Unveiling the Truth: Is the ‘5Th Billion’ A Deceptive Google Ad Ploy and Steps for Removal

While browsing the internet, you might have redirected to “You’ve made the 5-billionth search” page, which claims that you have won an award from Google for the 5th billion search query. Unfortunately, you have NOT won any award; instead, this is a phishing attempt to gather your information.

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In this guide, we would discuss more on the 5th Billion Search Scam and how to remove it, if it repeatedly appears.

Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links

If you click on a link and make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

What is “You’ve Made The 5-billionth Search”?

You’ve made the 5-billionth search.

You were evaluated as the winner of today’s 5-billionth search query a few minutes ago by our system!

Our last winner was Brad Jenkins from Brussels, Belgium, who won a Samsung KU6179 Ultra HD TV on 14.05.2018 with his 5-billionth Search.

We are proud to announce that you are our next winner.

Every time the 5-billionth search is reached, we proclaim a winner and reset the counter.

You may choose one of three hidden prizes below. In addition, you will be entered in our Hall of Fame and receive a winner’s certificate.

Behind every blue cup is a prize. Click on a prize cup to uncover it.

For technical reasons, we are not allowed to keep your invitation open for more than 15 minutes. Choose one of the prizes below and follow the instructions on your screen.

Its main intention is to make you believe that you are the lucky one to win a prize. It will then ask you to fill a survey form to claim one of the three awards, typically: iPhone, Macbook, or Samsung Ultra HD TV. This scam aims to gather your phone number, card details, or make you subscribe to a paid service. Such type of attack is known as a phishing attack.

10 Tools to Scan Website for Malware

What is a Phishing Scam?

A phishing scam is a social engineering attack carried out by playing with the victim’s psychology. Usually, they are meant for stealing the victim’s personal data like credit card details, ATM PIN, or net banking password .

In phishing, the users are sent or redirected to dubious links by sending them intruding advertisements, pop-ups, messages, or emails. The users are then psychologically attacked by making them believe that they are one from the many users to win a huge award.

For example, “The 5-billionth Search” is a phishing attack for identity theft.

Why I received the “You’ve Made The 5-billionth Search” pop-up?

You have received the “You’ve Made The 5-billionth Search” pop-up or redirect because your browser or system has been infected by a malicious program like browser hijacker or adware. It may have also appeared because you have visited an infected website.

When you install any bundled software, it carries another program other than the primary one. That another application can be a malware carrier responsible for phishing attacks.

How to Remove “You’ve Made The 5-billionth Search”?

If you are dealing with this message or pop-up repeatedly, you have to get rid of the root cause redirecting this fake message to you.

Here are the steps for that:

Step 1: Restart your PC in Safe Mode

Windows Safe Mode is the perfect environment to find out and solve the critical errors in the system. In safe mode, only system programs and some crucial programs run. Safe mode would most likely kill the applications and its files that try to run automatically on your system. Follow this guide to boot your Windows 10 PC in the Safe Mode.

Step 2: Uninstall Suspicious Applications

If 5th Billion Search Scam still appears on your PC, try to find the culprit application and uninstall it.

1. Right-click on the taskbar and select the Task Manager.
   

2. Watch out for the applications that are consuming the system memory even though you did not install or launch them.

3. Right-click on the suspicious application and open its file location.
   

4. Delete the file from its root location.

5. Open Control Panel and click on Uninstall a program and check for suspicious apps. One by one, select and uninstall them.

Step 3: Delete Temporary Files

The temporary files folder can also be a carrier of malicious files. Thus, we recommend deleting all the temporary files and folders regularly for the smooth running of the system. Removing the temporary files would also clear the unnecessary clutter from your system and free-up the valuable space.

Here are the steps to eliminate thre temporary files:

1. Open the Run command window.
2. Type %temp% and hit the enter key.
3. This run command would navigate you to this path: C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Temp, that is, the temp folder.
4. Select all Files and Folders of this folder and delete them. Don’t hesitate to delete them, as they are not essential for any of your tasks.
5. Next right-click on the Recycle Bin and select Empty Recycle Bin.

Step 4: Reset Web Browser Settings

If your browser is misbehaving because of 5th Billion Search Scam, then reset its settings to default.

1. Open Chrome and navigate to Settings by clicking on the three-dots at the top right.
2. Click on advanced Advanced.

Click here

3. Under Reset and cleanup, click on “Restore settings to their original defaults.”
4. Select Reset settings on the next prompt.
5. Relaunch your browser.

Step 5: Install an Antimalware and Perform a Scan

Manually removing malware can be a tedious task, and it takes a lot of time and effort on our part. Sometimes, it may get irritated for you if you are not much into the technology. There is no need to worry; you can get a robust antimalware like MalwareFox that will scan for malware and remove it.

MalwareFox is a reliable security software that promises to protect your system and helps to handle malware and viruses. MalwareFox will scans, detect, and remove Malware and offers real-time protection. It also protects your PC from most dangerous malware such as phishing attacks, Ransomware, Zero-Day Attack protection, Grayware, Keyloggers, etc.

1. Download Malwarefox and install it .
2. Perform a full system scan to get rid of every malware that is troubling your system.

How to Avoid such Threats?

It is essential to avoid such threats so that you do not have to deal with them. Here are some tips for that:

1. Never fall into the trap of attractive pop-ups and banner ads.
2. Always ignore award-giving web pages and emails. Never click on the links they carry.
3. While installing software, uncheck the installation of the bonus program.
4. Avoid getting freeware programs from unsecured and untrustworthy sources .
5. Always keep installed a robust antimalware solution on your device so that any threat can be detected beforehand.

5th Billion Search Scam by Google FAQs

1. Is 5th Billion Search Scam by Google?

NO. Never get trapped in such scam attempts. It is the phishing attempt by the scammers. The scammers take Google’s name to attract and trap maximum users. Google has officially denied any such awards on its forum .

2. Does Google reward every 10 millionth search?

NO. Google never give any awards to every 10 millionth search. They only reward the search results, that’s it.

3. How many searches does Google get a day?

Google generates about 3.5 billion searches every day. That is roughly processing the 40,000 search query per second.

8 thoughts on “Is 5th Billion Search Scam by Google? How to Remove?”

1. 
   shahanaghi
   March 17, 2021 at 12:13 am
   hi,
   thanks, for helping
   Reply
2. 
   Baguette
   March 27, 2021 at 9:46 pm
   I got this pop-up saying I did the 5 billionth Chrome Search.
   I don’t use chrome. I use opera!
   Reply
3. 
   Baguette

March 27, 2021 at 9:51 pm
I’m running a scan of my device now.
Reply
4.
Gina

September 20, 2022 at 10:22 pm
What do you do to get rid of it on an Android Motorola phone?
Reply
5.
LÖL

April 27, 2023 at 3:59 am
I dont use chrome, I use silk browser.
Reply

• 
  Shawn Abraham

April 28, 2023 at 9:15 am
Procedure should be same as Chrome since Silk is based on Chromium.
Reply
6.
Ed

February 29, 2024 at 8:04 pm
I got the 5 billion popup on my iPhone and clicked on the first two links, then I got suspicious and ended the session. What should I do now ?
Reply

• 
  Shawn Abraham
  March 4, 2024 at 10:04 am
  You should not worry if you have ended the session without downloading anything or providing any kind of permission.
  Reply

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