Clicking on the Truthtraff promotion may lead to the injection of other malware or unwanted programs. In this article, you will see the guide of Truthtraff popups clearing in a couple of methods, and also examining your PC for extra viruses existence.

What are Truthtraff pop-ups?

Truthtraff popups are a consequence of adware presence. Adware is a type of malware that presents you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click ads, which creates a massive amount of revenue for adware suppliers. These ads may include explicit material, or have a link to harmful content/website, since adware maintainers have no reason to inspect the goodness of the content they are going to reveal – their single target is cash.

Truthtraff push notification.

Pop-up promotions itself is a very good, cheap and also very productive advertising tool¹. It allows the seller to attach the buyers’ interest to their website, as well as the customers to receive the dynamic updates on the goods they wish to buy. When the consumer will receive a pop-up alert that the TV set he wishes to buy is available at the online shop he/she checked out earlier with a 15% discount, one will definitely use this possibility and purchase it. Considering the exceptionally small cost for the popups and their targeting, such a promotion and marketing method is a favorite thing amongst the marketing departments of large online retailers.

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

Site	Truthtraff.com
Hosting	AS39572 DataWeb Global Group B.V. United States, Washington
Infection Type	Adware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads
IP Address	192.243.59.20
Symptoms	Annoying pop-up ads in the right corner.
Similar behavior	People, Ndmotivating, News
Fix Tool	GridinSoft Anti-MalwareTo remove possible virus infections, try to scan your PC

How have I got the Truthtraff virus?

There are a huge amount of ways of becoming infected by the adware that result in the Truthtraff popups tornado. A lion’s part of this malware cases is after the free software or cracked programs, that are distributed on the peering networks. Freeware may also be downloaded from the main website, and the adware is supplied as a legit bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. A number of individuals frequently use the dubious programs from untrusted sources: abandonware, a wide range of apps that are free, and even hacked programs. Every one of these sorts of programs are unsafe, because it is extremely simple to build in a Truthtraff 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.

Truthtraff popup virus may likewise be concealed in the advertisement somewhere on the unusual website. Such websites are in most cases packed with colorful and blinking advertisements, and their proprietors usually accept any kind of promos to be posted on their web page. Therefore, clicking such banners is a risky thing: only the ad contractor realizes what will happen when you press this advertisement. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or undesirable programs, you can additionally get something a lot more threatening, like ransomware or coin miner; the substantial share of coin miners circulation is exactly after the malicious advertisements.

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

Potentially undesirable applications, like Truthtraff popup virus may initiate a wide range of troubles on your PC. Distracting is not the only problem – pop-up notifications may show you the promotions, where you are offered to get one more strange application, or “a effective security tool”. Scareware is usually distributed with the use of the last motto. Potentially undesirable applications, in turn, may have spyware functionality. And it is very hard to distinguish the unwanted app from a normal one, if you don’t know the exact names. Besides the potentially unwanted programs and dubious antiviruses, popup-related banners are also exploited as a spreading method by different trojan viruses, for instance – coin miners. The consequences of activity of such viruses is 100% unwanted, and can cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars. And even if you are not clicking these ads, they can be clicked by someone who also makes use of your computer – parents, children, spouse, etc. So the things can become much more serious, and it will be much harder to deal with it without information loss. It is recommended to get rid of the viruses with anti-malware programs as soon as possible.

How can I get rid of Truthtraff pop-up advertisements?

The tutorial of Truthtraff adware removal includes 2 parts. First, we need to remove the malware, and afterwards fix the effects of its activity. The removal process is pretty easy, since it may be performed even with the use of Microsoft Defender – anti-virus program that is available on all personal computers with Windows 8/10. However, as a result of its huge resources usage, as well as some defects that may be critical for some types of users, Defender is often turned off by the users, so its utilization is probably impossible. What’s more, a variety of trojan viruses can disable the embedded antivirus. It is much better to use the separated program that will not have such exposures.

I would certainly recommend you to use Gridinsoft Anti-Malware² – a well-proven security device that will undoubtedly remove the malware from your personal computer and also make an impenetrable cover with a Proactive protection function. However, let’s manage Truthtraff adware first.

Download GridinSoft Anti-Malware

Removing Truthtraff 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.
• 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.
• When the scan is over, you may choose the action for each detected virus. For all files of Truthtraff malware the default option is “Delete”. Press “Apply” to finish the malware removal.

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

1. Open “Settings and more” tab in upper right corner, then find here “Settings” button. In the appeared menu, choose “Reset settings” option :
2. After picking the Reset Settings option, you will see the following menu, stating about the settings which will be reverted to original :

1. Open Menu tab (three strips in upper right corner) and click the “Help” button. In the appeared menu choose “troubleshooting information” :
2. In the next screen, find the “Refresh Firefox” option :

After choosing this option, you will see the next message :

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 :

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 web browser will connect the appropriate DNS while connecting to the web page you need. Create a text file titled “hosts” on your pc’s desktop, then open it and fill it with the following content³:

# 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.

However, there is one trouble that makes the things much harder to repair, specifically without the anti-malware program. A lot of adware variants that are utilized to show you the Truthtraff pop-up ads are modifying the deep browser setups, disabling an access to the settings tab. So, if you attempt to change your browser settings after your computer was infected by pop-up-related malware, your browser will certainly collapse soon. In certain cases, you will see no crash, however, large lag spike after pressing the “settings” key. Browser will stop reacting for ~ 30 secs, and afterwards it will be back to the typical, till you attempt to open settings one more time.

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.

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.

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.

References

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