How to remove 123prize.net pop-ups? — Fix Guide

Written by Wilbur Woodham
123prize.net pop-up notifications can show up unexpectedly, covering the content of the website you went to or opening your browser when you don’t want it to be opened.

Clicking the 123prize.net promotion can trigger the injection of different malware or unwanted programs. In this post, you will see the guideline of 123prize.net popups clearing in various ways, and also examining your PC for other viruses presence.

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What are 123prize.net pop-ups?

123prize.net popups are a consequence of adware action. Adware is a sort of malware that demonstrates to you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click ads, which produces a massive amount of profit for adware representatives. These ads may consist of explicit information, or have a web link to harmful content/website, because adware maintainers have no purpose to examine the goodness of the content they are going to show – their single target is money.

123prize.net push notification

123prize.net push notification.

Pop-up marketing itself is a very good, low-priced and also extremely efficient marketing solution1. It allows the seller to attach the buyers’ interest to their site, and the customers to receive the dynamic updates on the goods they intend to purchase. When the consumer will receive a pop-up notification that the TV set he desires to buy is offered at the online store he/she checked out previously with a 15% price cut, one will definitely use this opportunity and buy it. Considering the incredibly low cost for the popups and their targeting, such an advertising and marketing tool is a favourite thing amongst the advertising departments of large internet sellers.

However, such a profitable system could not be missed by virus creators. Potential to show the popup ads by force to the victims of malware attack is an ideal basis for evil-minded tricks with the popup ads. And 123prize.net advertisements is just one of hundreds that are “employed” in this scheme.

Here is a short details for the 123prize.net
Site123prize.net
HostingAS202053 UpCloud Ltd
Germany, Frankfurt am Main
Infection TypeAdware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads
IP Address94.237.24.219
SymptomsAnnoying pop-up ads in the right corner.
Similar behavior2345, Xmlrtb, Crashnoodle
Fix Tool
To remove possible virus infections, try to scan your PC

How have I got the 123prize.net virus?

There are a number of ways of getting infected by the adware that result in the 123prize.net popups storm. A lion’s part of this virus cases is after the freeware or cracked programs, that are distributed on the peering networks. Freeware may also be downloaded from the main site, and the adware is offered as a legit bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. A plenty of people frequently make use of the uncertain programs from untrusted providers: abandonware, various utilities that are free, or even hacked programs. All of these types of programs are unsafe, since it is extremely simple to build in a 123prize.net malware under the cover of part of the license hacking script, or as a part of the self-made algoritm within the Windows optimization tool.

123prize.net popup malware may also be hidden in the advertisement somewhere on the strange website. Such sites are usually packed with intense and blinking advertisements, and their proprietors often approve any type of promotions to be posted on their page. Thus, clicking such banners is a risky thing: only the advertisement contractor realizes what will happen when you click this ad. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or undesirable programs, you may also receive something much more risky, like ransomware or coin miner; the large share of coin miners circulation is exactly after the malicious ads.

People dislike popups

The statistic shows that people dislike popup advertising more than other types of promotions

Potentially unwanted programs, like 123prize.net popup virus may provoke a variety of different problems on your PC. Distracting is not the only problem – pop-ups can show you the ads, where you are offered to get one more strange program, or “a amazing security tool”. Scareware is usually distributed under the last slogun. Potentially unwanted programs, in turn, can have spyware functionality. And it is very hard to distinguish the unwanted app from a legit one, if you don’t know the exact names. Besides the potentially unwanted programs and dubious antiviruses, popup-related promotions are also exploited as a distribution way by different trojan viruses, for example – coin miners. The consequences of activity of such malware is 100% unpleasant, and can cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars. And even if you are not tapping these advertisements, they may be clicked by whoever who also makes use of your personal computer – parents, children, spouse, etc. So the things may become much more serious, and it will be much harder to deal with it without information loss. It is recommended to wipe out the viruses with antivirus applications as soon as possible.

How can I get rid of 123prize.net pop-up advertisements?

The manual of 123prize.net adware elimination consists of 2 sections. First, we need to exterminate the malware, and afterwards take care of the consequences of its activity. The removal procedure is quite simple, due to the fact that it may be performed even with making use of Microsoft Defender – security tool that is present on all computers with Windows 8/10. However, because of its substantial resources utilization, along with some failures that may be critical for some categories of users, Defender is often turned off by the users, so its use is most likely impossible. In addition, a wide range of trojan viruses have the ability to disable the embedded antivirus. It is much better to make use of the separated program that will not have such weakness.

I’d advise you to use Gridinsoft Anti-Malware2 – a well-proven anti-malware tool that will undoubtedly wipe out the viruses from your computer and also make an impenetrable shield with a Proactive protection feature. However, let’s deal with 123prize.net adware initially.

Removing 123prize.net popup virus with GridinSoft Anti-Malware

  • Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware. After the installation, you will be offered to perform the Standard Scan. Approve this action.
  • Gridinsoft Anti-Malware during the scan process

  • Standard scan checks the logical disk where the system files are stored, together with the files of programs you have already installed. The scan lasts up to 6 minutes.
  • GridinSoft Anti-Malware scan results

  • When the scan is over, you may choose the action for each detected virus. For all files of 123prize.net malware the default option is “Delete”. Press “Apply” to finish the malware removal.
  • GridinSoft Anti-Malware - After Cleaning

Now, when the computer is clean of viruses, we can proceed to the browser reset. You can do this step manually, as well as with the use of GridinSoft Anti-Malware.

Reset browser settings to default

Manual method of browser reset

To reset Edge, do the following steps :
  1. Open “Settings and more” tab in upper right corner, then find here “Settings” button. In the appeared menu, choose “Reset settings” option :
  2. Reseting the Edge browser

  3. After picking the Reset Settings option, you will see the following menu, stating about the settings which will be reverted to original :
For Mozilla Firefox, do the next actions :
  1. Open Menu tab (three strips in upper right corner) and click the “Help” button. In the appeared menu choose “troubleshooting information” :
  2. The first step to revert Mozilla Firefox

  3. In the next screen, find the “Refresh Firefox” option :
  4. The second step of Firefox restoration
    After choosing this option, you will see the next message :
    The last step for Firefox
If you use Google Chrome
  1. Open Settings tab, find the “Advanced” button. In the extended tab choose the “Reset and clean up” button :
  2. In the appeared list, click on the “Restore settings to their original defaults” :
  3. Finally, you will see the window, where you can see all the settings which will be reset to default :
Opera can be reset in the next way
  1. Open Settings menu by pressing the gear icon in the toolbar (left side of the browser window), then click “Advanced” option, and choose “Browser” button in the drop-down list. Scroll down, to the bottom of the settings menu. Find there “Restore settings to their original defaults” option :

  2. After clicking the “Restore settings…” button, you will see the window, where all settings, which will be reset, are shown :

When the browsers are reset, you need to ensure that your browser will be connected the right DNS while connecting to the web page you need. Make a text file titled “hosts” on your pc’s desktop, after that open it and fill it with the following lines3:

# Copyright (c) 1993-2006 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a ‘#’ symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host
# localhost name resolution is handle within DNS itself.
# 127.0.0.1 localhost
# ::1 localhost

Find the hosts.txt file in C:/Windows/System32/drivers/etc directory. Rename this file to “hosts.old.txt” (to distinguish it from the new one), and then move the file you created on the desktop to this folder. Remove the hosts.old from this folder. Now you have your hosts file as good as new.

Nevertheless, there is one issue that makes things a lot more difficult to repair, particularly without the anti-malware program. The majority of adware versions that are utilized to show you the 123prize.net pop-up ads are altering the deep browser settings, disabling an access to the settings tab. So, if you attempt to fix your browser settings after your machine was infected by pop-up-related malware, your browser will collapse quickly. In some cases, you will see no crash, however, huge lag spike after pushing the “settings” key. Browser will stop reacting for ~ 30 secs, and then it will be back to the typical, till you attempt to open settings once again.

Reset your browser settings with GridinSoft Anti-Malware

To reset your browser with GridinSoft Anti-Malware, open the Tools tab, and click the “Reset browser settings” button.

Tools tab in GridinSoft Anti-Malware

You can see the list of the options for each browser. By default, they are set up in the manner which fits the majority of users. Press the “Reset” button (lower right corner). In a minute your browser will be as good as new.

Reset Browser Settings tab in GridinSoft Anti-Malware

The browser reset is recommended to perform through the antivirus tool by GridinSoft, because last is also able to reset the HOSTS file without any additional commands.

How to Remove 123prize.net Pop-ups?

Name: 123prize.net

Description: 123prize.net - a lot of users became a target for the pop-up advertisements. I have a lot of friends who literally bombed me with the questions like “how to remove 123prize.net push notifications?” or “why do 123prize.net pop-ups keep appearing on Chrome even after AdBlock installation?”. In this article we will show you how to deal with 123prize.net pop-ups, which may corrupt your browser’s correct performance, and create a lot of troubles while you are working.

Operating System: Windows

Application Category: Adware

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References

  1. More about pop-up ads on Wikipedia.
  2. GridinSoft Anti-Malware review and the reasons why I suggest it for malware elimination.
  3. Official Microsoft guide for hosts file reset.

About the author

Wilbur Woodham

I was a technical writer from early in my career, and consider IT Security one of my foundational skills. I’m sharing my experience here, and I hope you find it useful.

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