Remove Model-Dating Virus — How to Fix Guide

Written by Wilbur Woodham
Model-Dating pop-up notifications can appear unexpectedly, covering the content of the page you went to or opening your web browser when you don’t want it to be opened.

Clicking the Model-Dating advertisement may result in the injection of other malware or unwanted programs. In this post, you will see the manual of Model-Dating popups removal in various manners, and also checking your personal computer for extra viruses presence.

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What are Model-Dating pop-ups?

Model-Dating popups are a consequence of adware action. Adware is a type of malware that suggests you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click ads, which generates a massive volume of revenue for adware suppliers. These ads may contain sometimes shocking composition, or have a link to malicious content/website, because adware maintainers have no purpose to check the goodness of the content they are going to reveal – their solitary target is money.

Model-Dating push notification

Model-Dating push notification.

Pop-up advertising itself is an excellent, low-priced and very productive advertising solution1. It permits the seller to link the buyers’ attention to their website, and the customers to get the dynamic updates on the goods they intend to purchase. When the consumer will get a pop-up notification that the TV set he desires to purchase is offered at the online shop he/she checked out earlier with a 15% discount, one will certainly use this possibility and buy it. Considering the extremely low cost for the popups and their targeting, such a marketing tool is a much-loved thing among the marketing departments of huge online sellers.

Nevertheless, such a profitable plan could not be missed by malware creators. Potential to show the popup advertisements forcibly to the victims of malware attack is an ideal basis for malevolent tricks with the popup promotions. And Model-dating.com promotions is one of hundreds that are “employed” in this system.

Here is a short info for the Model-Dating site
SiteModel-dating.com
HostingAS209813 Fast Content Delivery LTD
Netherlands, Haarlem
Infection TypeAdware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads
IP Address5.8.34.24
SymptomsAnnoying pop-up ads in the right corner.
Similar behaviorNews, Hasdrs, Storecompletely
Fix Tool
To remove possible virus infections, try to scan your PC

How have I got the Model-Dating virus?

There are a number of ways of becoming contaminated by the adware that trigger the Model-Dating popups tornado. A lion’s part of this computer virus instances is after the free software or cracked programs, that are distributed on the peering networks. Freeware may additionally be downloaded from the official website, and the adware is presented as a legitimate bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. A huge amount of individuals frequently utilize the dubious programs from untrusted sources: abandonware, various tools that are free of cost, and even hacked programs. Every one of these sorts of software are dangerous, because it is very easy to integrate a Model-Dating malware under the guise of part of the license hacking script, or as a part of the self-made algoritm inside of the Windows optimization tool.

Model-Dating popup malware can also be hidden in the ad somewhere on the unusual web page. Such websites are usually packed with bright and blinking advertisements, and their proprietors generally accept any type of promotions to be published on their page. For this reason, clicking such banners is a shot in the dark: only the advertisement contractor realizes what will occur when you click this advertisement. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or unwanted programs, you may likewise receive something far more threatening, like ransomware or coin miner; the big share of coin miners distribution 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 Model-Dating popup virus can provoke a wide range of problems on your computer. Distracting is not the only problem – pop-up notifications can show you the promotions, where you are offered to download another strange application, or “a amazing anti-malware tool”. Scareware is often spread with the last motto. Potentially unwanted programs, in turn, may have spyware functionality. And it is very hard to distinguish the undesirable app from a legit one, if you don’t know the exact names. Besides the potentially unwanted programs and dubious antiviruses, popup-related advertisements are also used as a distribution way by various trojan viruses, for instance – coin miners. The consequences of actions of such malware is 100% unwanted, and can cost you several hundreds of dollars. And even if you are not clicking 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 solve it without information loss. It is recommended to remove the viruses with antivirus programs as soon as possible.

How can I get rid of Model-Dating pop-up advertisements?

The tutorial of Model-Dating adware removal includes 2 sections. Initially, we need to get rid of the malware, and after that correct the consequences of its action. The elimination task is really easy, due to the fact that it can be performed even with using Microsoft Defender – security software that is available on all computers with Windows 8/10. However, because of its substantial resources utilization, as well as some errors that may be crucial for some types of users, Defender is frequently disabled by the users, so its usage is most likely impossible. Moreover, various trojan viruses are capable to disable the embedded antivirus. It is much better to make use of the separated program that will not have such vulnerabilities.

I’d recommend you to utilize Gridinsoft Anti-Malware2 – a well-proven anti-malware tool that will definitely wipe out the malware from your PC and make an invulnerable cover with a Proactive protection function. But let’s manage Model-Dating adware initially.

Removing Model-Dating 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 Model-Dating 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 web browsers are reset, you need to make sure that your web browser will connect the correct DNS while connecting to the web page you want. Make a text file named “hosts” on your computer’s desktop, then open it and fill it with the following text3:

# 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 the things a lot harder to repair, specifically without the anti-malware program. The majority of adware variants that are used to show you the Model-Dating pop-up ads are changing the deep browser setups, disabling an access to the settings tab. So, if you try to change your browser settings after your machine was infected by pop-up-related malware, your browser will certainly collapse quickly. Sometimes, you will see no crash, however, huge lag spike after pushing the “settings” key. Browser will stop responding for ~ 30 seconds, and then it will be back to the normal, until you try to open settings 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 Model-Dating Pop-ups?

Name: Model-Dating

Description: Model-Dating - 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 Model-dating.com push notifications?” or “why do Model-dating.com pop-ups keep appearing on Chrome even after AdBlock installation?”. In this article we will show you how to deal with Model-Dating 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 advertisements on Wikipedia.
  2. GridinSoft Anti-Malware overview 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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