MacKeeper/Zerobit Pop Up ad Problem

This has definitely crossed over to the level of a virus. I urge everyone to contact apple support demanding they remove this program from all channels and start labeling it a virus.

The link did not work and GlimmerBlocker not found in apple space. Then google'd and found GlimmerBlocker home page......AND I SEE A MACKEEPER AD......***. Seems to me like MacKeeper might just be a way to direct people to GlimmerBlocker.....wonder about where the people recommending GlimmerBlocker are coming from?

My Mac encountered the same problem several days ago,and the mackeeper/zerobit always pops up when I used the mac for several minitues. Please let me know how I can safetly remove the pop-up. Thanks.

fyuan wrote:

My Mac encountered the same problem several days ago,and the mackeeper/zerobit always pops up when I used the mac for several minitues.

Please describe these popups. I see ads for MacKeeper all the time and they always appear in a box like any other ad, except more often and some are animated. I've never had one pop up or pop under which is normally defined as a separate window from the one you are viewing.

i got online live support from a mackeeper agent,

my browser is safari so if you click on the top left corner where it says safari and then click on safari extensions it will take you to a site where you can install many items for free to help you with your mac.

if you then install adblock (the first one on the list when you scroll down, then auto update) then you choose if you want to pay or not. then there should be in the bar on the left of where you enter your searches a new button with the adblock logo on it. whenever a pop-up comes you jst click on that button and it will prevent it permantely

I'll be frank here. The inability of Apple to deal with this virus called MacKeeper has made me seriously doubt their supposed superiority to MS. I paid lots of extra money to not have this sort of virus infecting my computer and yet it is. So what the **** is Apple support actually doing about it? From what I see, they have done absolutely nothing. We get apple updates to their software all the time, YET this annoying popuup and associated ads are a constant these days on my mac. Why?

anthony176 wrote:

I'll be frank here. The inability of Apple to deal with this virus called MacKeeper has made me seriously doubt their supposed superiority to MS. I paid lots of extra money to not have this sort of virus infecting my computer and yet it is.

I understand your frustration with this, but I feel certain that you will never convince Apple that MacKeeper is any kind of virus. The developers worked with Apple to provide an AppStore version. They have an office about ten minutes from here (although I'm pretty sure the real Headquarters is in the Ukraine). They provide support by phone, chat and e-mail (admittedly flaky at times). There must have been a dozen of us that have attempted to figure out whether their Application has anything to do with the pop-ups and ads (they deny it), but all seem to be using legitamate ad techniques that are used by many others, but seemingly more agressively.

I personally hardly ever see them any more. That may be because I use the Ghostery extension and Safari AdBlocker SIMBL Plugin, but I suppose it could be because I never fully installed MacKeeper. There just doesn't seem to be any proof of the latter.

> There must have been a dozen of us that have attempted to figure out whether their Application has anything to

> do with the pop-ups and ads (they deny it)

in which case snopes.com have lied to me, since they assert that they know about the 'pop-under' which they get paid for.

pete

peterlemer wrote:

> There must have been a dozen of us that have attempted to figure out whether their Application has anything to

> do with the pop-ups and ads (they deny it)

in which case snopes.com have lied to me, since they assert that they know about the 'pop-under' which they get paid for.

Sorry, I'm not following you here. I was talking about users who have previously installed MacKeeper who claim to continuously get pop-ups due to something left behind after they uninstalled it. MacKeeper denies that they installed anything that would cause that.

My understanding of what you have said previously about snopes.com is that they subscribe to an ad service that delivers pop-unders for which they are compensated. For the most part, I never see those with Safari or FireFox because of the extensions I use with them. I tried visiting snopes with Opera and got a NetFlix pop-under. I have no reason to think that snopes lied to you or anybody else. Quite the contrary, I have found them to be quite trustworthy with most all the information they publish.

MadMacs0: you are correct - I do not believe that snopes are lying - I am referring to popunders when I visit them ( and I presume that many other sites are similarly endowed with popunders). I have not installed MacKeeper so I withdraw my comment concerning application-sourced popups.

However, the popunder launches behind the current site and may not appear until windows have been closed - perhaps many pages later - so it appears apparently at random. And the popunder looks exactly like a popup and it's a -ing nuisance.

What Safari extension do you use to prevent this, please?

pete

peterlemer wrote:

What Safari extension do you use to prevent this, please?

I suspect that Ghostery is what is stopping it.

I also use Safari AdBlocker which may not work for you as it requires the InputManager SIMBL architecture.

An alternate which I have installed but disabled is the similarly named AdBlock for Safari which is an extension.

I also hear good things about GlimmerBlocker which is an http proxy that requires Java support.

MadMacs0: thanks for that - I have installed Ghostery to see what it does

cheers

pete

To Completely Uninstall and Remove Zeobit's MacKeeper

Download and Install AppCleaner

Download and Install Find Any File

Run AppCleaner

1. Click on Applications
2. Select MacKeeper
3. Click on Search
4. Select all results
5. Click on Delete

Run Find Any File

1. Search for zeobit
2. Select and Delete all results (except for those already in the Trash)
3. Search for mackeeper
4. Select and Delete all results (except for those already in the Trash)

Open Up Keychain Access

1. Search for zeobit
   
2. Select and Delete all results
3. Search for mackeeper
4. Select and Delete all results

Secure Empty Trash

Reboot

Unless you perform all of these steps, you'll have remnants of Zeobit's MacKeeper app. I had installed MacKeeper several weeks ago, when I had accidentally deleted some files on my Mac -- hoping to use their "undelete" feature. This was when my nightmare began. Even after using AppCleaner to remove it, there were still some background processes that were running every 10 seconds. While probably harmless, this adds unnnecessary strain on the Mac.

The key was also using Find Any File and delete any entries in the Keychain Access.

Download Links

• AppCleaner - http://appcleaner.en.softonic.com/mac
• Find Any File - http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/30079/find-any-file

I hope this helps! 🙂

Frank

Just had this happen to me today. I went to a website (not sure which exactly): got a MacKeeper 05 popup window. Quit Safari. Re-opened Safari, and the first screen to appear is the MacKeeper 05 window. Went to Sarfari --> Reset Safari. Quit and re-opened Safar, and the problem is fixed.

I'm not exactly sure what they are doing, but it is obvious that they are exploiting some kind of security flaw in Safari. Something is allowing them to do a persistent popup that is retained after a reboot of the computer. I agree with previous posters that this software is adware at least, and may contain some form of spyware. Thankfully it is not a real virus, as it does not get into the system files (Previous posts about removing zeobit files are only accurate if you had the misfortune of actually purchasing and installing this software). In my case: root# find / -name *zeobit* returned no results.

If you just got this pop-up through an advertisement, reseting safari will fix the issue. FWIW, I'm going to send a note to our Apple Reseller to let them know about the issue.

got a MacKeeper 05 popup window. Quit Safari. Re-opened Safari, and the first screen to appear is the MacKeeper 05 window.

Go to any web site. Now quit Safari without closing the window. Re-open Safari. Does the same thing happen then? If so, it's probably because you're using Lion (Mac OS X 10.7) and have "Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps" turned on in System Preferences -> General.

Also, note that there is no need to quit Safari just because you got a pop-up window. Just close the window, and close the window/tab that contains the site that created the pop-up. And then don't re-visit that site, or if you have to go back there, make sure you've got some kind of ad blocking installed. (For example, go to Safari Extensions in the Safari menu and download AdBlock from the page that comes up.)