'Important Message' Pop-up

Posted: May 25, 2015

Threat Metric

The Threat Meter is a malware assessment that SpywareRemove.com's research team is able to give every identifiable malware threat. Our Threat Meter includes several criteria based off of specific malware threats to value their severity, reach and volume. The Threat Meter is able to give you a numerical breakdown of each threat's initial Threat Level, Detection Count, Volume Count, Trend Path and Percentage Impact. The overall ranking of each threat in the Threat Meter is a basic breakdown of how all threats are ranked within our own extensive malware database. The scoring for each specific malware threat can be easily compared to other emerging threats to draw a contrast in its particular severity. The Threat Meter is a useful tool in the endeavor of seeking a solution to remove a threat or pursue additional analytical research for all types of computer users.

The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:

Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.

Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.

Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.

Trend Path: The Trend Path, utilizing an up arrow, down arrow or equal symbol, represents the level of recent movement of a particular threat. Up arrows represent an increase, down arrows represent a decline and the equal symbol represent no change to a threat's recent movement.

% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.

Threat Level:	8/10
Infected PCs:	546

First Seen:	May 26, 2015
Last Seen:	January 1, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The 'Important Message' pop-up is a fraudulent system alert that may initiate a range of diverse attacks, as well as encouraging contact with con artists. Although the 'Important Message' pop-up formats itself as a security warning, the 'Important Message' pop-up offers no benefits to your PC, and even casual interactions with the 'Important Message' pop-up may run the risk of harming your computer. Sites that promote the 'Important Message' pop-up should be assumed to be toxic, and malware experts recommend using anti-malware tools to disinfect any PC that loads the 'Important Message' pop-up non-consensually.

The Importance of not Ignoring an 'Important Message' pop-up

The 'Important Message' pop-up is a pop-up window-based attack that subverts your browser for the purpose of enabling one of a multitude of tactics. Malware experts have connected some formats of the 'Important Message' pop-up to DoctoAntivirus, a rogue anti-virus scanner, but other variants of the 'Important Message' pop-up may launch attacks. The most common payloads linked to an 'Important Message' pop-up may include:

An 'Important Message' pop-up may install fraudulent security products that pretend to offer anti-virus, anti-spyware or anti-adware services. This scamware typically blocks other applications and generates more fake alerts until you pay its registration fee.
In other cases, an 'Important Message' pop-up may try to lead you to contacting a con artist, such as a fake PC repair technician. Phone-based contact is the most common, but not necessarily exclusive format for such interactions, which may try to create new vulnerabilities on your PC or take your money.

Intentional interaction with an 'Important Message' pop-up is not necessarily the only means by which an 'Important Message' pop-up may harm your PC. Malware experts also see the 'Important Message' pop-up and other pop-up-based attacks using automatic scripts that may trigger without any extended interaction. Java, JavaScript, and Flash are the three most common formats of the forms of these invasive PC threats.

Stopping a Pop-Up Message from getting the Best of Your Browser

Mozilla's Firefox has been a party to the majority of verified attacks through an 'Important Message' pop-up. However, other brands of Web browsers may be just as vulnerable to such attacks, which may launch themselves through a pre-installed adware program or a compromised website. Browsers that launch an 'Important Message' pop-up repeatedly are likely to be compromised, requiring that you disinfect your PC with an anti-malware product, anti-adware scanner or similar tool.

On a greater scale, the 'Important Message' pop-up is significant only in its continuing use of social engineering to trick its victims into harming their personal computers. PC users never should take security advice from websites with unconfirmed identities, and should learn to identify legitimate system alerts and sort them from threats like an 'Important Message' pop-up. Learning the proper responses to such attacks also could prevent an 'Important Message' pop-up from introducing new threats to your machine. However, preventative security steps and appropriate browser behavior are the two things malware experts always would emphasize the most for stopping a fraudulent browser pop-up.

'Important Message' Pop-up

Threat Metric

The Importance of not Ignoring an 'Important Message' pop-up

Stopping a Pop-Up Message from getting the Best of Your Browser

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