Searchya.com

By JubileeX in Browser Hijackers

Threat Scorecard

Ranking: 3,648
Threat Level: 50 % (Medium)
Infected Computers: 10,256
First Seen: August 24, 2012
Last Seen: September 19, 2023
OS(es) Affected: Windows

Searchya.com Image

Bogus search engines are among the most common forms of online scams. In the past couple of years, ESG security analysts have observed a marked rise of these fake online search engines (particularly since the summer of 2011). In fact, it seems that this scam has surpassed what was formerly the most common kind of online scam, the rogue security program's scam. While criminals go to great pains to ensure that their fake search engines are convincing in order to attract victims and to induce them to stay, Searchya.com is a rather uncreative version of this scam. Sporting a white page with nothing but the search bar, the Searchya.com bogus search engine is not particularly credible.

However, its scam is the same and just as profitable as most common examples of this kind of scam. Basically, fake search engines like Searchya.com are designed to display spam and advertisements instead of actual search results. This means that criminals can profit from inflated advertisement revenue and pay-per-click schemes. The obvious question is: why would anyone use Searchya.com for their online searches if there are dozens of reliable, free search engines online? – Google, Yahoo and Bing just to name the biggest of these. Well, criminals ensure that their victims have no other choice but to visit Searchya.com repeatedly.

How Spammers Force Searchya.com on Inexperienced Computer Users

Criminals get paid for each person that sees or clicks on a particular advertisement. To ensure that their victims are exposed to their advertisements as much as possible, spammers use browser hijackers. These are malware infections that basically take over an infected computer's web browser and then force it to carry out several tasks, for example: visiting a particular website, directing web traffic through a particular domain address or displaying pop-up windows.

Unfortunately, ESG security analysts have found that Searchya.com is associated with the most dangerous kinds of browser hijackers, those that take over an entire computer system and change how it goes online. Most redirects to Searchya.com will occur after carrying out a search on one of the popular search engines mentioned above. Then, the browser hijacker takes over the victim's web browser, changing search results so that they direct to Searchya.com instead of to their corresponding website. Not realizing how abnormal this situation is, iInexperienced computer users, not realizing how abnormal this situation is, will often fall for the scam and attempt their search again at the Searchya.com bogus search engine.

SpyHunter Detects & Remove Searchya.com

File System Details

Searchya.com may create the following file(s):
# File Name MD5 Detections
1. UpdateTask.exe.vir 0e2ef4c2f4f3b3c03ead568486ad54b8 2,760
2. UpdateTask.exe b352141bc9ca645f7c72b00fad5dea27 1,025
3. UpdateTask.exe 8c11e6e7189a2afd533c77c0f77486bc 27
4. UpdateTask.exe f8eb65acd84dc9210a2bb20e31c971d0 23
5. UpdateTask.exe dbbbbe301d965a4fd0e7a21dd9ea2014 8
6. UpdateTask.exe c3c2c4a2024663825dbaabd849931d09 6
7. UpdateTask.exe 0c900c60528ded5dd99e33c394d822d7 5
8. UpdateTask.exe 44150f02341e188df4819bb50cda605b 3
9. UpdateTask.exe ba2262e410ceac160c52b28d467c1c2e 2
10. UpdateTask.exe 100c9668acef56401b09903b883bf1f4 2
11. UPDATETASK.EXE 27333544d92bd0117c6b1105fa1c0a46 2
12. UpdateTask.exe ddeb4d0323df8f4b23d92df92a06ceb4 2
13. UpdateTask.exe 1f854f6803b195cb1cf057e8e88de969 2
14. UpdateTask.exe 8abc1d44d33a771b4bfc266506695968 1
15. UpdateTask.exe 6c842266b98f7296a611f263eaba4c49 1
16. UpdateTask.exe 089e824c45d0916890f9d26271ed3704 1
17. UPDATETASK.EXE 0a581df095eb1e64ab39859e3d75abe1 1
18. UpdateTask.exe 5d97db0e6f5b00ebde63fafb589ac02a 1
19. UpdateTask.exe 43c2ac7f29703112be161f0433e0009d 1
20. UpdateTask.exe 57727194c7f1a2b72f1a24845c7f902b 1

Registry Details

Searchya.com may create the following registry entry or registry entries:
Regexp file mask
%WINDIR%\System32\Tasks\Searchya
%WINDIR%\Tasks\Searchya.job

Directories

Searchya.com may create the following directory or directories:

%APPDATA%\Searchya

URLs

Searchya.com may call the following URLs:

.search-ya.com

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