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Virus or What? Mac Keeper name seems

It’s taking entire right side of my iMac I’m putting a magazine together and every tine I try to remove they instantly return!


I have no idea how it got onto my computer. Worse yet is when I search Mac Keeper to try and contact, call or email they only show me a screen to purchase their “Anti- Virus” program. Do they think I’m an idiot? Or Is this ransom and the only way to get them to stop?


iMac 27″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Aug 31, 2021 9:05 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 1, 2021 10:50 AM

First, there is no reason to ever install or run any 3rd party "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus, VPN or security apps on your Mac.  This user tip describes what you need to know and do in order to protect your Mac: Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community.  


There are no known viruses, i.e. self propagating, for Macs.  There are, however, adware and malware which require the user to install although unwittingly most of the time thru sneaky links, etc.   


Anti Virus developers try to group all types as viruses into their ad campaigns of fear.  They do a poor job of the detecting and isolating the adware and malware.  Since there are no viruses these apps use up a lot of system resources searching for what is non-existent and adversely affect system and app performance.


There is one app, Malwarebytes, which was developed by a long time contributor to these forums and a highly respected member of the computer security community, that is desshoigned solely to seek out adware and known malware and remove it.  The free version is more than adequate for most users.  


Also, unless you're using a true VPN tunnel, such as between you and your employer's or bank's servers, they are useless from a privacy standpoint: Public VPN's are anything but private.  


That being said MacKeeper is considered by most experienced contributors to these forums akin to malware as Jack-19 has already stated. You should uninstall it according to the developers instructions. When done you can check to see if you've removed all of the supporting files by downloading and running the shareware app Find Any File to search for any files with the application's or the developer's name in the file name.  For MacKeeper software you'd do the following search(es): 


1 - Name contains mac keeper


Any files that are found can be dragged from the search results window to the Desktop or Trash bin in the Dock for deletion.


FAF can search areas that Spotlight can't like invisible folders, system folders and packages.  


You may have accidentally downloaded and installed some adware for MacKeeper and if that's the case running the free version of Malwarebytes should remove it. Give that a try first.


Similar questions

6 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 1, 2021 10:50 AM in response to Jack-19

First, there is no reason to ever install or run any 3rd party "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus, VPN or security apps on your Mac.  This user tip describes what you need to know and do in order to protect your Mac: Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community.  


There are no known viruses, i.e. self propagating, for Macs.  There are, however, adware and malware which require the user to install although unwittingly most of the time thru sneaky links, etc.   


Anti Virus developers try to group all types as viruses into their ad campaigns of fear.  They do a poor job of the detecting and isolating the adware and malware.  Since there are no viruses these apps use up a lot of system resources searching for what is non-existent and adversely affect system and app performance.


There is one app, Malwarebytes, which was developed by a long time contributor to these forums and a highly respected member of the computer security community, that is desshoigned solely to seek out adware and known malware and remove it.  The free version is more than adequate for most users.  


Also, unless you're using a true VPN tunnel, such as between you and your employer's or bank's servers, they are useless from a privacy standpoint: Public VPN's are anything but private.  


That being said MacKeeper is considered by most experienced contributors to these forums akin to malware as Jack-19 has already stated. You should uninstall it according to the developers instructions. When done you can check to see if you've removed all of the supporting files by downloading and running the shareware app Find Any File to search for any files with the application's or the developer's name in the file name.  For MacKeeper software you'd do the following search(es): 


1 - Name contains mac keeper


Any files that are found can be dragged from the search results window to the Desktop or Trash bin in the Dock for deletion.


FAF can search areas that Spotlight can't like invisible folders, system folders and packages.  


You may have accidentally downloaded and installed some adware for MacKeeper and if that's the case running the free version of Malwarebytes should remove it. Give that a try first.


Sep 1, 2021 9:01 AM in response to Kahni44

Hi Kahni44,

I suppose you've got a kind of scareware that mimics a Mackeeper app, as I'm using Mackeeper for a last two years and there are no issues like that.


Can you provide screenshots of alerts and your task manager processes?


Btw, here is an official Mackeeper contact page: https://mackeeper.com/about/#about-for - did you try to contact them via live chat? Also, here is official email of their support: support@mackeeper.com


Just wondering if your contacted a real official website, looks like you've contacted a fake/phishing site.



Virus or What? Mac Keeper name seems

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