Avira Assistance Scam

Trojan
by Violet George
March 11, 2023

Avira Assistance Scam

Avira Assistance Scam is a virus that is categorized by security researchers as a Trojan horse. This makes Avira Assistance Scam highly dangerous and it should be removed from the infected system immediately.

Avira Assistance PayPal Scam

Trojans are notoriously dangerous and can cause extensive damage to the computer they’re on. But they can also have long lasting negative consequences for the affected users, as well.

For example, with the help of Trojans, cybercriminals can steal your identity and use it to commit all sorts of crimes in your name. They can take out loans, make purchases on your behalf, etc. Another extremely common usage for Trojans is financial fraud, so you could easily have your bank account wiped clean or you can be tricked into sending money to the hackers – the possibilities are endless.

Many of our users reported to us about an ongoing email spam with the following messages:

Hi Paypal User,
Here’s your invoice
AVIRA ASSISTANCE () – sent you an invoice for $432.00 USD
Due on receipt
View and Pay Invoice
Seller note to customer
For any Queries ring us
Don’t know this seller?
You can safely ignore this invoice if you’re not buying anything from this seller. PayPal won’t ask you to call or send texts to phone numbers in an invoice. We don’t ask for your credentials or auto-debit money from your account against any invoices. Contact us if you’re still not sure.
PayPal
Help & Contact | Security | Apps
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PayPal is committed to preventing fraudulent emails. Emails from PayPal will always contain your full name. Learn to identify phishing
Please don’t reply to this email. To get in touch with us, click Help & Contact.
Not sure why you received this email? Learn more
Copyright © 1999-2023 PayPal. All rights reserved.
PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A. Société en Commandite par Actions Registered Office: 22–24 Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg RCS Luxembourg B 118 349
PayPal (Europe) S.à.r.l et Cie, S.C.A is duly licensed as a Luxembourg credit institution and is under the prudential supervision of the Luxembourg supervisory authority, the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier.
PayPal is deemed authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. The nature and extent of consumer protections may differ from those for firms based in the UK. Details of the Temporary Permissions Regime, which allows EEA-based firms to operate in the UK for a limited period while seeking full authorisation, are available on the Financial Conduct Authority’s website. Some PayPal products including PayPal Pay in 3, and PayPal Working Capital are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
PayPal RT000238:en_GB(en-GB):1.4.0:9972fdd36ef12

The Avira Assistance PayPal Scam

On top of that, Trojans like the Avira Assistance PayPal Scam can be used to insert other viruses into your computer, most notably ransomware. And if you aren’t familiar with the Avira Assistance PayPal Scam malicious software, it can rob you of your most important files. So you can only imagine the type of implications that can have for you if you’re a company or even a private person whose files are of a very sensitive nature.

SUMMARY:

NameAvira Assistance Scam
TypeTrojan
Detection Tool

Please follow all the steps below in order to remove Avira Assistance Scam!

How to remove Avira Assistance Scam

  1. First, click the Start Menu on your Windows PC.
  2. Type Programs and Settings in the Start Menu, click the first item, and find Avira Assistance Scam in the programs list that would show up.
  3. Select Avira Assistance Scam from the list and click on Uninstall.
  4. Follow the steps in the removal wizard.

What we suggest you do first is, check the list of programs that are presently installed on the infected device and uninstall any rogue software that you find there:

  • From the Start Menu, navigate to Control Panel ->>> Programs and Features ->>> Uninstall a Program.
  • Next, carefully search for unfamiliar programs or programs that have been installed recently and could be related to Avira Assistance Scam.
  • If you find any of the programs suspicious then uninstall them if they turn out to be linked to Avira Assistance Scam.
  • If a notification appears on your screen when you try to uninstall a specific questionable program prompting you to just alter it or repair it, make sure you choose NO and complete the steps from the removal wizard.

Remove Avira Assistance Scam from Chrome

  1. Click on the three dots in the right upper corner
  2. Go to more tools
  3. Now select extensions
  4. Remove the Avira Assistance Scam extension
  • Once you open Chrome, click on the three-dots icon to open the browser’s menu, go to More Tools/ More Options, and then to Extensions.
  • Again, find the items on that page that could be linked to Avira Assistance Scam and/or that might be causing problems in the browser and delete them.
  • Afterwards, go to this folder: Computer > C: > Users > *Your User Account* > App Data > Local > Google > Chrome > User Data. In there, you will find a folder named Default – you should change its name to Backup Default and restart the PC.
  • Note that the App Data folder is normally hidden so you’d have to first make the hidden files and folders on your PC visible before you can access it.

How to get rid of Avira Assistance Scam on FF/Edge/etc.

  1. Open the browser and select the menu icon.
  2. From the menu, click on the Add-ons button.
  3. Look for the Avira Assistance Scam extension
  4. Get rid of Avira Assistance Scam by removing it from extensions

If using Firefox:

  • Open Firefox
  • Select the three parallel lines menu and go to Add-ons.
  • Find the unwanted add-on and delete it from the browser – if there is more than one unwanted extension, remove all of them.
  • Go to the browser menu again, select Options, and then click on Home from the sidebar to the left.
  • Check the current addresses for the browser’s homepage and new-tab page and change them if they are currently set to address(es) you don’t know or trust.

If using MS Edge/IE:

  • Start Edge
  • Select the browser menu and go to Extensions.
  • Find and uninstall any Edge extensions that look undesirable and unwanted.
  • Select Settings from the browser menu and click on Appearance.
  • Check the new-tab page address of the browser and if it has been modified by “Avira Assistance Scam” or another unwanted app, change it to an address that you’d want to be the browser’s new-tab page.

How to Delete Avira Assistance Scam

  1. Open task manager
  2. Look for the Avira Assistance Scam process
  3. Select it and click on End task
  4. Open the file location to delete Avira Assistance Scam
  • Access the Task Manager by pressing together the Ctrl + Alt + Del keys and then selecting Task Manager.
  • Open Processes and there try to find a process with the name of the unwanted software. If you find it, select it with the right button of the mouse and click on the Open File Location option.
  • If you don’t see a “Avira Assistance Scam” process in the Task Manager, look for another suspicious process with an unusual name. It is likely that the unwanted process would be using lots of RAM and CPU so pay attention to the number of resources each process is using.
  • Tip: If you think you have singled out the unwanted process but are not sure, it’s always a good idea to search for information about it on the Internet – this should give you a general idea if the process is a legitimate one from a regular program or from your OS or if it is indeed likely linked to the adware.
  • If you find another suspicious process, open its File Location too.
  • Once in the File Location folder for the suspicious process, start testing all of the files that are stored there by dragging them to our free online scanner available below.
  • Each file will be scanned with up to 64 antivirus programs to ensure maximum accuracy
    This scanner is free and will always remain free for our website's users.
    This file is not matched with any known malware in the database. You can either do a full real-time scan of the file or skip it to upload a new file. Doing a full scan with 64 antivirus programs can take up to 3-4 minutes per file.
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    • If the scanner finds malware in any of the files, return to the Processes tab in the Task Manager, select the suspected process, and then select the End Process option to quit it.
    • Go back to the folder where the files of that process are located and delete all of the files that you are allowed to delete. If all files get deleted normally, exit the folder and delete that folder too. If one or more of the files showed an error message when you tried to delete them, leave them for now and return to try to delete them again once you’ve completed the rest of the guide.

    How to Uninstall Avira Assistance Scam

    1. Click on the home button
    2. Search for Startup Apps
    3. Look for Avira Assistance Scam in there
    4. Uninstall Avira Assistance Scam from Startup Apps by turning it off
    • Now you need to carefully search for and uninstall any Avira Assistance Scam-related entries from the Registry. The easiest way to do this is to open the Registry Editor app (type Regedit in the windows search field and press Enter) and then open a Find dialog (CTRL+F key combination) where you have to type the name of the threat. 
    • Perform a search by clicking on the Find Next button and delete any detected results. Do this as many times as needed until no more results are found. 
    • After that, to ensure that there are no remaining entries lined to Avira Assistance Scam in the Registry, go manually to the following directories and delete them:
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Random Directory. 
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run/Random
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/Main/Random

    Is the Avira Assistance PayPal Scam dangerous?


    And that’s not to mention the spying potential of malware variants like Avira Assistance Scam. Actually, one of the most common usages of Trojan horse viruses is spying. There are myriads of techniques that a Trojan can employ in order to serve as the eyes and ears of the hackers on your computer – sometimes even literally. For instance, they can hack into your webcam and mic and allow the cybercriminals to listen in on your conversations or watch you without your knowledge.
    Alternatively, Trojans can also log your keystrokes and thus have access to everything you use your keyboard to type. They can even share your screen with the hackers and they will be able to see everything you do on your computer. And some of the more sophisticated versions of this malicious software can even have your traffic pass through the remote servers of the cybercriminals, thus granting them access to everything you do online.
    And that’s not all. A less ominous usage of malicious pieces of programming like Avira Assistance Scam is resource exploitation. So for example, the hackers behind Avira Assistance Scam or ItonSearch Facebook Scam may want to mine cryptocurrencies on your computer to line their own pockets.
    Alternatively, they may use your computer’s resources to send out spam or infect other machines in the same network.
    As you can see, there is endless potential for mayhem with viruses like Avira Assistance Scam. And that is why it is critical for your safety and that of your system that you remove this Trojan as soon as possible. Below we have put together a comprehensive guide that will walk you through the steps necessary to locate and delete this virus. But if you’d rather prefer to have this process handled automatically, then we have a professional malware tool available on this page for you, as well.


    About the author

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    Violet George

    Violet is an active writer with a passion for all things cyber security. She enjoys helping victims of computer virus infections remove them and successfully deal with the aftermath of the attacks. But most importantly, Violet makes it her priority to spend time educating people on privacy issues and maintaining the safety of their computers. It is her firm belief that by spreading this information, she can empower web users to effectively protect their personal data and their devices from hackers and cybercriminals.

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