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A few days back I faced irritating popups called "Ads by Advertise" in Google Chrome, which displays ads when certain highlighted keywords were hovered over. The issue was specific to Chrome (it did not appear on other browsers like MS Edge or Firefox). Subsequently I installed Malwarebytes, did a system scan, and the program identified ..\appdata\local\google\chrome\userdata\Default\Web Data and ..\appdata\local\google\chrome\userdata\Default\Sync Data\SyncData.sqlite3 as "potentially unwanted programs".

I somehow eliminated the "Ads by Advertise" popups by removing the "Tampermonkey" Chrome extension (as suggested by these instructions). But Malwarebytes, which scans my PC on a daily basis, still detects the above-mentioned files as potential threats. I first tried choosing the quarantine option from the software, but they return after I restart my PC. I have also tried deleting them from their original locations, which signed me out of Chrome (understandable, as Chrome uses them to sync my data). After signing in again, the threats return. Finally, I chose the cancel option from the scan results page. But after all this, I still cannot get rid of the threat alerts from Malwarebytes. Does anyone know how to eliminate this situation, or would it be best to just get rid of Malwarebytes and its annoying messages (as it is an unpaid trial, anyways)?

Andrew Lau
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2 Answers2

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I had this same issue, and I was able to solve it by deleting a few saved "search engine" URLs in my Chrome data.
Check this: In Chrome, go to:

"Settings" > "Search Engine" > "Manage Search Engines"

and remove links to anything you don't recognise (you can actually remove them all if you like).

I found some links that were linked to malware installed by a rogue extension. Remove all of these links, and run MalwareBytes again.

Stay Safe!

zx485
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Jason Cummins
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To add to @barlop suggestion:

  1. Uninstall Chrome
  2. Delete your user data folder from %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome
  3. Install the Chrome for Enterprise which installs Chrome in Program Files
  4. After signing in Chrome, before the sync starts, uncheck sync my extensions and application data. This will prevent any unwanted application data or addons from coming back to the PC.

Post this, scan with MalwareBytes and let us know if it helped.

Ganesh R.
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