Do not trust the 2020 Visitor Feedback Survey scam
Written by Tomas Meskauskas on
(updated)
What is "2020 Visitor Feedback Survey"?
"2020 Visitor Feedback Survey" is one of many online scams whereby visitors of a deceptive website are offered rewards for completing a survey. This survey scam is used to promote various phishing websites on which visitors are asked to provide personal information - they can then supposedly claim the chosen reward.
The pages might also be designed to deceive visitors into transferring money and/or purchasing products. In any case, do not trust this survey scam or any web pages promoted through it.
This survey scam is disguised as an anonymous marketing survey whereby visitors supposedly leave feedback regarding their experience with eBay. In fact, eBay has nothing to do with this survey. Scammers often exploit names of well-known companies to trick people into participating in bogus surveys, or for other malicious purposes.
After completing the survey, visitors must choose one of the rewards and click the "Claim Reward" button. Depending on their choices, visitors are redirected to a certain phishing website where they are asked to provide information such as first and last name, Zip/Postal code, address, city, state, email address, and telephone number.
They might also be asked to provide other information such as credit card details and/or pay a certain sum of money (e.g., a shipping fee). None of those phishing sites can be trusted. By providing information on them, visitors can become victims of identity theft, lose money, and experience problems relating to browsing safety, online privacy, and other issues.
People do not often visit scam survey websites (or other websites of this type) intentionally. Typically, they are redirected to them through other dubious pages, clicked deceptive advertisements, or by installed potentially unwanted applications (PUAs). Many PUAs are designed to force browsers to open dubious sites, display ads, and gather data.
They can feed users with intrusive advertisements such as coupons, banners, surveys, pop-ups, and others. When clicked, these can open dubious websites or download and install unwanted applications by executing certain scripts.
PUAs can also collect IP addresses, entered search queries, addresses of visited websites, geolocations, and other browsing data. In some cases, they record personal details. The data is sold to third parties (potentially, cyber criminals) and/or misused to generate revenue in other ways.
| Name | 2020 Visitor Feedback Survey pop-up |
| Threat Type | Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud. |
| Fake Claim | Visitors can supposedly receive a reward for completing a survey. |
| Related Domain | 01-secure.com |
| Serving IP Address (01-secure[.]com) | 144.202.55.201 |
| Symptoms | Appearance of fake online surveys. |
| Distribution methods | Compromised websites, rogue online pop-up ads, potentially unwanted applications. |
| Damage | Loss of sensitive private information, monetary loss, identity theft, possible malware infections. |
| Malware Removal (Windows) | To eliminate possible malware infections, scan your computer with legitimate antivirus software. Our security researchers recommend using Combo Cleaner. |
More examples of scam surveys include "International Official Lottery", "2020 Web Research Survey" and "Congratulations Device User!".
They are used to trick visitors into providing sensitive information and/or transferring money. People do not often visit them intentionally. Neither survey scams nor other scams promoted through these deceptive pages can be trusted. Ignore them and never provide any information. If a browser opens these pages often, PUAs might be installed.
How did potentially unwanted applications install on my computer?
Typically, users download/install PUAs through intrusive ads that they have willingly or accidentally clicked, or together with other (mainly free) programs. Commonly, developers distribute PUAs using a deceptive marketing method called "bundling". I.e., by including the apps into download/installation set-ups of other programs as 'additional offers'.
Typically, these offers are listed in "Advanced", "Custom" and other similar settings of the set-ups.
Many users download and install programs without checking and changing the aforementioned settings, and failing to decline offers of rogue software - in doing so, they allow PUAs to infiltrate. Deceptive advertisements can also cause unwanted downloads and installations by running certain scripts.
How to avoid installation of potentially unwanted applications
You are strongly advised to download programs only from official websites and via direct links. Avoid third party downloaders/installers, Peer-to-Peer networks (torrent clients, eMule), unofficial pages, and other similar channels, since they are often used to distribute unwanted, malicious apps.
Check all download/installation settings such as "Custom" and "Advanced" and decline offers to download or install additional (unwanted) software. Do not click ads that appear on pages relating to gambling, pornography, adult dating, or others, since they can open potentially malicious pages or cause download/installation of unwanted software.
Remove any unwanted or suspicious add-ons, plug-ins and extensions installed on the browser, and programs of this kind installed on the operating system. If your computer is already infected with PUAs, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate them.
Text presented in "2020 Visitor Feedback Survey" initial pop-up:
Dear eBay Visitor!
Your connection has been selected to get a complimentary reward!
In order to qualify, just complete this 30-second, anonymous marketing survey, and to say thank you for providing valuable consumer feedback, you'll be able to claim one or more rewards worth over $70!
Thank you for your time!
Text presented in "2020 Visitor Feedback Survey" scam website background:
2020 Visitor Feedback Survey
eBay
Questions:1. How many times do you visit eBay in a week?
2. How would you rate your overal experience with ebay.com?
3. How did you find out about eBay?
4. What's one thing that you would improve with ebay.com?
5. Lastly, do you identify as a Male or Female?
Screenshot of a page loaded after completing the survey:
Text in this page:
Survey Completed
Thank you!
Submitting your answers and checking our stock levels for available rewards, thank you for your patience.
Screenshot of the last survey scam page:
Text in this page:
Thank you for your feedback and completing the survey!
You may now choose (1) of the following exclusive rewards below from one of our partners. Please understand that these products are currently in extremely high demand, and if you leave this page without claiming your reward, we have no choice but to give another visitor a chance to participate in our consumer rewards program.
The appearance of "2020 Visitor Feedback Survey" pop-up scam (GIF):
Screenshot of phishing sites promoted by "2020 Visitor Feedback Survey" scam:
Instant automatic malware removal:
Manual threat removal might be a lengthy and complicated process that requires advanced computer skills. Combo Cleaner is a professional automatic malware removal tool that is recommended to get rid of malware. Download it by clicking the button below:
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Quick menu:
- What is "2020 Visitor Feedback Survey"?
- STEP 1. Uninstall deceptive applications using Control Panel.
- STEP 2. Remove adware from Internet Explorer.
- STEP 3. Remove rogue extensions from Google Chrome.
- STEP 4. Remove potentially unwanted plug-ins from Mozilla Firefox.
- STEP 5. Remove rogue extensions from Safari.
- STEP 6. Remove rogue plug-ins from Microsoft Edge.
Removal of potentially unwanted applications:
Windows 10 users:
Right-click in the lower left corner of the screen, in the Quick Access Menu select Control Panel. In the opened window choose Programs and Features.
Windows 7 users:
Click Start (Windows Logo at the bottom left corner of your desktop), choose Control Panel. Locate Programs and click Uninstall a program.
macOS (OSX) users:
Click Finder, in the opened screen select Applications. Drag the app from the Applications folder to the Trash (located in your Dock), then right click the Trash icon and select Empty Trash.
In the uninstall programs window, look for any suspicious/recently-installed applications, select these entries and click "Uninstall" or "Remove".
After uninstalling the potentially unwanted application, scan your computer for any remaining unwanted components or possible malware infections. To scan your computer, use recommended malware removal software.
Remove rogue extensions from Internet browsers:
Video showing how to remove potentially unwanted browser add-ons:
Remove malicious add-ons from Internet Explorer:
Click the "gear" icon 
(at the top right corner of Internet Explorer), select "Manage Add-ons". Look for any recently-installed suspicious browser extensions, select these entries and click "Remove".
Optional method:
If you continue to have problems with removal of the 2020 visitor feedback survey pop-up, reset your Internet Explorer settings to default.
Windows XP users: Click Start, click Run, in the opened window type inetcpl.cpl In the opened window click the Advanced tab, then click Reset.
Windows Vista and Windows 7 users: Click the Windows logo, in the start search box type inetcpl.cpl and click enter. In the opened window click the Advanced tab, then click Reset.
Windows 8 users: Open Internet Explorer and click the gear icon. Select Internet Options.
In the opened window, select the Advanced tab.
Click the Reset button.
Confirm that you wish to reset Internet Explorer settings to default by clicking the Reset button.
Remove malicious extensions from Google Chrome:
Click the Chrome menu icon 
(at the top right corner of Google Chrome), select "More tools" and click "Extensions". Locate all recently-installed suspicious browser add-ons and remove them.
Optional method:
If you continue to have problems with removal of the 2020 visitor feedback survey pop-up, reset your Google Chrome browser settings. Click the Chrome menu icon (at the top right corner of Google Chrome) and select Settings. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen. Click the Advanced… link.
After scrolling to the bottom of the screen, click the Reset (Restore settings to their original defaults) button.
In the opened window, confirm that you wish to reset Google Chrome settings to default by clicking the Reset button.
Remove malicious plug-ins from Mozilla Firefox:
Click the Firefox menu 
(at the top right corner of the main window), select "Add-ons". Click on "Extensions", in the opened window remove all recently-installed suspicious browser plug-ins.
Optional method:
Computer users who have problems with 2020 visitor feedback survey pop-up removal can reset their Mozilla Firefox settings.
Open Mozilla Firefox, at the top right corner of the main window, click the Firefox menu, in the opened menu, click Help.
Select Troubleshooting Information.
In the opened window, click the Refresh Firefox button.
In the opened window, confirm that you wish to reset Mozilla Firefox settings to default by clicking the Refresh Firefox button.
Remove malicious extensions from Safari:
Make sure your Safari browser is active, click Safari menu, and select Preferences....
In the opened window click Extensions, locate any recently installed suspicious extension, select it and click Uninstall.
Optional method:
Make sure your Safari browser is active and click on Safari menu. From the drop down menu select Clear History and Website Data...
In the opened window select all history and click the Clear History button.
Remove malicious extensions from Microsoft Edge:
Click the Edge menu icon 
(at the upper-right corner of Microsoft Edge), select "Extensions". Locate all recently-installed suspicious browser add-ons and click "Remove" below their names.
Optional method:
If you continue to have problems with removal of the 2020 visitor feedback survey pop-up, reset your Microsoft Edge browser settings. Click the Edge menu icon (at the top right corner of Microsoft Edge) and select Settings.
In the opened settings menu select Reset settings.
Select Restore settings to their default values. In the opened window, confirm that you wish to reset Microsoft Edge settings to default by clicking the Reset button.
- If this did not help, follow these alternative instructions explaining how to reset the Microsoft Edge browser.
Summary:
Commonly, adware or potentially unwanted applications infiltrate Internet browsers through free software downloads. Note that the safest source for downloading free software is via developers' websites only. To avoid installation of adware, be very attentive when downloading and installing free software. When installing previously-downloaded free programs, choose the custom or advanced installation options – this step will reveal any potentially unwanted applications listed for installation together with your chosen free program.
Removal assistance:
If you are experiencing problems while trying to remove 2020 visitor feedback survey pop-up from your computer, please ask for assistance in our malware support forum.
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Outstanding!
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