediately, although that is not how a lot of humans operate – they are often curious.

Notification from Zationtothe.online might include links to malicious websites

Most commonly, you would encounter a version of Zationtothe.online, which would include the notification prompt and some type of message and/or picture in the background. One of the most common examples include the following:

Click Allow if you are not a robot

In this case, crooks are trying to confuse visitors by making it look like the “Allow” button is a verification prompt that is required to proceed. This is a typical social engineering trick that is used in many scams – users are likely to fulfill the requests that they had to engage in previously.

There are also different types of prompts you might see, including:

• A GIF or a picture or a video that is about to be played (often resembles a YouTube video)
• A confirmation of being 18+
• A file is about to be downloaded, etc.

Regardless of these messages, the function of the push notification prompt never changes. As soon as you allow these prompts, you will start receiving annoying and excessive ads.

As long as you don't interact with the pop-ups, you shouldn't be worried, as they can be easily stopped. In order to remove Zationtothe.online ads, you should access the settings of your web browser.

Google Chrome:

1. Open Google Chrome browser and go to Menu > Settings.
2. Scroll down and click on Advanced.
3. Locate 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 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 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.

Don't forget to check your system for adware

Those who get tricked by the notification prompts might believe that their system is infected with some type of virus. As we explained above, the push notifications themselves are not malicious as they are merely a feature enabled by you. However, this does not necessarily mean that your system is completely clean.

Potentially unwanted programs, namely adware,^[3] is known to be one of the main causes for unexpected browser redirects. Thus, if you noticed that your browser is randomly taking you to suspicious places and the number of ads you see everywhere is excessive, it is time to check your computer for adware.

Adware is commonly installed without acquiring user consent, hence many might not even know that it is present in the first place. This is why it is necessary to scan your computer with anti-malware software such as SpyHunter 5Combo Cleaner. It would also check whether malicious software is running dangerous background processes. Keep in mind that having powerful security software installed is one of the main defenses against all computer nasties.

Finally, you should not neglect your browsers after PUP removal. Cleaning them properly would ensure that no ads return and that you stop being tracked by unknown third parties. If you want to clean them automatically, we recommend using FortectIntego. Alternatively, you can proceed with cleaning them manually – we include all the information needed below.

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.