How to Manage warnings about unsafe sites in Chrome

You’ll see a warning if the content you’re trying to see is dangerous or deceptive. These sites are often called “phishing” or “malware” sites. Many times, while surfing online you might have received a message that says, ‘the site ahead contains malware’ or ‘deceptive site ahead’. This is because the site that you are trying to visit is harmful or contains some malicious content that could be harmful and dangerous for your system.

Google Chrome does not recommend you visit such sites and therefore generates a warning on your screen. This blog is about how to manage such warnings in case you want to visit these sites or want to download some content from such unsafe sites.

Chrome Displays Warnings About unsafe & False Content

In Google Chrome, the settings for virus and malware detection in enabled by default Manage warnings about unsafe sites. As the detection is turned on, Chrome often throws up prompts that are warnings and recommendations to not to visit particular sites as they can be harmful and dangerous for our system and data as well. Let’s have look at these messages and what they mean.

1. The Site Ahead Contains Malware
   This message means that the website you are visiting might download and install any dangerous tool or software that may have malware in it.
2. Deceptive Site Ahead
   It means the website you are about to visit is a phishing website.
3. The Site Ahead Contains Harmful Programs
   This message indicates that the site you are visiting may trick you in downloading some software and programs that can create issues and have viruses. This may lead to problems while surfing online.
4. This Page is Trying to Load Scripts from Unauthenticated Sources
   This means that the website is not safe & secure for online browsing.
5. Download with Caution
   There are some websites that influence you for downloading software that is hazardous and dangerous. These websites prompt messages like ‘You have a Virus’ on screen to trick you. Beware, not to allow downloading of these types of software.
6. Did you mean [site name]? or Is this the right site?:The site you start to visit may try to confuse you, and may not be the site you meant to visit.

Important: Download with caution. Some sites try to trick you into downloading harmful software by telling you that you have a virus. Be careful not to download any harmful software. ( Manage warnings about unsafe sites )

On Computer

View unsafe sites, content & downloads

You can visit a page or access a downloaded file that shows a warning. This isn’t recommended.

Visit an unsafe page

1. On your computer, open Chrome.
2. On the page where you see a warning, click Details.
3. Click Visit this unsafe site.
4. The page will load.

When you visit an unsafe site, Chrome will try to remove the unsafe content from the page. Manage warnings about unsafe sites

To view the entire page:

1. On your computer, open Chrome.
2. On a deceptive site, to the right of the address bar, click Content blocked .
3. In the alert, click Load full site.
4. The page will load.

If the error mentions scripts, you can view the entire page by clicking Load unsafe script.

Download an unsafe file

1. On your computer, open Chrome.
2. At the top right, click More   Downloads.
3. Find the file you want to download.
4. Click Recover malicious file.

Turn off warnings about dangerous & deceptive sites

If you don’t want to be warned about unsafe content, you can turn off deceptive and dangerous site alerts. This also turns off download warnings.

Important: We do not recommend turning off alerts.

1. On your computer, open Chrome.
2. At the top right, click More  Settings.
3. Under “Privacy and security,” clickSafe Browsing.

My site or software is marked dangerous

• Site owner: If you own a site marked as dangerous or deceptive, you can change your website and request a review.
• Software owner: If you’re a software publisher and your downloads are flagged by Chrome, learn how to resolve malware issues with your downloads.

Ignore warnings about pages that may be suspicious

If you get this message, Chrome thinks that a site you’re going to may not be safe. You may get this message because:

• The site is trying to confuse you by slightly changing a safe URL.
• The site URL is slightly different from a URL in your browsing history.
• The site has a history of unsafe behavior.

If you think a page has been flagged in error and want to proceed to the site, click Ignore.If you’re a developer and your site has been wrongly flagged, please contact us here.

On Android

View unsafe sites, content & downloads

You can visit a page or access a downloaded file that shows a warning. This isn’t recommended.

Visit an unsafe page

1. On your computer, open Chrome.
2. On the page where you see a warning, click Details.
3. Click Visit this unsafe site.
4. The page will load.

When you visit an unsafe site, Chrome will try to remove the unsafe content from the page.

To view the entire page:

1. On your computer, open Chrome.
2. On a deceptive site, to the right of the address bar, click Content blocked .
3. In the alert, click Load full site.
4. The page will load.

If the error mentions scripts, you can view the entire page by clicking Load unsafe script.

Download an unsafe file

1. On your computer, open Chrome.
2. At the top right, click More   Downloads.
3. Find the file you want to download.
4. Click Recover malicious file.

Turn off warnings about dangerous & deceptive sites

If you don’t want to be warned about unsafe content, you can turn off deceptive and dangerous site alerts. This also turns off download warnings.

Important: We do not recommend turning off alerts.

1. On your computer, open Chrome.
2. At the top right, click More  Settings.
3. Under “Privacy and security,” clickSafe Browsing.

My site or software is marked dangerous

• Site owner: If you own a site marked as dangerous or deceptive, you can change your website and request a review.
• Software owner: If you’re a software publisher and your downloads are flagged by Chrome, learn how to resolve malware issues with your downloads.

Ignore warnings about pages that may be suspicious

If you get this message, Chrome thinks that a site you’re going to may not be safe. You may get this message because:

• The site is trying to confuse you by slightly changing a safe URL.
• The site URL is slightly different from a URL in your browsing history.
• The site has a history of unsafe behavior.

If you think a page has been flagged in error and want to proceed to the site, click Ignore.If you’re a developer and your site has been wrongly flagged, please contact us here.

What warnings about dangerous & deceptive content mean

• Deceptive sites (also known as “phishing” or “social engineering” sites) try to trick you into doing something dangerous online, such as revealing passwords or personal information, usually through a fake website.
• Dangerous sites (also known as “malware” or “unwanted software” sites) can harm your computer, or can cause problems when you’re browsing online. Learn how to clean Chrome of unwanted ads, pop-ups & malware.
• Google Safe Browsing: To protect you from dangerous websites, Google maintains a list of websites that might put you at risk for malware or phishing. Google also analyzes sites and warns you if a site seems dangerous. Learn more about Google Safe Browsing.
• Using a Chromebook at work or school? Your network administrator might set up phishing and malware detection for you, in which case you can’t change this setting yourself. Learn about using a Chromebook through work or school.