How to remove Protectedscans.com notifications

What is Protectedscans.com

Protectedscans.com is a malicious website that exploits browser notifications to trick users into believing their system is infected with malware. By displaying fake security alerts that appear to be from reputable antivirus brands like McAfee, it aims to create a sense of urgency and panic. This scam often targets users who visit high-risk websites such as torrent sites, free streaming portals, and adult content platforms, where security measures are typically lax. Once a user encounters these pop-ups, they are manipulated into clicking on links that either lead to affiliate offers or direct them to download unwanted programs and malware. Protectedscans.com primarily affects popular browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Safari, and Opera, making it a widespread threat across various operating systems including Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. The exploit leverages browser notification permissions to continuously bombard users with fraudulent alerts, even when they are not actively browsing. This persistent harassment can lead to compromised devices, stolen personal information, and financial loss. Users need to exercise caution by avoiding suspicious websites, using reliable antivirus software, and managing their browser notification settings to prevent falling victim to such scams.

How Protectedscans.com infects devices

The Protectedscans.com infection primarily operates through a deceptive pop-up ad scheme that exploits social engineering tactics to manipulate users into downloading potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) or malware. Victims typically encounter these alarming pop-ups while browsing high-risk websites, such as torrent sites or free streaming platforms, where malicious advertisements are prevalent. These pop-ups often masquerade as legitimate security alerts, claiming that the user’s device is infected with malware, and frequently misuse well-known antivirus brands like McAfee to lend an air of credibility. When users click on these pop-ups, they are redirected to affiliate sites that promote dubious software, leading to unnecessary purchases and further compromising their systems. Additionally, the malicious ads can sometimes prompt users to download rogue antivirus tools that can steal personal information or introduce further malware. Consequently, the Protectedscans.com operation thrives on exploiting users’ fears about security, effectively turning their concern into a vehicle for profit and data theft.

1. Download Protectedscans.com Removal Tool
2. Stop Protectedscans.com notifications in browsers
3. Remove/Uninstall Protectedscans.com from Control Panel and Applications
4. Remove Protectedscans.com extensions from browsers
5. Reset browser search and homepage settings
6. Block Protectedscans.com search redirects
7. How to protect from threats like Protectedscans.com

Remove Protectedscans.com manually for free

Here is the manual step-by-step tutorial for full Protectedscans.com removal from your computer. This works 99% and was checked with the latest versions of the Protectedscans.com installer on operating systems with the latest updates and browser versions.

Disable push notifications from Protectedscans.com in browsers

Remove Protectedscans.com from websites, allowed to show push-notifications in Google Chrome

1. Go to Google Chrome settings, by clicking 3-dots icon in the top-right corner and choosing Settings.
2. On the left side choose Privacy and security menu.
3. Under opened Privacy and security tab, choose Site Settings.
4. Scroll down to Permissions section and click on Notifications (with the bell icon).
5. Go to the bottom list of sites named Allowed to send notifications.
6. Find Protectedscans.com in the list and click 3-dots icon near it. Click Remove button to delete the website permission.

Remove Protectedscans.com from websites, allowed to show push-notifications in Mozilla Firefox

1. Go to Mozilla Firefox options, by clicking 3-bars icon in the top-right corner and choosing Settings.
2. On the left panel choose Privacy & Security menu.
3. Scroll down to Permissions section.
4. Near Notifications click Settings… button.
5. Find Protectedscans.com in the list and click Remove Website to remove it.
6. Click Save Changes button to confirm the action.

Remove Protectedscans.com from websites, allowed to show push-notifications in Safari

1. Open Safari, and in the top menu click Safari, choose Preferences.
2. In the Preferences window, click on Websites tab.
3. On the left side, choose Notifications. You will see the list of websites and their settings for showing notifications.
4. Find Protectedscans.com in the list and click Remove button.

Remove Protectedscans.com from websites, allowed to show push-notifications in Microsoft Edge

1. Open Microsoft Edge, and click on the three-dots menu, in the top-right corner.
2. In the drop-down menu choose Settings.
3. In the menu click Cookies and site permissions section, and scroll down to All permissions section.
4. Click on Notifications.
5. Find Protectedscans.com in the list under Allow, click on 3-dots icon and choose Remove.

Remove Protectedscans.com from websites, allowed to show push-notifications in Android (Chrome)

1. Open Google Chrome app on Android, and tap on three dots to open main menu.
2. In the drop-down menu choose Settings, scroll down and under Advanced section tap on Site Settings.
3. In the Site Settings menu tap on Notifications.
4. In the Allowed list of websites allowed to show notifications find Protectedscans.com, tap on it and in the bottom of the window tap on Clean & Reset button.
5. Confirm your action by tapping on Clean & Reset again in opened dialog box.

Remove Protectedscans.com from websites, allowed to show push-notifications in iOS (Safari)

1. Find and tap the Settings app icon on your home screen.
2. Swipe up or down and select Safari from the list.
3. In Safari settings, find and tap on Websites near the bottom.
4. Find Notifications in the list and tap on it.
5. You’ll see a list of websites. Tap on Protectedscans.com to allow or deny notifications.

Remove Protectedscans.com from Control Panel or Applications

To start removing Protectedscans.com you should uninstall it using Control Panel. It can be present by different names – “Protectedscans.com”. It should uninstall correctly, however, we recommend you to use IObit Uninstaller or CleanMyMac to clean leftover items after uninstalling. Here are instructions for Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows 11 and Mac.

Remove Protectedscans.com from Windows 7:

1. Click Start button.
2. Then go to Control Panel.
3. Click Uninstall a Program.
4. Find recently installed suspicious program and click Uninstall.

Remove Protectedscans.com from Windows 8:

1. Hover mouse pointer to the bottom-right corner to see Menu.
2. Click Search.
3. After that click Apps.
4. Then Control Panel.
5. Click Uninstall a Program under Programs.
6. Find recently installed suspicious program, click Uninstall.

Remove Protectedscans.com from Windows 10:

There are 2 ways to uninstall Protectedscans.com from Windows 10

Way one

1. Click on the Start button.
2. In opened menu choose Settings.
3. Click on the System tile.
4. Click Apps & features and locate recently installed suspicious program in the list.
5. Click on it and then click Uninstall button near it.

Way two (classic)

1. Right-click on the Start button.
2. In opened menu choose Programs and Features.
3. Locate recently installed suspicious program in the list.
4. Click on it and then click Uninstall button above.

Remove Protectedscans.com from Windows 11:

1. Right-click on the Start button.
2. In opened menu choose Settings.
3. Click on the Apps tab on the left side.
4. Click Apps & features and locate recently installed suspicious program in the list.
5. Click on 3-dots icon near it and then click Uninstall button near it.
6. Depending on the type of application (Windows Store app or classic Win32 app) it will be removed immediately or you will need to confirm the action and go through standard uninstall procedure.

Remove Protectedscans.com from Mac:

1. In the Finder sidebar, click Applications.
2. Protectedscans.com might have an Uninstaller.
3. Otherwise, drag Protectedscans.com from the Applications folder to the Trash (located at the end of the Dock).
4. Then choose Finder > Empty Trash.

Cannot uninstall Protectedscans.com in Windows

In some cases, program related to Protectedscans.com won’t uninstall and gives you a message that “You do not have sufficient access to uninstall Protectedscans.com. Please, contact your system administrator” when you try to remove it from Control Panel or “Access denied” error when removing the Protectedscans.com folder and files. This happens because the process or service does not allow you to do it. In this case, I will recommend you to use SpyHunter 5 or Malwarebytes AntiMalware or uninstall Protectedscans.com in Safe Mode. To boot in Safe Mode do the following:

1. Reboot your computer.
2. While it starts booting type F8 button.
3. This will open Advanced Boot Options menu.
4. Choose Safe Mode and wait until Windows loads.
5. Go to Control Panel > Uninstall a program and remove recently installed suspicious program

>> See detailed instructions and video tutorial on how to boot in Safe Mode

Cannot uninstall Protectedscans.com in MacOS

If you can’t uninstall apps related to Protectedscans.com from MacOS using instructions above, or it keeps coming back, you can use free AppCleaner for Mac to remove all residual data and libraries of Protectedscans.com. Follow instructions below:

1. Download free AppCleaner.
2. Drag Protectedscans.com from Applications folder to AppCleaner window.
3. Choose files and folders you want to remove along with Protectedscans.com.
4. Click Delete button.

Remove malicious add-ons from your browsers

Uninstalling Protectedscans.com from Control Panel often does not bring the desired effect. It sometimes has a browser extension and it may still be active in Safari, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox. Here are instructions on how to remove Protectedscans.com related extension from your browsers manually.

Google Chrome:

1. Start Google Chrome browser
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) chrome://extensions.
3. Find Protectedscans.com related extension.
4. Click the Remove button to remove them.
5. Also remove other suspicious extensions from the list.

Mozilla Firefox:

1. Start Mozilla Firefox browser.
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) about:addons.
3. Find Protectedscans.com related extension.
4. Click three-dots icon near it and choose Remove in the menu.
5. In opened dialog window click Remove button to confirm the action.
6. Remove all suspicious extensions from the list.

Safari:

1. Start Safari on your Mac, click Safari to open drop-down menu and choose Preferences
2. Click Extensions tab.
3. Find Protectedscans.com extension.
4. Click Uninstall button to remove it.

Microsoft Edge:

1. Start Microsoft Edge browser.
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) edge://extensions.
3. Find Protectedscans.com related extension.
4. Click Remove link under the name of extension.
5. In opened dialog window click Remove button to confirm the action.
6. Remove all suspicious extensions from the list.

Internet Explorer (9, 10, 11):

Note: There is no feature to remove browser extensions from browser in latest version of Internet Explorer. To remove Protectedscans.com from Internet Explorer, please, perform instructions for uninstalling program from Control Panel. To disable Protectedscans.com, please, do the following:

1. Open Internet Explorer.
2. Click on gear/asterisk icon in the top-right corner.
3. In opened menu Manage Add-ons.
4. Select Toolbars and Extensions.
5. Click Disable or Protectedscans.com related extension.
6. Also disable other suspicious extensions from the list.

Opera Browser:

Generally, Protectedscans.com does not install in Opera browser however you can always double check. Do the following:

1. Start Opera browser and click on Opera icon in the top-left corner.
2. Choose Extensions > Extensions.
3. Find Protectedscans.com related extension.
4. Click Details button and scroll down to the bottom.
5. Click Remove extension link and confirm the action by clicking Remove button on opened dialog window.
6. Also remove other suspicious extensions from the list.

Reset browsers settings (homepage, default search)

Protectedscans.com may install a search engine that hijacks your browsers. Here is an instruction to reset your browser’s homepage, new tab, and search engine to default values.

Google Chrome:

1. Start Google Chrome browser
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) chrome://settings.
3. On the left panel expand Advanced options.
4. Choose Reset and clean up.
5. Click on Restore settings to their original defaults link and confirm by clicking Reset button.

Mozilla Firefox:

1. Start Mozilla Firefox browser.
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) about:support.
3. Click Refresh Firefox… button.
4. Click Refresh Firefox button in opened dialog window to confirm.

Reset Safari:

1. Start Safari on your Mac, click Safari to open drop-down menu and choose Preferences
2. Go to the Privacy section of Safari’s preferences.
3. Click Remove All Website Data button.
4. In opened window click Remove Now button to remove data stored by websites in Safari.
5. Go to the Advanced section of Safari’s preferences.
6. Click the Show Develop menu in menu bar option.
7. In the menu click Develop and select Empty Caches from this menu.
8. Again, go to Safari menu and choose Clear History….
9. Choose to clear all history and click Clear History button.

Microsoft Edge:

1. Start Microsoft Edge browser
2. Click on 3-dots icon in the top-right corner and choose Settings.
3. On the left panel find and click Reset settings option.
4. Click on Restore settings to their default values link and confirm by clicking Reset button.

Internet Explorer (9, 10, 11):

1. Start Internet Explorer.
2. Click on gear/asterisk icon in the top-right corner.
3. In opened menu choose Internet options.
4. Click Advanced tab.
5. Click Reset button.
6. Choose Delete personal settings and click Reset.

Opera Browser:

1. Start Opera browser and click on Opera icon in the top-left corner.
2. Choose Settings and click Advanced on the left side and choose Browser.
3. Scroll down to the very bottom and click on Restore settings to their original defaults link.
4. Confirm by clicking Reset button.

How to block ads and pop-ups from Protectedscans.com

Protectedscans.com push-notifications, in most cases, are caused by a program installed on your PC or an add-on installed in browsers. However, sometimes it can appear on a clean computer when visiting a malicious website, using an advertising script. Also, apps that generate “Protectedscans.com” ads and banners are themselves installed from pop-ups. To protect your PC and browsers from phishing websites, pop-up ads, banners, malicious scripts it is recommended to use AdGuard. Download free trial here:

Download AdGuard for Windows

Download AdGuard for Mac

Final tips

Be careful surfing the internet and downloading software, as programs, like Protectedscans.com, may become a real headache as they are hard to remove and break your privacy. To keep safe from such threats we recommend you always use antivirus and one of the anti-malware programs available on the market. One of the best anti-spyware and anti-malware programs is SpyHunter 5. It can protect your PC from threats, like Protectedscans.com.