How to stop “You Have Won A Google Gift” scam

What is “You Have Won A Google Gift” scam

Users may end up on websites claiming “You Have Won A Google Gift” or similar messages. Such websites are fake and must be avoided. It is possible that you could end up on it after clicking on some dubious ad. Alternatively, users may be forcefully redirected to such pages by unwanted software installed in the system. Pages displaying messages about prizes claim they selected some number of lucky winners, which will receive a guaranteed prize. The only thing necessary is to complete a survey of questions and choose any prize offered. Here is a more detailed overview of what text such messages may look like:

Whatever it is, such prizes and information about winners is a scam, which has nothing to do with Google itself. Many cybercriminals promote their scams and fakes under the names of legitimate companies or services to make inexperienced users believe they are trustworthy. Note that interacting with such websites can be potentially dangerous – they may lead to stealth infiltrations of malware or an attempt to extort money from users. A very popular scheme employed by scammers is saying that the gift is free, but users should pay for its delivery. Do not provide any sensitive information on such random websites, instead, close them down immediately and avoid clicking on content that led you to them. As mentioned above, one of the two reasons why you may be constantly witnessing “You Have Won A Google Gift” messages in your browser can also be due to some unwanted software installed on a PC. It can be a small app working in the background that promotes various ads, pop-ups, and force-opens pages like the one we discussed above. We thus recommend you take a look at our guidelines below to learn how unwanted software can be removed and what can be done to prevent seeing such pages in the future.

How “You Have Won A Google Gift” scam infected your computer

As mentioned, the reason why users may end up on pages featuring scams is either due to clicking on dubious ads or because there is some unwanted software installed on the system. The first case is better since users can simply close down the page and never come back to it ever again. On the other hand, such a page may be persistent and open itself each time at browser setup. This will continue until an unwanted program is present and working as a background process. Programs that promote various pages and scams are oftentimes adware or browser hijackers that sneak into users’ PCs under the disguise of useful programs along with other installers. They may be hidden inside of “Advanced” or “Custom” sections without being properly disclosed. As a result, many people skip over them automatically letting the installation occur. This is why it is always important to be on alert while downloading software from third-party resources. Make sure you double-check it for additional offers and try to opt only for trusted and verified resources. You can also read our guide below to get more useful information on system protection against such threats in the future – completely for free!

1. Download Removal Tool
2. Remove/Uninstall unwanted apps, that may cause You Have Won A Google Gift pop-ups from Control Panel and Applications
3. Remove unwanted extensions, that may cause You Have Won A Google Gift pop-ups from browsers
4. Reset browser settings
5. Block You Have Won A Google Gift pop-ups
6. How to protect from threats like You Have Won A Google Gift pop-up

Remove unwanted programs, that may cause “You Have Won A Google Gift” pop-ups from Control Panel or Applications

To start removing unwanted program you should uninstall them using Control Panel. It can be present by different names. 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 XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows 11 and Mac.

Remove unwanted program from Windows XP:

1. Click on Start button.
2. Choose Control Panel.
3. Click Add or Remove Programs.
4. Find recently installed suspicious program.
5. Click Uninstall.

Remove unwanted program 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 unwanted program 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 unwanted program from Windows 10:

There are 2 ways to uninstall unwanted program 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 unwanted program 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 unwanted program from Mac:

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

Cannot uninstall unwanted program in Windows

In some cases, program unwanted program won’t uninstall and gives you a message that “You do not have sufficient access to uninstall “unwanted program” Please, contact your system administrator” when you try to remove it from Control Panel or “Access denied” error when removing the unwanted programs’ 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 unwanted program 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 unwanted program in MacOS

If you can’t uninstall unwanted app related to “You Have Won A Google Gift” pop-up 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 the app. Follow instructions below:

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

Remove malicious add-ons from your browsers

Uninstalling unwanted program 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 extension related to “You Have Won A Google Gift” pop-up from your browsers manually.

Google Chrome:

1. Start Google Chrome browser
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) chrome://extensions.
3. Find suspicious 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 suspicious 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 suspicious 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 suspicious 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 suspicious add-on from Internet Explorer, please, perform instructions for uninstalling program from Control Panel. To disable unwanted add-on, 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 suspicious extension.
6. Also disable other suspicious extensions from the list.

Opera Browser:

Generally, such extensions 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 suspicious 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)

To make sure there are no malicious settings in your browsers, that may cause “You Have Won A Google Gift” pop-ups, please, do the following:

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 “You Have Won A Google Gift” pop-ups

“You Have Won A Google Gift” pop-ups, in some 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. 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 threats, like “You Have Won A Google Gift” pop-up, may become a real headache as they are hard to get rid of and can 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, causing “You Have Won A Google Gift” pop-ups.