Deceptive Site Ahead warning stops you from entering dangerous websites
Contents
Deceptive Site Ahead is a warning message from web browsers that alerts the user about possible dangers on the requested page. This measure allows saving the user from phishing or malicious content on a particular site. The detection of unsafe websites is turned on by default. There are several different versions of such “shield” warning page, so if you attempt to visit a potentially dangerous website, you can run into one of the following alerts.
If you are a WordPress site owner and your site displays Deceptive Site ahead to your visitors, take actions immediately to remove malware from your site. It could have been compromised by malware on your computer or breached via security vulnerabilities that weren’t fixed on time. We’ll describe how to get your WP site unblacklisted by Google later on.
Types of warnings
- The site ahead contains malware.
- The site ahead contains harmful programs.
- This page is trying to load scripts from unauthenticated sources.
- Continue to [website name]?
- Deceptive Site Ahead.
- Deceptive Website Warning.
The “Deceptive Site Ahead” warning prevents the loading of web page contents to tell you that they’re potentially unsafe. No matter if you’re using Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari or Edge, you can run into these types of warnings.
Even if you were about to visit a completely legitimate website, keep in mind that such warning may have prevented you from a computer infection or information theft since hackers can sneak into almost every website if it contains some security flaws.
So if you are looking for an answer whether seeing “Deceptive Site Ahead” warning means you’re infected, then no, you are not. However, if you proceed to the blocked website, you might get infected then.
Besides, users often run into this message when attempting to visit gaming, free torrent downloads and adult-only websites as these often contain suspicious files or trigger pop-ups loading untrustworthy and possibly malicious websites.
In general, be very careful if you decide to visit these types of websites and make sure you have a trustworthy antivirus software with real-time protection feature on, as even one wrong click can lead to a malware infection.
Deceptive Site Ahead in website: information for webmasters
Deceptive Site Ahead check might hit your website in case it was compromised in a particular way. You could have uploaded a file to the system from an infected computer. In addition, your website’s technical configuration could have contained flaws and as a result, it was compromised by cybercriminals. Typically, such techniques are used to exploit website for further malware distribution.
Therefore, if your visitors see Deceptive Site Ahead in website on Chrome or Firefox, you need to fix it ASAP by cleaning your website from malware. You can do it yourself or use paid services to do it for you. After cleaning your website, you’ll need to request a Google review.
Be aware of scams displaying a fake message
Some scammers tend to steal the design of Deceptive Site Ahead warning and use it to trick people into calling fake tech support. Therefore, if you have accidentally visited such pop-ups with fake warnings, DO NOT CALL the “toll-free” number displayed on the screen. Check this article from Microsoft about tech support scams to learn more.
First of all, such number is definitely not a toll-free; what is more, the “support” at the other end will try to leverage your lack of computer knowledge and trick you into thinking that you need some expensive software to fix non-existent computer problems.
Also, if you noticed that your browser redirects you to such websites, consider using the guide below this article to remove any associated adware or browser hijackers that lead you to Deceptive Site Ahead pop-ups.
Get past the Deceptive Site Ahead warning
If you are determined to visit a specific site AND you are sure that it won’t compromise your data or computer system, you can proceed to the said website quite simply. All you need to do is:
- Click Details;
- Click Visit this unsafe site.
- Wait until the page loads and expect that you won’t get infected.
How to remove Deceptive Site Ahead warning in Chrome or Firefox
You can turn off safe browsing features in your browsers, although this is a NOT RECOMMENDED practice. If you decide to do so, we recommend to only use this measure temporarily and then turn the Firefox browser protection page back on. The Deceptive Site Ahead removal guides for Chrome and Firefox are presented below.
Turn off safe browsing in Chrome
- Open Chrome and type chrome://settings into the URL bar. Press Enter.
- Then click on Sync and Google services.
- Now scroll down and find Other Google services. Under it, you should find the Safe Browsing option. Turn it off by clicking on the on/off switch. That’s it.
Turn off Deceptive Site Ahead warnings in Firefox
- Open Firefox and then click on the three bars in the top right corner.
- Select Options.
- In Options, click on Privacy & Security.
- Scroll down to the Security section. Here, deselect one or all given options (the ones you don’t want to get a warning for).
suspicious adware or browser hijackers Removal Tutorial
To remove the unwanted program from your computer, use these instructions below to uninstall associated programs or apps from your Windows or Mac computer. Then scroll down for instructions how to clean each affected web browser individually.
Remove suspicious adware or browser hijackers from Windows
Windows 10/8.1/8 users
Click on the Windows logo to open Windows menu. In search, type control panel and select the matching result. Then go to Programs and Features.
Windows 7 users
First, open Windows menu by clicking on the icon in the lower left corner of the screen. Then go to Control Panel and find section called Programs. Click on the Uninstall a program option under it.
Windows XP users
In Windows XP, click Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs.
Uninstall unwanted programs
Once in Programs and Features, look through the list of installed programs. You can click on Installed on tab to sort the programs by their installation date.
Right-click on suspicious programs you can't remember installing and choose Uninstall. Follow instructions provided by the Uninstall Wizard, click Next and finally Finish to uninstall the unwanted program from your PC.
Remove suspicious adware or browser hijackers from Mac
- Click on Finder.
- Go to Applications folder.
- Look for suspicious applications you can't remember installing. Right-click them and select Move to Trash.
- After moving all suspicious apps to Trash, right-click the Trash bin in Mac's Dock and select Empty Trash.
Remove suspicious adware or browser hijackers from Google Chrome
Remove suspicious Chrome extensions
- Open Chrome and type chrome://extensions into address bar and press Enter.
- Here, look for suspicious extensions, and Remove them.
- Don't forget to confirm by pressing Remove in the confirmation pop-up.
Change Start Page settings
- In Chrome address bar, type chrome://settings and press Enter.
- Scroll down to the On startup section. Check for suspicious extensions controlling these settings, and Disable them.
- Additionally, you can set browser to Open a specific page or set of pages via these settings. Simply choose this option, click Add a new page, enter your preferred URL (f.e. www.google.com) and press Add.
Change default search settings
- In Chrome URL bar, type chrome://settings/searchEngines and press Enter. Make sure you type searchEngines, not searchengines. Additionally, you can go to chrome://settings and find Manage search engines option.
- First, look at the list of search engines and find the one you want to set as default. Click the three dots next to it and select Make Default.
- Finally, look through the list and eliminate suspicious entries. Right-click the three dots and select Remove from the list.
Reset Google Chrome browser
- The final option is to reset Google Chrome. Type chrome://settings in the URL bar, press Enter and then scroll down until you see Advanced option. Click it and scroll to the bottom of the settings.
- Click Restore settings to their original defaults.
- Click Restore settings to confirm.
Remove suspicious adware or browser hijackers from Mozilla Firefox
Remove unwanted add-ons from Firefox
- Open Firefox and type about:addons in the URL bar. Press Enter.
- Now, click on Extensions (in the left section).
- Click Remove next to every suspicious browser add-on that you can't remember installing.
Change Firefox Homepage
- In Firefox address bar, type about:preferences and hit Enter.
- Look at the left and click the Home tab.
- Here, delete the suspicious URL and type or paste in the URL of a website you'd like to set as your homepage.
Alter preferences in Firefox
- Type about:config in Firefox address bar and hit Enter.
- Click I accept the risk! to continue.
- Here, type in the URL which has taken over your browser without your knowledge. Right-click each value that includes it and choose Reset.
Reset Mozilla Firefox
- In Firefox, type about:support in the address bar and press Enter.
- Click on Refresh Firefox...
- Click Refresh Firefox again to confirm.
Remove suspicious adware or browser hijackers from Microsoft Edge
Remove suspicious extensions:
- Open MS Edge browser and click on the three dots button in the top right corner, then click on Extensions.
- Look through the list of installed extensions and find the ones you can't remember installing or simply suspicious-looking ones. Right-click on them and choose Uninstall. Then confirm by pressing Uninstall again.
Change MS Edge Start Page and default search engine:
- Click on the three dots again and go to Settings. First, make sure that you choose to Open Microsoft Edge with A specific page or pages option. Then click the X next to suspicious URLs and type in the one you want to set as your homepage. Click the Save icon to confirm.
- Click on the three dots > Settings. Scroll down and click on Show Advanced Settings. Then scroll down until you find Change search engine button. Click it. Here, select the search engine you prefer using and click Set as default.
Additionally, we recommend selecting and Removing suspicious search engines.
Clear browsing data:
- Click on the three dots in the top right corner again and click on Settings. Find Clear browsing data section and click Choose what to clear button.
- In the next window, select all options and click Clear.
Remove suspicious adware or browser hijackers from Safari
Uninstall suspicious Safari extensions
- Open Safari and click on Safari button in the top left corner. Select Preferences in the menu that appears on the screen.
- Now, go to Extensions tab. Look at the left to see all installed extensions, click on suspicious ones and hit that Uninstall button as shown in the picture. Confirm your choice by clicking Uninstall again. Repeat until you get rid of all unwanted extensions.
Change Safari Homepage and default search engine
- In Preferences, open the General tab. Here, check what URL is set as your homepage. Delete it and type in whatever URL you want to set as your Safari Start Page.
- Next, go to the Search tab. Here, choose what Search engine you want to set as default.
- Next, click on Manage websites... then Remove all... and then Done.
Reset Safari
- Click on Safari > Clear History...
- Then choose to clear All history and hit Clear History button to confirm.
- Go to Safari > Preferences and then open Privacy tab.
- Click Manage Website Data... then Remove All. To finish, click Done.
- Finally, clear Safari cache. In Safari Menu, click Develop > Clear Cache.
Remove suspicious adware or browser hijackers from Internet Explorer
TIP: If you are still using IE, we strongly advise using Microsoft Edge or a different browser because Microsoft is no longer providing technical or security support for IE browser.
Remove suspicious extensions from IE
- Now, go back to Toolbars and Extensions.
- Below Show:, select All add-ons.
- Right-click suspicious extensions and choose Disable, or, if available - Remove.
- If any pop-up appears, confirm your choice.
Tip: If you can't find any suspicious extensions, most likely you have uninstalled them via Programs and Features already. This mostly applies to IE browser.
Change default search provider and remove suspicious ones
- Open Internet Explorer and click on the gear icon in the top right of the window.
- Then select Manage Add-ons.
- Here, click on Search Providers tab.
- Here, we recommend setting Bing, Google or another trusted and well-known search provider as default. To do it, right-click the provider and choose Set as default.
- Now you can right-click suspicious search providers and choose Remove.
Change IE Home Page
- In Internet Explorer, click the gear icon in the top left corner.
- Choose Internet Options.
- Change Home Page URL to whatever page you want to use as your homepage.
- Click Apply.
- Click OK.
Reset Internet Explorer
- Click the gear icon in IE menu > Internet Options. Now click on Advanced tab.
- Under Reset Internet Explorer settings, click Reset...
- Click on the checkbox next to Delete personal settings.
- Click Reset.
- To finish, click Close.
Norbert Webb is the head of Geek’s Advice team. He is the chief editor of the website who controls the quality of content published. The man also loves reading cybersecurity news, testing new software and sharing his insights on them. Norbert says that following his passion for information technology was one of the best decisions he has ever made. “I don’t feel like working while I’m doing something I love.” However, the geek has other interests, such as snowboarding and traveling.
I was wondering what that warning means. Great explanation.