What is Universal-current.com?
Universal-current.com pop-ups are a SCAM that uses social engineering and other techniques to trick unsuspecting users into believing the computer is infected with viruses, trojans, and other security threats. Scammers use fake virus alerts to trick users into downloading and installing software they don’t need.
Universal-current.com pop-ups can invade computers, Android/Apple devices when users land on deceptive websites — by following a link from push notifications, spam emails or mistyping a URL. They might be served to users via Adware, PUPs (potenially unwanted programs) users can unwittingly install if they download free or pirated versions of software.
Universal-current.com pop-ups are a SCAM
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Typically, scam sites first check the user’s IP address to determine their geolocation. Scammers, having determined the user’s location, can use various scam schemes, change the page language and redirect the user to other dangerous sites. Universal-current.com displays a fake message that the computer is infected with viruses and other security threats. This scam instructs users to click “Proceed..” to remove the found malware.
Universal-current.com performs a fake Norton security system scan
After clicking, users are redirected to another page that offers to purchase antivirus software. In this particular case, users are shown a legitimate Norton antivirus page offering to purchase the Norton 360 subscription. Scammers behind Universal-current.com and similar sites earn a commission for each purchased Norton subscription. Of course, Norton and other antivirus companies do not allow affiliates to promote their products using social engineering tricks, misleading methods, and deceptive advertising. However, despite this ban, scammers continue to advertise Norton Antivirus and other antivirus companies’ products.
Universal-current.com can display a ‘show notifications’ pop-up that attempts to get users to click the ‘Allow’ button to allow its push notifications. These push notifications will essentially be advertisements for ‘free’ online games, fake prizes scams, dubious web browser extensions, adult web-sites, and fake downloads.
How to protect against Universal-current.com scam
To avoid becoming a victim of scammers, it is important to always keep in mind:
- There are no sites that can detect viruses and other security threats.
- Never install software promoted by scam sites, as it can be useless, and besides, it can be dangerous for you and your computer.
- Close Universal-current.com as soon as it appears on your computer screen. Scammers can prevent you from closing it in various ways. In such cases, close your browser using Task Manager or restart your computer. If the next time you launch the browser, it prompts you to restore the previous session, abandon it, otherwise this scam will reopen on your screen.
- Use an ad blocker when browsing the internet. It can block known scam sites and protect you from scammers.
Threat Summary
| Name | Universal-current.com |
| Type | scam, phishing, fake virus alerts |
| Symptoms |
|
| Removal | Universal-current.com removal guide |
Microsoft Windows Virus Alert, Norton Antivirus 2021 Update, Your PC is infected with 5 viruses, Your McAfee Subscription Has Expired are other scams designed to trick visitors into installing untrustworthy software or calling fake tech support. Some of these scams are positioned as a legitimate Microsoft, Norton, McAfee sites, but in fact have nothing to do with Microsoft, Norton and McAfee. The scams should never be trusted, they should be closed as soon as they appear on the screen.
The Universal-current.com pop ups are caused by malicious advertisements on websites you visit, browser notifications or Adware. Browser (push) notifications are originally developed to alert the user of recently published news. Cyber criminals abuse ‘push notifications’ by displaying unwanted ads. These ads are displayed in the lower right corner of the screen urges users to play online games, visit questionable web-pages, install web browser add-ons & so on.
By definition, adware software is a piece of software which displays advertisements on a computer. However, people basically use the word ‘adware’ to describe a part of malicious software that shows unwanted ads to the user. Most often, this kind of adware software do not have any uninstall procedures and can use technologies that are similar to those used by trojans to penetrate the personal computer.
How does Adware get on your PC
Usually, adware software gets into computers as part of a bundle with free applications, sharing files and other unsafe applications which you downloaded from the Internet. The authors of adware software pays software makers for distributing adware software within their apps. So, optional applications is often included as part of the install package. In order to avoid the installation of any adware: select only Manual, Custom or Advanced install mode and disable all third-party applications in which you are unsure.
How to remove Universal-current.com pop-ups (Adware removal guide)
As with uninstalling adware, malicious software or potentially unwanted applications, there are few steps you can do. We recommend trying them all. If you do only one part of the guidance, then it should be use malware removal utility, because it should remove adware and block any further infection. But to completely delete Universal-current.com pop-ups you will have to at least reset your web browser settings such as home page, newtab and default search engine to default state, disinfect device’s browsers shortcuts, uninstall all unwanted and suspicious programs, and remove adware by malware removal tools. Read it once, after doing so, please bookmark this page (or open it on your smartphone) as you may need to close your browser or restart your computer.
To remove Universal-current.com, complete the steps below:
- Manual Universal-current.com pop-up scam removal
- Automatic Removal of Universal-current.com pop-up scam
- Stop Universal-current.com pop-ups
Manual Universal-current.com pop-up scam removal
In this section of the post, we have posted the steps that will help to get rid of Universal-current.com scam manually. Although compared to removal utilities, this way loses in time, but you don’t need to install anything on your personal computer. It will be enough for you to follow the detailed guidance with pictures. We tried to describe each step in detail, but if you realized that you might not be able to figure it out, or simply do not want to change the Windows and web-browser settings, then it’s better for you to run tools from trusted developers, which are listed below.
Remove recently installed adware
In order to delete potentially unwanted apps such as this adware software, open the Windows Control Panel and click on “Uninstall a program”. Check the list of installed applications. For the ones you do not know, run an Internet search to see if they are adware software, hijacker or potentially unwanted apps. If yes, delete them off. Even if they are just a software which you do not use, then removing them off will increase your device start up time and speed dramatically.
Press Windows button 
, then click Search 
. Type “Control panel”and press Enter. If you using Windows XP or Windows 7, then press “Start” and select “Control Panel”. It will show the Windows Control Panel as on the image below.
Further, click “Uninstall a program” 
It will show a list of all programs installed on your PC. Scroll through the all list, and delete any dubious and unknown software.
Get rid of Universal-current.com from Firefox by resetting web-browser settings
This step will help you get rid of Universal-current.com scam, remove third-party toolbars, disable malicious extensions and restore your default start page, new tab page and search provider settings.
Start the Mozilla Firefox and click the menu button (it looks like three stacked lines) at the top right of the browser screen. Next, press the question-mark icon at the bottom of the drop-down menu. It will open the slide-out menu.
Select the “Troubleshooting information”. If you’re unable to access the Help menu, then type “about:support” in your address bar and press Enter. It bring up the “Troubleshooting Information” page as shown on the image below.
Click the “Refresh Firefox” button at the top right of the Troubleshooting Information page. Select “Refresh Firefox” in the confirmation dialog box. The Firefox will begin a procedure to fix your problems that caused by the adware. Once, it is finished, click the “Finish” button.
Remove Universal-current.com pop ups from Chrome
Reset Chrome settings will remove Universal-current.com pop-ups from web-browser and disable malicious plugins. It will also clear cached and temporary data (cookies, site data and content). However, your saved bookmarks and passwords will not be lost. This will not affect your history, passwords, bookmarks, and other saved data.
- First run the Chrome and press Menu button (small button in the form of three dots).
- It will display the Google Chrome main menu. Select More Tools, then click Extensions.
- You will see the list of installed add-ons. If the list has the extension labeled with “Installed by enterprise policy” or “Installed by your administrator”, then complete the following guidance: Remove Chrome extensions installed by enterprise policy.
- Now open the Google Chrome menu once again, click the “Settings” menu.
- You will see the Google Chrome’s settings page. Scroll down and click “Advanced” link.
- Scroll down again and click the “Reset” button.
- The Google Chrome will display the reset profile settings page as shown on the screen above.
- Next click the “Reset” button.
- Once this task is complete, your web browser’s newtab, search provider by default and start page will be restored to their original defaults.
- To learn more, read the article How to reset Google Chrome settings to default.
Get rid of Universal-current.com popups from Microsoft Internet Explorer
By resetting Internet Explorer web-browser you restore your web-browser settings to its default state. This is basic when troubleshooting problems that might have been caused by adware software that causes multiple intrusive pop-ups.
First, open the Microsoft Internet Explorer, then press ‘gear’ icon 
. It will open the Tools drop-down menu on the right part of the web-browser, then click the “Internet Options” as shown in the figure below.
In the “Internet Options” screen, select the “Advanced” tab, then click the “Reset” button. The IE will display the “Reset Internet Explorer settings” dialog box. Further, click the “Delete personal settings” check box to select it. Next, click the “Reset” button as shown in the following example.
Once the task is complete, press “Close” button. Close the Internet Explorer and restart your personal computer for the changes to take effect. This step will help you to restore your web browser’s home page, search engine by default and newtab to default state.
Automatic Removal of Universal-current.com pop-up scam
Manual removal tutorial does not always help to completely delete the adware, as it’s not easy to identify and get rid of components of adware software and all malicious files from hard disk. Therefore, it is recommended that you use malicious software removal utility to fully delete Universal-current.com off your web browser. Several free malware removal utilities are currently available that may be used against the adware software. The optimum method would be to run Zemana AntiMalware (ZAM), MalwareBytes Free and Hitman Pro.
Use Zemana Free to remove Universal-current.com scam
Download Zemana Free to delete Universal-current.com popup scam automatically from all of your browsers. This is a freeware tool specially created for malware removal. This utility can delete adware software, hijacker from Edge, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google Chrome and Windows registry automatically.
- Please go to the link below to download the latest version of Zemana AntiMalware (ZAM) for MS Windows. Save it on your Microsoft Windows desktop.
Zemana AntiMalware
164104 downloads
Author: Zemana Ltd
Category: Security tools
Update: July 16, 2019
- At the download page, click on the Download button. Your web-browser will display the “Save as” dialog box. Please save it onto your Windows desktop.
- Once the downloading process is complete, please close all apps and open windows on your device. Next, run a file named Zemana.AntiMalware.Setup.
- This will run the “Setup wizard” of Zemana onto your PC. Follow the prompts and don’t make any changes to default settings.
- When the Setup wizard has finished installing, the Zemana Anti Malware (ZAM) will start and open the main window.
- Further, click the “Scan” button to perform a system scan for the adware software that causes multiple annoying pop-ups. A scan can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, depending on the number of files on your PC system and the speed of your device. During the scan Zemana will locate threats present on your personal computer.
- After Zemana AntiMalware has completed scanning your device, Zemana will open a list of all threats detected by the scan.
- You may remove threats (move to Quarantine) by simply press the “Next” button. The utility will remove adware software that causes multiple annoying pop-ups and move the selected items to the Quarantine. After the task is done, you may be prompted to restart the device.
- Close the Zemana AntiMalware and continue with the next step.
Delete Universal-current.com scam and harmful extensions with Hitman Pro
HitmanPro is a free program that developed to delete malicious software, PUPs, browser hijackers and adware from your computer running Windows 10, 8, 7, XP (32-bit and 64-bit). It’ll help to search for and remove adware related to the Universal-current.com pop-ups, including its files, folders and registry keys.
Click the following link to download Hitman Pro. Save it on your MS Windows desktop.
When downloading is complete, open the folder in which you saved it and double-click the HitmanPro icon. It will start the HitmanPro utility. If the User Account Control dialog box will ask you want to start the program, click Yes button to continue.
Next, click “Next” to scan for adware that causes Universal-current.com popup. A system scan can take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, depending on your computer. While the Hitman Pro program is checking, you may see how many objects it has identified as threat.
Once finished, the results are displayed in the scan report as on the image below.
Once you have selected what you want to delete from your device click “Next” button. It will open a dialog box, click the “Activate free license” button. The Hitman Pro will start to remove adware that causes Universal-current.com pop up in your internet browser. When that process is finished, the tool may ask you to reboot your PC system.
Run MalwareBytes to remove Universal-current.com scam
We recommend using the MalwareBytes Free. You can download and install MalwareBytes Anti Malware to search for adware and thereby delete Universal-current.com pop ups from your web-browsers. When installed and updated, this free malware remover automatically detects and removes all threats present on the computer.
- Visit the following page to download MalwareBytes Anti Malware. Save it to your Desktop so that you can access the file easily.
Malwarebytes Anti-malware
326458 downloads
Author: Malwarebytes
Category: Security tools
Update: April 15, 2020
- Once the downloading process is done, close all programs and windows on your PC system. Open a file location. Double-click on the icon that’s named MBsetup.
- Choose “Personal computer” option and click Install button. Follow the prompts.
- Once setup is complete, press the “Scan” button . MalwareBytes program will scan through the whole device for the adware responsible for Universal-current.com popups. A scan can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, depending on the number of files on your computer and the speed of your computer. When a threat is detected, the number of the security threats will change accordingly. Wait until the the checking is complete.
- When MalwareBytes AntiMalware has completed scanning, the results are displayed in the scan report. Make sure all items have ‘checkmark’ and press “Quarantine”. When that process is finished, you may be prompted to reboot your personal computer.
The following video offers a instructions on how to remove hijackers, adware and other malware with MalwareBytes.
Stop Universal-current.com pop-ups
It is also critical to protect your browsers from malicious web-sites and ads by using an ad-blocker application such as AdGuard. Security experts says that it will greatly reduce the risk of malware, and potentially save lots of money. Additionally, the AdGuard can also protect your privacy by blocking almost all trackers.
AdGuard can be downloaded from the following link. Save it to your Desktop so that you can access the file easily.
26655 downloads
Version: 6.4
Author: © Adguard
Category: Security tools
Update: November 15, 2018
When the downloading process is finished, start the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” screen as shown on the screen below.
Follow the prompts. Once the installation is finished, you will see a window as displayed on the image below.
You can click “Skip” to close the installation application and use the default settings, or click “Get Started” button to see an quick tutorial which will allow you get to know AdGuard better.
In most cases, the default settings are enough and you do not need to change anything. Each time, when you start your computer, AdGuard will start automatically and stop undesired advertisements, block Universal-current.com, as well as other harmful or misleading websites. For an overview of all the features of the application, or to change its settings you can simply double-click on the AdGuard icon, that may be found on your desktop.
Finish words
We suggest that you keep AdGuard (to help you stop unwanted pop-ups and intrusive harmful websites) and Zemana Anti Malware (ZAM) (to periodically scan your computer for new malicious software, browser hijackers and adware). Make sure that you have all the Critical Updates recommended for MS Windows operating system. Without regular updates you WILL NOT be protected when new browser hijackers, harmful programs and adware software are released.
If you are still having problems while trying to remove Universal-current.com pop-ups from your web-browser, then ask for help here.
