A free smartphone, whether it’s a Samsung Galaxy S9 or iPhoneX, is definitely something that only a few would refuse, therefore when such chance appears on the screen, one can really feel as if born under a lucky star and not miss the opportunity to participate. However, soon it becomes clear that this ‘Win A New Phone’ sweepstake is just a scam, there is no phone giveaway, moreover it uses naive internet users to benefit from them by automatically signing them up for a full-priced membership, which costs $49.99 per month.
Win New Phone Sweepstake Scam quicklinks
- Is ‘Win A New Phone’ a sweepstake scam
- What causes ‘Win A New Phone’ scam pop-ups
- How to recover from a ‘Win A New Phone’ sweepstake scam
- How to stop ‘Win A New Phone’ sweepstake scam pop-ups
- Automatic Malware removal tools
- How to remove 'Win New Phone' sweepstake scam using Windows Control Panel
- How to remove 'Win New Phone' sweepstake scam from macOS
(Win)
Note: Spyhunter trial provides detection of parasites and assists in their removal for free. limited trial available, Terms of use, Privacy Policy, Uninstall Instructions,
(Mac)
Note: Combo Cleaner trial provides detection of parasites and assists in their removal for free. limited trial available, Terms of use, Privacy Policy, Uninstall Instructions, Refund Policy ,
This free stuff fraud is not a new trick in the malware world and has been there for a while, yet the site that our researchers found to be scamming the cyber world – geniustrainer(.)net, was also responsible for another free travelling ticket lottery earlier this year. Yet still is not well-recognised by antivirus service providers, according to Virustotal.com. This just proves how important it is to be safe online, even if you have the most sophisticated system protection tools. In this post, you’ll find out why ‘Win A New Phone’ is s scam, what it does, what to do if you fall for it and how to remove the scam virus from the compromised browser, so keep reading.
Is ‘Win A New Phone’ a sweepstake scam
There are numerous of red flags which help a more aware person to spot that ‘Win A New Phone’ sweepstake is a scam, yet those who are dealing with this deceit may very easily miss these important signs. Not all online sweepstakes are bogus, but the ones that appear out of nowhere and ask for your credit card data, sure are. So how can you tell which lotteries are real and which ones are going to lure money out and perform other shady things, before actually experiencing the negative outcome yourself? (Common features of fake sweepstake notifications)
While the majority of dubious online swindles are very well socially engineered and take an experienced eye to get exposed, the ‘Win A New Phone’ scam rather easy to reveal, especially because it states all the shady things that are waiting for you even before signing up, so that legally you wouldn’t be able to sue the crooks, since you were aware of everything. The very first shady sign is that the page appears out of nowhere and asks if you want to participate in a lottery for an iPhoneX/Samsung S9, instead of you finding it. Secondly, it asks too much information right away, like your email, password and even credit card number, although claims that entering the winner draw is free (for the first 5 days).
This is a free registration. Why am I asked for my credit card details? It’s for verification purposes. If you do not cancel your account within the trial period of five days, your account will be automatically extended to a premium account at the cost of usd 49.99 per month. When you sign up for the free trial we may freeze one or more variable amounts to your account in order to verify if the card is valid, and that you are the authorised and legitimate cardholder. These amounts will only be freezed on your card for few days.
Why do we ask you for your billing information?Because we can only provide our prizes to certain countries, we ask that you provide a valid credit card number NO CHARGES GUARANTEED. – No charges will appear on your credit card statement unless you upgrade to a Premium Membership or make a purchase.
In order to keep your personal information private, we use encryption security technology. Our site employs Secure Sockets Layering (SSL) – to encrypt your personal information such as credit card number, name, and address before it travels over the Internet. Your data is encrypted and password-protected to make sure no one ever sees your personal information!!!
We always provide our members with a detailed purchase history in order for them to know exactly what they are paying for. Your payment method information is required to future purchases only. NO CHARGES – will appear on your credit card statement unless you upgrade to a Premium Membership or make a purchase. By creating an account, you agree to our Terms & Conditions.
If that does not catch your attention and you are continuing with this ‘too good to be true’ offer, there is even a little box that you MUST check before you can submit the data, saying:
We value your privacy. We will not provide your details to third parties. See our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy for more details. I agree for the free trial now, becoming a recurring transaction after 5 days.
This cannot be more clear that ‘Win A New Phone’ sweepstake is a fake, even when the page itself says that they are going to sign you up for automatic-renewal, which will keep charging your card each month but doesn’t indicate the end of the lottery, nor place where to check the winners or etc. Real online sweepstakes are free to join and never request such a large amount of money, moreover force you to act in a hurry. In their Privacy Policy, the creator company from Cyprus called INTERFAST DEVELOPMENT LTD discloses even more scary things like sharing the gathered data, excessive advertising and other scam pages they use to charge gullible victims. So there is obviously no prize, nor chances of you winning, just charges on your card that support hackers.
What causes ‘Win A New Phone’ scam pop-ups
There is no doubt that ‘Win A New Phone’ page just appeared suddenly when you were browsing online. However, it may have happened just because you clicked on a redirecting ad banner or hyperlink, which redirected you to this scam, or it was a consequence of another virus, trying to push third-party content which sponsors its malicious deeds. The main difference is that the latter variant ends up bothering you continuously each time you go online on all web pages you surf on. This treat that causes ‘Win A New Phone’ sweepstake scam can either be adware, like MapsFox, Video Chimp, BestMapFinder, Maxi Buy, redirects or pop-ups, like Hengaredi.pro, Thentouchpush.info, Thethandarinhec.info, Rectanthenwirit.info.
Another very similar scam that our researchers came across recently was the one generated by the 5 Billionth Search fraudulent message. It as well offered to get the free phone, however, would charge monthly for the premium membership to be in the lottery. It is unknown if these two scams are related and made by the same company, but they look almost identical.
How to recover from a ‘Win A New Phone’ sweepstake scam
There is no shame falling for an online scam and it is important to recognise why it happened to avoid such an incident in the future, just as it is crucial to clean up the current mess. First of all, in order to prevent the unnecessary charges, you need to cancel the premium subscription of ‘Win A New Phone’ sweepstake scam. For that, there is an option to reach out to your bank and see what they can do with about the situation. Mind you, conversating with crooks is not always a good idea because they can talk you into more scams, be rude, send malware and spam your inbox/phone, therefore we don’t recommend directly communication with INTERFAST DEVELOPMENT LTD. Another thing to consider, is changing the password of used email to sign up for the free phone, as well as other your accounts login data, where you registered with that email address. (How)
What is also very important when dealing with any scam and not just ‘Win A New Phone’ sweepstake, is to report it to FTC Complaint Assistant. Letting officials know what happened exactly, can help others prevent the fraud and stop crooks by heartlessly luring out money from innocent people. For more recovery tips read this (Nextadvisor.com article). Lastly, don’t forget to educate yourself more on what was the reason behind you trusting the site and how to Avoid further fraud incidents.
How to stop ‘Win A New Phone’ sweepstake scam pop-ups
‘Win A New Phone’ sweepstake scams can be just a one-time event or they can occur multiple times during your online browsing. Depending on this frequency the further required actions vary as well. The first case doesn’t need much attention and the scam can be easily prevented by blocking or not visiting the promoting website, however, if ‘Win A New Phone’ page keeps popping-up despite you clicking or doing anything on the web, you might have a bigger issue to solve. So before you or anyone else, using your computer, ends up signing for the expensive fraudulent membership, you might want to find the root cause behind the scam and fix it.
The quickest method to clean your system from the ‘Win A New Phone’ pop-up scam-generating adware is to run an anti-malware tool scanner, which will look into all the directories of your Windows/Mac and discover harmful programs, files, extensions and etc., which are misbehaving. It is beneficial to examine your computer with a professional software even if you don’t think that there is a virus, because there are just some threats that are impossible to notice, but they can be identified by other features, e.g. behaviour, hash value, used code and etc. From the plethora of security applications we suggest Spyhunter, Malwarebytes programs which provide safe and reputable service and offer free scans. If the inspection results come out clean, at least you know that you can use your system safely, and if these apps do discover something shady, you can just follow with provided instructions and remove these viruses.
In case you know already what is the reason of ‘Win A New Phone’ sweepstake pop-up scam, follow the manual removal instructions below, which will assist you in deleting harmful programs or browser plugins from the operating system and stopping the scammers reaching out to you.
Automatic Malware removal tools
(Win)
Note: Spyhunter trial provides detection of parasites and assists in their removal for free. limited trial available, Terms of use, Privacy Policy, Uninstall Instructions,
(Mac)
Note: Combo Cleaner trial provides detection of parasites and assists in their removal for free. limited trial available, Terms of use, Privacy Policy, Uninstall Instructions, Refund Policy ,
How to remove 'Win New Phone' sweepstake scam using Windows Control Panel
Many hijackers and adware like 'Win A New Phone' sweepstake scam install some of their components as regular Windows programs as well as additional software. This part of malware can be uninstalled from the Control Panel. To access it, do the following.- Start→Control Panel (older Windows) or press Windows Key→Search and enter Control Panel and then press Enter (Windows 8, Windows 10).
- Choose Uninstall Program (if you don't see it, click in the upper right next to "View by" and select Category).
- Go through the list of programs and select entries related to 'Win New Phone' sweepstake scam . You can click on "Name" or "Installed On" to reorder your programs and make 'Win A New Phone' sweepstake scam easier to find.
- Click the Uninstall button. If you're asked if you really want to remove the program, click Yes.
- In many cases anti-malware programs are better at detecting related parasites, thus I recommend installing Spyhunter to identify other programs that might be a part of this infection.
How to remove 'Win New Phone' sweepstake scam from macOS
Delete 'Win A New Phone' sweepstake scam from your applications.- Open Finder.
- In the menu bar, click Go.
- Select Applications from the dropdown.
- Find the 'Win New Phone' sweepstake scam app.
- Select it and right-click it (or hold the Ctrl and click the left mouse button).
- In the dropdown, click Move to Bin/Trash. You might be asked to provide your login password.
TopRemove malicious extensions from Internet Explorer
- Press on the Gear icon→Manage Add-ons.
- Go through Toolbars and extensions. Remove everything related to 'Win A New Phone' sweepstake scam and items you do not know that are made not by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Oracle or Adobe.
- Close the Options.
(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings
If you are still experiencing any issues related to 'Win New Phone' sweepstake scam, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.
- Press on the Gear icon->Internet Options.
- Choose the Advanced tab and click on the Reset button.
- Select a “Delete personal settings” checkbox and click on the Reset button.
- Click on the Close button on the confirmation box, then close your browser.
If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.
TopRemoving 'Win A New Phone' sweepstake scam from Chrome
- Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Google Chrome window. Select “Settings”.
- Click “Extensions” on the left menu bar.
- Go through the extensions list and remove programs you do not need, especially similar to 'Win New Phone' sweepstake scam. Click on the trash bin icon next to 'Win A New Phone' sweepstake scam or other add-ons you want to remove.
- Press on the “Remove” button on the Confirmation window.
- If unsure, you can disable them temporarily.
- Restart Chrome.
(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings
If you are still experiencing any issues related to 'Win New Phone' sweepstake scam, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.
- Click on Chrome’s menu button (three horizontal lines) and select Settings.
- Scroll to the end of the page and click on the Reset settings button.
- Click on the Reset button on the confirmation box.
If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.
TopRemoving 'Win A New Phone' sweepstake scam from Firefox
- Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla window and select the “Add-ons” icon (or press Ctrl+Shift+A on your keyboard).
- Go through Extensions and Addons list, remove everything 'Win New Phone' sweepstake scam related and items you do not recognise. If you do not know the extension and it is not made by Mozilla, Google, Microsoft, Oracle or Adobe then you probably do not need it.
- Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla Firefox window. Click on the Help button.
- Choose Troubleshooting Information on the Help menu.
- Click on the Reset Firefox button.
- Click on the Reset Firefox button on the confirmation box. Mozilla Firefox will close and change the settings to default.
How to remove 'Win A New Phone' sweepstake scam from Microsoft Edge:Top
- Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Microsoft Edge window. Select “Extensions”.
- Go through the extensions list and remove programs you do not need, especially similar to 'Win New Phone' sweepstake scam. Click on the "Remove" icon next to 'Win A New Phone' sweepstake scam or other add-ons you want to remove.
- Press on the “Remove” button on the Confirmation window.
- If unsure, you can disable them temporarily.
- Restart Microsoft Edge.
TopRemoving 'Win New Phone' sweepstake scam from Safari (Mac OS X)
- Click on the Safari menu.
- Choose Preferences.
- Click on the Extensions Tab.
- Click on the Uninstall button near the 'Win A New Phone' sweepstake scam. Remove all other unknown or suspicious entries too. If you are not sure whether you need the extension or not, you can simply uncheck the Enable check-box to disable the extension temporarily.
- Restart Safari.
(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings
If you are still experiencing any issues related to 'Win New Phone' sweepstake scam, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.
- Click on the Safari menu on the top left corner of the screen. Select Reset Safari.
- Select which options you want to reset (usually all of them come preselected) and click on the Reset button.
If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.