Trade Exchange virus is a notorious adware. It primarily hijacks your Internet browsers and bombards you, the user, with multiple advertisement pop-ups and tabs. The latter is usually initiated when you click on website links. The actual program has very little connection to real Foreign Exchange Trading.
Advertisements often contain alleged free computer programs and updates. These ads commonly show fake Adobe Flash and Java update notifications.
Following the recommendations, clicking on links, or any interaction with the pop-ups and tabs that the virus shows, except closing, is not recommended. Doing so will make you download and install programs infected by other malware, adware, and viruses.
How Trade Exchange Virus Spread and Infect
Just like with many malicious programs that infect unsuspecting users, smartphones, and computers, Trade Exchange virus spreads through ignorance of safe browsing practices — of course, innocent mistakes are accounted. Here are a few ways on how to safely browse the web and prevent further infections:
- Only visit and download from trusted websites. Always think twice when you are redirected to unfamiliar websites. You can use Google’s Transparency Report page to investigate the safety of the site. Here is the address for that page: https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/safebrowsing/diagnostic/index.html.
- Make sure that your browsers and their add-ons and plugins are up to date. Updated programs have security fixes and improved security features that can prevent you from getting hacked or infected by malicious programs.
- When installing anything, always read everything. Most of the time, the users themselves are the one putting the viruses on their computers and making sure that the installation is completely legal. This situation frequently happens with downloaded installation files bundled with other programs. A good example is Adobe Flash Player’s installation, which is often bundled with McAfee (you have the option to exclude it from the file and installation).
Removing the Virus in Your Android Phone
- Uninstall all the browsers in your phone until the default browser in your phone is the only one left.
- Go to Apps > All Apps, and tap on your phone’s default browser. Press Force Stop (and press OK if the phone gives you a warning about misbehavior). The next steps are to press Clear Data and Clear Cache.
- Restart your phone.
- If the virus is still present, uninstall all apps that you recently installed. Reboot the phone and check again for the virus’ presence.
Removing the Virus from Your Computer
- Go to Control Panel > Add Remove Programs if your computer’s OS is Windows. Go to Go > Applications if your computer is a Mac.
- Uninstall these programs commonly associated and carry the Trade Exchange Virus:
- Babylon Toolbar
- Babylon Chrome Toolbar
- Search Protect by Conduit
- WebCake 3.0
Removing the Virus from Your Browsers
- The quickest but possibly dirtiest way to eliminate this virus is to uninstall and reinstall your browsers. No need to worry about losing your browsing data (e.g., saved passwords and recent history) anymore when you uninstall. You can just connect your account to an online profile that browsers provide (e.g., Sync Firefox account with Mozilla Firefox and Google account Sign-in for Chrome).
- The alternative is to reset your browsers:
- Clear Cache
- Disable or reinstall trusted add-ons/plugins
- Reset Browser
- Each browser has different steps for them to reset. Here are help pages for you to follow.
- Mozilla Firefox (and other browsers using Firefox as their base program): https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/refresh-firefox-reset-add-ons-and-settings
- Google Chrome (and other browsers using Chromium as their base program): https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/3296214?hl=en
- Internet Explorer (and other browsers using IE as their base program): https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/help/17441/windows-internet-explorer-change-reset-settings
