Home Malware Programs Browser Hijackers Placelow.com

Placelow.com

Posted: December 14, 2011

Placelow.com Screenshot 1Placelow.com is a fake search engine that uses browser-hijacking Trojans to redirect traffic to itself. Although Placelow.com may look like an actual search engine, its search results will link you to sites that display irrelevant advertisements and other forms of potentially-harmful content that don't have anything to do with your search terms. Contact with Placelow.com can be precipitated by browser hijackers that take over your web browser and redirect it to Placelow.com on an arbitrary basis, but SpywareRemove.com malware researchers note that such PC threats can be removed with a competent anti-malware program. Changing web browsers or attempting to change your browser's settings will fail to stop Placelow.com-affiliated browser redirects, however, and you should always assume that contact with Placelow.com is a potential vector for infection with any number of additional forms of malicious software.

Placelow.com – Low Down on the Totem Pole of Search Engines

Placelow.com may have the visual appeal of a search engine, but Placelow.com's actual functions aren't anywhere near the likes of legitimate websites for online searches. As a copy of other types of fake search engines like Crownhub.com, QuestDNS.com, QueryExplorer.com, Papergap.com, ScanBasic.com, BasicScan.com or QueryScan.com. Placelow.com has no ability or intention to display relevant or safe search results. Instead of providing real results, Placelow.com uses its appearance as a search engine to provide you with links to sites that strictly offer profit back to Placelow.com's web masters. This can include harmless but irrelevant advertisement-based sites as well as sites that use openly-hazardous functions such as drive-by-download scripts or marketing for rogue security programs.

Unfortunately, SpywareRemove.com malware researchers note that since Placelow.com has a history of being involved in trafficking malicious software, any contact with Placelow.com or partnered sites may use browser vulnerabilities to infect your PC. You should scan your computer after any contact with Placelow.com, no matter how seemingly-innocent, to be sure that drive-by-download attacks haven't installed a Trojan, rootkit or other type of PC threat. Reinforced security settings for your web browser will reduce (if not completely-eliminate) the possibility of these attacks happening without social engineering that misleads you into performing self-destructive actions.

Grinding Placelow.com Back Down Where It Belongs

SpywareRemove.com malware analysts have found that the majority of contact with Placelow.com is caused by web browser redirects that force your browser to load Placelow.com even if you're trying to access a different website. This is especially-likely to occur when you try to navigate to a popular search engine or click on a result from a search engine. Because browser hijackers for Placelow.com can alter basic Windows components (such as the Registry) without your consent, you should never try to avoid Placelow.com redirects by deleting your browser. Instead, you should scan your PC with a trustworthy anti-malware product to find and remove all components of a Placelow.com browser hijacker while leaving your real programs unharmed.

Until you do this, do your best to avoid using your web browser if it's in danger of being redirected to Placelow.com or other types of hostile sites – even brief contact with these sites can reinfect your PC or introduce another type of PC threat to your system. Using Safe Mode to boot Windows prior to running a system scan will also insure the maximum chance of detecting and deleting all components of a Placelow.com-affiliated browser hijacker.

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