Coupon Pigeon

Posted: April 10, 2013

Threat Metric

The Threat Meter is a malware assessment that SpywareRemove.com's research team is able to give every identifiable malware threat. Our Threat Meter includes several criteria based off of specific malware threats to value their severity, reach and volume. The Threat Meter is able to give you a numerical breakdown of each threat's initial Threat Level, Detection Count, Volume Count, Trend Path and Percentage Impact. The overall ranking of each threat in the Threat Meter is a basic breakdown of how all threats are ranked within our own extensive malware database. The scoring for each specific malware threat can be easily compared to other emerging threats to draw a contrast in its particular severity. The Threat Meter is a useful tool in the endeavor of seeking a solution to remove a threat or pursue additional analytical research for all types of computer users.

The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:

Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.

Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.

Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.

Trend Path: The Trend Path, utilizing an up arrow, down arrow or equal symbol, represents the level of recent movement of a particular threat. Up arrows represent an increase, down arrows represent a decline and the equal symbol represent no change to a threat's recent movement.

% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.

Threat Level:	2/10
Infected PCs:	30

First Seen:	April 10, 2013
Last Seen:	January 10, 2019
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

Coupon Pigeon is an adware toolbar that displays shopping advertisements in your browser. With an intention of tailoring its advertisements to your preferences, Coupon Pigeon also collects basic details about your web-browsing preferences, such as the sites you use to visit, which links you click and social media-related information. Although Coupon Pigeon does not collect personal information to the point that would elevate Coupon Pigeon to being spyware, SpywareRemove.com malware researchers, nonetheless, note that Coupon Pigeon has a limited set of positive traits and a variety of negative ones that make Coupon Pigeon overall a disadvantage for most PC users to have. If you wish to remove Coupon Pigeon, it's suggested that you use anti-malware applications that are capable of reversing Coupon Pigeon's browser changes completely. A normal uninstall method may continue to leave components of Coupon Pigeon untouched that could subject you to advertisements once Coupon Pigeon is gone.

Why You May Be Interested in Clipping Coupon Pigeon's Wings

Adware programs that display advertisements for revenue-generating purposes are a large niche in the malware industry, albeit one that's substantially less dangerous than, for example, banking Trojans or rootkits. Coupon Pigeon is one of the latest entries into that field, but shows the usual characteristics of adware that SpywareRemove.com malware research team has come to anticipate:

Coupon Pigeon advertises its services as a way to access product discounts for various websites, including prominent companies like Best Buy and Petsmart. Although these discounts appear to be legitimate, they may be displayed in your browser automatically in ways that interfere with your preferred web-browsing activities.
Coupon Pigeon also collects information about your web-browsing habits. Basic information that's entered into unprotected text fields (such as your name or location) may be gathered by Coupon Pigeon, along with information about which sites you visit and the duration of the visits. Coupon Pigeon claims that this information is used to present 'targeted' discounts that conform to your personal interests.

SpywareRemove.com malware experts warn that, particularly in PCs with low system resources, Coupon Pigeon's activities may cause performance issues for your browser. The Coupon Pigeon plugin also may resist being removed from your computer or remove itself incompletely, enabling its advertisements to continue to display even after its visible software has been uninstalled.

Teaching Coupon Pigeon to Fly the Coop

Adware plugins such as Coupon Pigeon commonly are installed by unrelated applications that are bundled with Coupon Pigeon, although you also may, in theory, install Coupon Pigeon intentionally as a stand-alone program. If, for whatever reason, your browser begins displaying Coupon Pigeon advertisements without your permission, you should feel free to remove Coupon Pigeon from your browser whenever you find it most convenient.

To be certain of deleting all settings changed that are associated with Coupon Pigeon, SpywareRemove.com malware researchers don't recommend using the normal plugin uninstallation routine. Instead, a suitable anti-malware product should be used to remove Coupon Pigeon, which usually should not require the removal of any other freeware program that's related to Coupon Pigeon.

Technical Details

Additional Information

The following directories were created:

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Coupon Pigeon%LOCALAPPDATA%\Coupon Genie%LOCALAPPDATA%\Coupon Pigeon%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions\ldccbjpammdkhpmmepiojbeaoihhhpdn%LOCALAPPDATA%\Updater27696%PROGRAMFILES%\Coupon Genie%PROGRAMFILES%\Coupon Pigeon%PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\Coupon Genie%PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\Coupon Pigeon