Hackers are constantly looking for new ways to trick users into trying to get their way. Many times we have seen ads and websites that tell us that our computer has a virus (or thousands of them), and they encourage us to download a program, or pay, to be able to disinfect it and continue using the PC normally. All a hoax. However, lately there are more and more computer attacks that take advantage of Chrome‘s notification system to make us think we are infected. A very annoying warning method that, fortunately, has an easy solution.
When we visit a website, many times a message appears asking us if we want to receive notifications of the page through the browser. These notices can have many purposes. For example, they can serve us to receive notifications about new publications, about certain events … and even to transmit messages in bulk that seek a purpose. How to trick users about fake viruses.
Normally seeing these messages does not mean that we have been infected by a virus. But it is possible that, if we fall into their deceptions, we end up being victims of hackers. Therefore, in case we are constantly seeing virus warnings in Chrome , these are the steps to take to eliminate them.
Prevent Chrome from running in the background
Normally these ads belong to Google Chrome. But if we have activated the option of the browser running in the background, they will also appear even when the browser is closed. And this can be worrisome and confusing for some users.
Therefore, if we are seeing messages of these on our computer for some reason, the first thing we should do is prevent Chrome from being left open in the background. Thus, in addition, we will save resources on the PC.
To do this, we only have to open the Configuration window and move to the “System” section, or write in the address bar directly:
chrome: // settings / system.
Once there, we must locate the option “ Continue running applications in the background when closing Google Chrome ” and uncheck the box. Thus, every time we close the browser, it will close completely, and we will not see messages or notices while Chrome is closed.
Disable web notifications
Although we have stopped seeing warnings and virus messages when the browser is closed, while we have it open, messages and warnings about possible viruses will still appear.
Once the browser no longer opens in the background, the next step will be to control the websites that have permission to display notices and notifications in our browser. To do this, we must move to the content configuration section, website notifications. We can reach this section directly by entering the following URL in the address bar:
chrome: // settings / content / notifications
Here we will see all the websites or extensions that have permission to show notifications and notices in our browser.
Surely many are trusted. For example, WhatsApp, Wallapop or Google Docs applications. However, it is very likely that we have some unknown website, and this will be responsible for the virus warnings of our PC. Therefore, what we must do is click on the icon of the three points and choose the option “Block” or “Remove” so that this website stops showing us notices on the PC.
In case the web appears with the icon of an extension, what we must do is search within the extensions section all that we have installed, locate the one that may be suspicious (or test by trial and error) and delete it to get that False virus warnings disappear from our Google Chrome.
After restarting the browser, so that all the changes settle correctly, we can see how these notices have disappeared permanently. Now we have to be careful with the websites we visit to avoid that, again, these annoying messages of false viruses can return to our browser.
Of course, we recommend analyzing the computer with a good antivirus, such as Windows Defender , and an antimalware, such as Malwarebytes , to rule out that, because of these messages, we have installed some type of unwanted software that is putting our PC in danger.
