LuckyPuppy.top Scam Android Spam (Virus removal Guide)

Is LuckyPuppy.top a SCAM?

LuckyPuppy.top pop-ups are a new survey scam using the name of the Google brand (and other brand names) to manipulate victims into handing over their personal details. Survey scam is an online scam. It asks people to complete a survey, usually with the promise of a reward. LuckyPuppy.top scam is used to collect your sensitive information to be used in further scam attempts or other fraud.

Scammers use different ways to promote Survey scams, usually WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and other social networks. In addition, LuckyPuppy.top can be promoted through malicious redirects, deceptive ads, as well as Adware and potentially unwanted applications (PUAs).

An example of the LuckyPuppy.top SCAM (promoted via spam campaigns):

QUICK LINKS

• Is LuckyPuppy.top a SCAM?
• How to identify Survey Scams?
• How to protect against Survey Scams
• Removal
• How to block LuckyPuppy.top
• Report a Scam

LuckyPuppy.top Scam in detail

In this particular case, the scam invites users to participate in a survey and win an Apple iPhone 11 Pro (Samsung Galaxy S20, Walmart $1000 Gift Card, Amazon $500 Gift Card, Apple Store $500 Gift Card, Visa $1000 Gift Card, 750 Cash App Gift Card, $100 cash). The scammers’ goal is to get users to click on a phishing link that will ask the users to enter their personal details. The scam uses phishing sites disguised as legitimate Google pages. It must be emphasized that Google has nothing to do with these sites. These sites should be avoided!

VirusTotal flagged LuckyPuppy.top as phishing and malicious:

This scam is used primarily to steal the victims’ sensitive information, such as credit card details and personal identification numbers. Sometimes this scam is used to trick users into signing up for a “free trial” offer that’s actually an expensive subscription to products that users did not agree to buy.

Text presented in the LuckyPuppy.top Scam page:

Dear Google customer:

Congratulations! You are one of the 100 users we
have selected. You could receive an Apple iPhone 11
Pro, Samsung Galaxy S20, Walmart $1000 Gift Card,
Amazon $500 Gift Card, Apple Store $500 Gift Card,
Visa $1000 Gift Card, $750 Cash App Gift Card, $100
cash after leaving a review to our products or 3 years
of free membership to Netflix.

All you have to do to qualify is answer the following 9
questions.

As mentioned above, the goal of scammers is to obtain your personal details, as well as your credit card information. Scammers can use your email and personal information to run phishing scams, steal identities for personal and financial gain. Moreover, the criminals can use stolen email addresses and phone numbers to send spam and malspam (spam emails containing malware or links to malware).

To summarize, LuckyPuppy.top is a SCAM! The scam can lead to loss of data, financial losses, theft of personal information and other serious problems.

How to identify Survey Scams

Common Survey Scams often have similar red flags, such as a sense of urgency or a request for money. Here’s how to identify a Survey scam before it happens.

• If you receive a text message that invites you to take part a Survey, don’t respond or click on any links. Stop and think. An unexpected text message is often the first sign of a scam. Scammers use this tactic to harvest your personal information.
• The most obvious way how to spot a fake Survey is finding inconsistencies in domain names, phone numbers and email addresses. If the text claims to be from the Google, but the message is being sent from a random phone number or email address, it’s probably a scam.
• Copy the “Google Survey” link from the message, use a free URL Checker (https://www.virustotal.com/gui/home/url) to check suspicious links. It allows checking the safety of a link without clicking on it.
• If you have the slightest suspicion a Survey may be a scam, do not click on the links you see.
• The text message creates a sense of urgency. Creating a false sense of urgency is a common trick of phishing scams. Be suspicious of texts that claim you must call or click a link immediately.

Threat Summary

Name	LuckyPuppy.top
Type	survey scam, phishing, fake survey
Detection names	malware, malicious, suspicious
Distribution	rogue ad networks, adware bundles, suspicious websites
Symptoms	links redirect to a pages different from what you expected, you experience lots of unwanted advertisements, new entries appear in your Programs folder, unwanted browser toolbars/extensions, your browser homepage has modified and you cannot change it back, low ping but slow Internet
Damage	loss of personal data, disclosure of confidential information, financial losses
Removal	LuckyPuppy.top removal guide

Examples of such scams

A few examples of such survey scams: Mr Beast Giveaway SCAM, 2023 Annual Visitor Survey, $750 Cash App Survey, Chrome search contest 2022, You’ve made the 5-billionth search.

In fact, there are many more, the Internet is full of fraudulent websites, ads, social media pages, and apps promoting different “giveaway”, “online survey”, and other “get rich quick” schemes. So be careful!

Where did LuckyPuppy.top pop-ups come from?

As mentioned above, the LuckyPuppy.top pop-ups are caused by Adware, malvertising (malicious advertisements), push notifications, followed by software downloads and redirects. 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 phishing pages, install malicious browser add-ons & so on.

Adware is a form of malicious software that displays unwanted advertisements, redirects search queries to scam pages, and collects sensitive information for marketing purposes. Adware may display banner ads, full-screen ads, pop-ups, videos, or other forms of online advertising. Typically, adware ends up on personal devices bundled with freeware, malicious downloads, fake updates, shared files, and other unsafe software downloaded by users from the Internet.

How to protect against Survey Scams

To avoid becoming a victim of scammers, it is important to always keep in mind:

• NO ONE EVER WINS MONEY OR PRIZES IN THESE SCAMS!
• NEVER share your personal information.
• Legitimate surveys do not require the disclosure of confidential, personal or financial information.
• Use the official website of the company sponsoring the survey to verify that the survey is legitimate.
• Use an ad blocker. Ad blockers allow you to browse sites without ads, thus eliminating the possibility of clicking on something malicious and preventing it from being downloaded to the device.
• Pay for premium versions of popular services. The easiest way to avoid malvertising (malicious advertisements) and phishing pages is to pay for the service you use. Many Internet services make it possible to use them without ads if you purchase a premium subscription. This helps ensure that malicious ads cannot reach you.
• Close the LuckyPuppy.top pop-up 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.

How to get rid of “LuckyPuppy.top” pop-ups (Adware removal guide)

If you suspect that your computer/Android/Apple device is infected with malware, you accidentally clicked on a link/button in the scam, or want to scan your device, then use one of the best free malware removal tools. MalwareBytes is an antivirus that can be used to perform a virus scan, detect and remove almost all the forms of malicious programs including ransomware, trojans, worms, adware, browser hijackers, potentially unwanted software and spyware. MalwareBytes has real-time protection that can defeat most malicious software and ransomware. Despite so many features, it does not reduce the performance of your device. You can use MalwareBytes with any other antivirus without any conflicts.

First, please go to the link below, then click the ‘Download’ button in order to download the latest version of MalwareBytes.

When the downloading process is done, close all windows on your computer. Further, launch the file named MBSetup. If the “User Account Control” dialog box pops up like below, click the “Yes” button.

It will show the Setup wizard which will assist you install MalwareBytes on the computer. Follow the prompts and do not make any changes to default settings.

After the setup is complete successfully, press “Get Started” button. Then MalwareBytes AntiMalware will automatically run and you can see its main window such as the one below.

Next, click the “Scan” button for scanning your computer for malicious software and other security threats. A system scan can take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, depending on your computer. While MalwareBytes is scanning, you can see how many objects it has identified as threat.

When the scanning is done, the results are displayed in the scan report. In order to remove all threats, simply press “Quarantine” button.

We suggest you look at the following video, which completely explains the process of using MalwareBytes to remove malicious software.

If you are having issues with malware removal, then check out Kaspersky virus removal tool. It can easily remove trojans, spyware, browser hijackers, adware, worms and ransomware with all their components such as files, folders and registry entries. Visit the page linked below to download the latest version of Kaspersky virus removal tool for Windows.

How to block LuckyPuppy.top, protect yourself from phishing, malicious and misleading websites

If you want to protect yourself from phishing sites, install an ad blocking program like AdGuard. It can block malicious and misleading websites, stop unwanted ads and pop-ups while using Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox and Edge. So, if you like to surf the Internet and want to protect your computer from phishing scams, then AdGuard is your best choice.

Visit the following page to download AdGuard. Save it on your Windows desktop.

After downloading it, double-click the downloaded file to launch it. The “Setup Wizard” window will show up on the computer screen as displayed on the image below.

Follow the prompts. AdGuard will then be installed and an icon will be placed on your desktop. A window will show up asking you to confirm that you want to see a quick tutorial as shown in the figure below.

Press “Skip” button to close the window and use the default settings, or click “Get Started” to see an quick guidance which will allow you get to know AdGuard better.

Each time, when you start your computer, AdGuard will start automatically and stop unwanted advertisements, block the “LuckyPuppy.top” scam, as well as other malicious or phishing sites. For an overview of all the features of the program, or to change its settings you can simply double-click on the AdGuard icon, that is located on your desktop.

Report a Scam

If you encounter the LuckyPuppy.top Scam on a website or social media platform, report it as comment on this article. This helps us to warn users about current scams, monitor trends and disrupt scams where possible.