We recently uncovered another spam pop-up prompting the message “Verify You Are Human.” This appeared out of nowhere in our Google Chrome browser while exploring websites that are providing modified APK files for Android devices as well as cracked software for PC.
More about the scam pop-up
The pop-up could appear as a valid robot verification page,, but during the process, it want us or the visitors to execute certain Windows commands. The first one is to press the Windows Key + R, which equates to the Run command. Next to that is by pressing CTRL + V, which every computer knows is for the clipboard paste command. The last one in the steps is pressing Enter on the keyboard, which will execute whatever is pasted in the Run command field or dialog box.
For sure, this “Verify You Are Human” page has already placed some code in the clipboard, and it wants us to execute a remote file. As a result, this may trigger a malware infection in our internet browser or the computer. This incident is a confirmation that the human verification pop-up scam is still one of the to-go-to schemes by cybercrooks in order to lure the web users into downloading or executing their malicious codes.
What is a human verification scam?
Perhaps not all web users have encountered this type on online scam due to its selective appearances. As we mentioned, we just encountered it while browsing sites that are associated with software piracy. In general, this human verification scam is a type of social engineering attack. It was designed to make web users believe that a verification is needed to confirm that the visitor is indeed human and not a robot. To appear legitimate, the pop-up scam pages are often designed as Captcha tests, but the goal hidden in them could cause harm when executed by online users.
How does it work?
Pop-up and Redirects: As you can see in the provided image on this page, it appears as a popup originating from the domain B-cdn.net. This happens when the first website we visited executed a browser redirect code after we clicked on their page. These browser redirects are often the cause of not only fake human verification scams but most fraudulent online schemes.
Appearance: By incorporating the phrase “Verify You Are Human,” it is indeed the objective of the cybercrooks to lure web users. Because this is often used by most website security providers, internet users become accustomed to it, and the tendency to execute the confirmation is highly likely. In addition, one may not find that what they are running into is a fake Captcha test due to its realistic look with a very simple task.
Misleading: Once the web user interacts with the fake human verification page, it usually asks them to click an Allow button or fulfill several steps, as what we have in the sample image. Normally, proceeding into these prompts gives the website access to the notification features of the browser, but with the recently discovered verification page, the consequence is more scary.
Consequences: By following the steps prompted on this fake human verification pop-up, web users may accidentally run malware from a predefined location. Based on the sequence, the pop-up suggests opening a Windows Run Command, pasting whatever the attackers have placed on the clipboard, and running it on the computer. For the most part of this scheme, the attackers are luring the web users to accidentally install malware that is hosted on a remote server.
How do you keep yourself protected?
It is quite not easy to distinguish if the “Verify You Are Human” pop-up is valid or a fake one. The key takeaway is to know the source of the pop-up. If it originates from legitimate sites, there is no harm in proceeding with the online verification process. But if the pop-up appears when exploring pages of suspicious websites, such as adult sites, torrents, or software and media piracy, it is much safer to just leave the page and close the browser window to avoid harm. Another noticeable activity of the human verification scam is the redirect sequence before the web users are greeted with the pop-up. Meaning, the pop-up does not originally come from the website that web users are viewing; instead, they will be redirected to another site that produces it.
Activating the pop-up blocker on the internet browser program such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Opera, and similar apps prevents these pop-ups from appearing, making online browsing more secure. An antivirus program likewise provides a big leap towards securing the computer and online browsing because most of them are equipped with real-time scanning and web guards.
What to do after encountering a human verification scam?
Whether you have carried out the online verification process or walk away from it, we are suggesting scanning the computer right away. As mentioned, it was triggered by a series of redirects, and in between those, there may be some malicious scripts that have gotten into the browser or computer. To check if the computer is free from any threats, please scan the computer with Combo Cleaner:
About the Scanner: Combo Cleaner is a trusted computer security and optimization tool equipped with a powerful virus and malware detection engine. This program can guard the device against pop-ups, redirects, and similar threats, whether it is PC, Mac, Android, or iOS.
1. Download the application from the following page:
2. Save the file to your preferred location.
3. Double-click the downloaded file and install with the default settings.
4. At the end of the setup process, click Finish to run Combo Cleaner.
5. To begin checking for threats like malware, click on the Start Scan button. Wait for this scan to finish.
6. At the end of the scan process, click on Remove all threats to delete malware, including all harmful objects from the computer.
To fully optimize the features of antivirus and privacy scanners, users may have to upgrade to the premium version.
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