BitDefender Free pop up has me slightly concerned.

BM1111

Earlier today I got this BitDefender offer pop up. It was a small white box in the bottom right corner of my screen (where the offers usually are). My feeling, after the panic subsided, is that this wasn't evidence of a virus but just that the offer didn't display properly for some reason. When this popped up the BitDefender icon appeared on the taskbar and closed without any issue by right clicking said icon and hitting 'close window'. I didn't click the box obviously but hovering my mouse over it the cursor didn't change, so I'm guessing there was no link present, leading me again to think this was just an issue with the offer displaying incorrectly. At the time I was just browsing Reddit. I have since ran a full system scan with BitDefender and it showed no issues, nevertheless I figured I would check here to see if this is something I should be concerned of?

Flexx

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/100438/bitdefender-free-pop-up-has-me-slightly-concerned

If it's adware, kindly follow these steps:

1) Open the Run command and execute the following commands one by one:

temp – delete all the files in the folder.

%temp% – delete all the files in the folder.

prefetch – delete all the files in the folder.

2) Reset your web browsers:

Google Chrome: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/3296214?hl=en

Mozilla Firefox: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/refresh-firefox-reset-add-ons-and-settings

Microsoft Edge: https://malwaretips.com/blogs/reset-microsoft-edge/

Opera: https://browsersolution.com/reset-opera-browser

Vivaldi: https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/install-update/full-reset-of-vivaldi/

Brave: https://support.brave.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017903152-How-do-I-reset-Brave-settings-to-default

5) Reset the Windows host file to default. You can find instructions here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-reset-the-hosts-file-back-to-the-default-c2a43f9d-e176-c6f3-e4ef-3500277a6dae

6) Run Disk Cleanup using this guide: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/disk-cleanup-in-windows-8a96ff42-5751-39ad-23d6-434b4d5b9a68

This should resolve your issue of adware, but if you still get the same pop-up again, since you are using the free version, Bitdefender might be providing you a discount for applying for the paid version which has extra protection features that the free version lacks. In this case, you should contact Bitdefender support to check if the pop-up message is indeed genuine or spam.


Kindly contact Bitdefender support by visiting https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/help

Select, How to's & Troubleshooting Bitdefender products→Troubleshooting→I don't know→Contact Support→ You will get the option of chat, call or email.

Regards

Gjoksi

Hello.
To add here, open your Bitdefender program and go to Settings -> General and disable "Special offers" and "Recommendation notifications".

It is recommended that you also review the privacy preferences set in your Bitdefender Central account, by following these steps:

• On any internet-connected device launch a web browser, visit
  https://central.bitdefender.com
  and sign in to your Bitdefender Central account.
• Click on your username in the top right corner and select "Bitdefender Account" in the menu. This option will launch in a new browser tab.
• Access the "Data & Privacy" tab, then click on the "Privacy preferences" section.

Uncheck both boxes to stop promotional messages:

• Receive in product insights regarding threats, news, and offers.
• Receive insights regarding threats, news, and offers via email.
  Regards.

Alexandru_BD

Hello @BM1111,

The link would help us, but from what I understand no links were displayed in this pop-up. Was there any CTA there? For example, did the 'claim my offer' text redirect anywhere? By the looks of it, it's just plain text..

It could have been a legitimate one-time discount, but at the same time it could have been something else. I'm not excluding an ad-blocker preventing the notification to be displayed correctly. When does your Bitdefender expire? If it expires anytime soon, this could have been an early renewal offer.

It's really hard to tell without more context and without knowing the pop-up source or landing page. Did you also receive an email regarding this? Also, I could not find any marketing communication linked with the email address registered on the forum, perhaps you are using Bitdefender with another email address? (don't post it here, send me a pm, if this is the case, so I can check what was sent to you recently).

Kindly let me know.

Regards,

Alex