How to remove apps designed to promote Shipping Survey Reward scam?

What is Shipping Survey Reward scam?

It is common that scammers use fake online surveys to trick unsuspecting visitors into providing personal or financial information. They use provided information to commit identity theft, sell it to third parties, or monetize it in some other way.

It is important to mention that scammers behind these online survey scams impersonate legitimate companies. In this particular case, scammers promote their survey via email - they send emails disguised as letters from UPS regarding user experience survey.

It is strongly recommended to ignore emails of this type and, more importantly, not to provide personal information on pages that these emails promote.

The email used to promote a survey scam is disguised as letters from UPS claiming recipients have been selected to ten an exclusive reward and encourage users to click the "OK" button to open a short survey about their experience with the UPS company. The main survey scam website claims that visitors will receive at least $90 worth of promo reward in exchange for taking a survey.

The survey contains questions asking whether users are satisfied with the shipping services they use, their age, which postal service they use most often, what types of products they buy online, etc. Once a survey is completed, visitors are asked to choose one of the prizes such as Cannabidiol gummies, keto diet pills, cognitive enhancer, anti-aging cream, and an iPad Pro.

No matter what reward visitors choose, they are asked to provide information such as first and last name, email address, phone number, street address, city, state, ZIP code. It is common that similar pages often ask to provide credit card details or other financial information as well.

It is strongly recommended not to provide any information on websites of this kind. It is common that scammers behind these pages use provided details to steal identities, make unauthorized transactions, purchases, sell them to third parties, or monetize them in some another way.

In conclusion, users who provide information on these pages do not receive any prize/reward. Another important detail about online survey scams is that they often claim that users have to pay some "processing" fee (or some other free) to receive the chosen prize. It is worthwhile to mention that email is not the only channel that can be used to promote online survey scams.

Other untrustworthy websites, deceptive advertisements, and potentially unwanted applications (PUAs) can be used to promote survey scams (and other scams) as well.

Users who have some PUA installed on a browser or the operating system should remove it. Quite often, apps of this kind are designed to serve unwanted advertisements and (or) collect browsing-related or other sensitive information.

Threat Summary:

Name	Shipping Survey Reward online survey scam
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Fake Claim	Scam claims that users will receive a reward if they complete a short survey.
Related Domains	ggshooter[.]com
Serving IP Address (ggshooter[.]com)	104.21.67.215
Symptoms	Fake error messages, fake system warnings, pop-up errors, hoax computer scan.
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.
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There are more examples of similar online survey scams, a couple of them are "Shopper Survey", "USPS Rewards", and "Onlinemart Reward". All of them are designed to trick visitors into believing that after completing a survey and providing some personal information, they will receive a selected prize.

Although, there are many other scams (e.g., pages used to trick users into purchasing unnecessary software, allowing scammers to access their computers remotely).

It is noteworthy that browsers that open questionable, potentially malicious pages automatically and do it often are likely to have some PUA installed on them. Typically, users download and install apps of this kid unknowingly.

How did potentially unwanted applications install on my computer?

Typically, users cause unwanted downloads and installations in one of these two ways: by clicking on certain deceptive ads designed to execute certain scripts or when they do not decline unwanted offers during downloads or installations of other programs. It is common that developers distribute various PUAs by bundling them together with other programs.

In other words, by including PUAs in downloaders, installers for other programs as additional offers. This method is used to trick users into installing or downloading PUAs together with other programs.

Usually, those offers can be found and declined in "Custom", "Advanced" and other similar settings or by unticking checkboxes. However, not all users check those settings when they download or install programs.

By finishing downloads, installations with default settings users allow for offered PUAs to be downloaded, installed too.

How to avoid installation of potentially unwanted applications?

Third-party downloaders, installers, Peer-to-Peer networks like torrent clients, eMule, unofficial pages, and should not be used to download or install any programs. The main reason why it is not recommended to use them to download files or programs is that they tend to be used as channels to distribute various PUAs or even malicious programs.

Therefore, it is recommended to download software (and files) from official websites and via direct links. Furthermore, downloaders and installers that have "Custom", "Advanced" and other similar settings should be analyzed.

It is common that such downloaders, installers include offers to download or install unwanted apps. In such cases users should decline them before finishing downloads or installations.

Advertisements that are displayed on untrustworthy pages should not be clicked as well. It is common that by clicking on those ads users open untrustworthy, potentially malicious pages or cause unwanted downloads, installations.

All suspicious, unwanted, or unknown extensions, plug-ins installed on a browser should be removed. Programs of this kind installed on the operating system should be uninstalled too. I

f your computer is already infected with PUAs, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate them.

Appearance of the survey scam page:

Text in the survey scam website:

Over $4,000,000 in Offers given out so far!

Shipping Survey
April 22, 2021
Limited Timed Offer
Get a $90 promo reward
Congratulations!
Complete this short 30-second survey about your shipping experience to select one of our exclusive reward offers (minimum value $90).

This offer is available for today only: April 22, 2021.
Take Survey Now

Screenshot of the email used to promote this scam:

Text in this email:

Subject: ..pls..check...Y0UR..0RDER...N#67953

Over $4,000,000 in Offers given out so far!

ups
User Survey

Dear UPS user,

You have been selected to get an exclusive reward!

To qualify for this special offer, simply complete our 30-second marketing survey about your experiences with UPS.

Click OK to start.

[OK]

Screenshots of websites asking to provide personal information:

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Quick menu:

• What is "Shipping Survey Reward"?
• STEP 1. Uninstall deceptive applications using Control Panel.
• STEP 2. Remove rogue extensions from Google Chrome.
• STEP 3. Remove potentially unwanted plug-ins from Mozilla Firefox.
• STEP 4. Remove rogue extensions from Safari.
• STEP 5. Remove rogue plug-ins from Microsoft Edge.
• STEP 6. Remove adware from Internet Explorer.

Removal of potentially unwanted applications:

Windows 11 users:

Right-click on the Start icon, select Apps and Features. In the opened window search for the application you want to uninstall, after locating it, click on the three vertical dots and select Uninstall.

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 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 shipping survey reward online survey scam, 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 plugins 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 shipping survey reward online survey scam 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 shipping survey reward online survey scam, 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.

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 shipping survey reward online survey scam, 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.

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.

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