What is Freebucks2018.xyz? And how does it work?

Freebucks2018.xyz is a suspicious website that could generate a free “V-Bucks for your Fortnite Battle Royale” account. Security experts classify this website as a scam website that will try to obtain your personal information and trick you into opening other fraudulent websites. This website is nothing but a scam that misleads users of the popular Fortnite Battle Royale of being a hack generator of the so-called V-Bucks which are the official internal currency for the game making it a tempting offer for users who play the game.
If you get redirected to this site, it first requests you to enter your mobile number to supposedly verify your request for a selected number of free V-Bucks. Aside from mobile number, it isn’t clear what other details this redirect obtains from users. However, another thing is for sure – it tracks and monitors users’ browsing activities in order to collect other sensitive information such as email address, IP address, browsing history, websites you visit, ads you’ve clicked, and many more. The information obtained is then used to generate users more customized and personalized ads.
Needless to say, if you are always redirected to Freebucks2018.xyz, then this means that there is an ad-supported program installed in your computer. This indicates that even when you close the tab or browser displaying this scam website, you might still end up seeing it unless you get rid of the adware program that’s causing the redirects to this scam website.
How does Freebucks2018.xyz circulate the web?
Freebucks2018.xyz circulates the web using ads as well as ad-supported programs. These ad-supported programs are found on free sharing sites where they are part of free software packages known as software bundles. So if you don’t want redirects to suspicious sites like Freebucks2018.xyz or adware programs, you must select the Advanced or Custom setup instead of the standard one when installing such package.
Get rid of Freebucks2018.xyz by following the removal guide laid out below.
Step 1: Start by opening the Task Manager by simply pressing the Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys.
Step 2: Next, go to Processes and look for dubious processes that could be related to Freebucks2018.xyz and then right click on each one of them and select End Process or End Task to kill their processes.

Step 3: Then open the Control Panel. To do so, tap the Windows key + R, then type in appwiz.cpl and then click OK or press Enter.
Step 4: Look for Freebucks2018.xyz and any suspicious program and then Uninstall them.

Step 5: Close all the browsers affected by Freebucks2018.xyz. If you’re having a hard time closing them, you can close them using the Task Manager just tap on Ctrl + Shift + Esc.
Step 6: After you open the Task Manager, go to the Processes tab and look for the infected browser’s process and end it.
Step 7: Edit your Hosts File

• Tap the Win + R keys to open then type in %WinDir% and then click OK.
• Go to System32/drivers/etc.
• Open the hosts file using Notepad.
• Delete all the entries containing Freebucks2018.xyz.
• After that, save the changes you’ve made and close the file.

Step 8: Reset all your browsers to default to their default state.
Google Chrome

1. Launch Google Chrome, press Alt + F, move to More tools, and click Extensions.
2. Look for Freebucks2018.xyz Ads or any other unwanted add-ons, click the Recycle Bin button, and choose Remove.
3. Restart Google Chrome, then tap Alt + F, and select Settings.
4. Navigate to the On Startup section at the bottom.
5. Select “Open a specific page or set of pages”.
6. Click the More actions button next to the hijacker and click Remove.

Mozilla Firefox

1. Open the browser and tap Ctrl + Shift + A to access the Add-ons Manager.
2. In the Extensions menu Remove the unwanted extension.
3. Restart the browser and tap keys Alt + T.
4. Select Options and then move to the General menu.
5. Overwrite the URL in the Home Page section and then restart the browser.

Internet Explorer

1. Launch Internet Explorer.
2. Tap Alt + T and select Internet options.
3. Click the General tab and then overwrite the URL under the homepage section.
4. Click OK to save the changes.

Step 9: Hold down Windows + E keys simultaneously to open File Explorer.
Step 10: Navigate to the following directories and look for suspicious files associated to Freebucks2018.xyz Ads and delete it/them.

• %USERPROFILE%\Downloads
• %USERPROFILE%\Desktop
• %TEMP%

Step 11: Close the File Explorer.
Step 12: Empty the Recycle Bin.
Step 13: Afterwards, you have to flush the DNS cache. To do that, just, right click on the Start button and click on Command Prompt (administrator). From there, type the “ipconfig /flushdns” command and hit Enter to flush the DNS.
Follow the advanced instructions below to ensure the removal of Freebucks2018.xyz adware using [product-name] as well as all the file residues it left behind.
Perform a full system scan using [product-code]. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Turn on your computer. If it’s already on, you have to reboot it.
2. After that, the BIOS screen will be displayed, but if Windows pops up instead, reboot your computer and try again. Once you’re on the BIOS screen, repeat pressing F8, by doing so the Advanced Option shows up.
3. 
   3. To navigate the Advanced Option use the arrow keys and select Safe Mode with Networking then hit
   4. Windows will now load the Safe Mode with Networking.
   5. Press and hold both R key and Windows key.

   

   6. If done correctly, the Windows Run Box will show up.
   7. Type in the URL address, [product-url] in the Run dialog box and then tap Enter or click OK.
   8. After that, it will download the program. Wait for the download to finish and then open the launcher to install the program.
   9. Once the installation process is completed, run [product-code] to perform a full system scan.

   

   10. After the scan is completed click the “Fix, Clean & Optimize Now” button.