Level 1

107 points

Is MacKeeper a legitimate program?

I am concerned about this app named "MacKeeper". It's very weird, and I'm not 100% sure it's legitimate. Is it real or a scam? Here's a screenshot:

Is this app real or a scam? People here on Apple Support Communities think MacKeeper is a scam and they tell you that you must uninstall it now. MacKeeper displays a lot of distracting popups and notifications, and for doing almost anything requires you pay for the registered version.

Message was edited by: Brandon Sky

iPod and iTunes-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Sep 8, 2012 1:56 AM

Top-ranking reply

Kurt Lang

Level 9

68,502 points

Posted on Sep 9, 2017 7:54 AM

It is malware

No, it's not. It's a legitimate app that has numerous major strikes going against it. Here's at least a few.

1) It's poorly written garbage that is well known to, and proven to hose many systems that were fine before running this app.

2) It doesn't do anything you can't do with other apps that are free, or can be done with functions already available in the OS.

3) The company's marketing tactics aren't just aggressive, they're heavily misleading, and outright fraudulent. The last being proven by the app's insistence of finding many "major" problems that needs to be fixed on a new Mac fresh out of the box.

4) The company selling this garbage has had two class action lawsuits brought against it. They lost both. Here's a note on one of them. In their favorite excuse, it's always the affiliates fault for all of the adware and other heavily pushed methods of getting users to buy it. Well, they pay the affiliates for the advertising. So who's fault is it?

View in context

219 replies

seventy one

Level 7

27,460 points

Dec 15, 2012 1:52 AM in response to rickhoff

The general concensus is that you need no utility at all. At times when you get that irrational fear (I get it) that something is amiss, ClamXav is as much as you need.

seventy one

Level 7

27,460 points

Apr 1, 2013 3:31 AM in response to John Kitchen

Not quite. It is a problem looking for another problem. 😀

seventy one

Level 7

27,460 points

Apr 1, 2013 4:15 AM in response to softwater

And as for the name ... '911 bundle'. It's a powerful warning in itself.

Lukian

Level 1

0 points

Apr 7, 2013 5:44 AM in response to RajeshMD

No application slows down a Mac significantly. Well, none did apart from MacKeeper. In my early days of Mac (that was in the 80ies), MacKeeper did not exist, so I have some experience

softwater

Level 5

5,556 points

May 26, 2013 12:47 PM in response to Grafton Reed

MacKeeper is legitimite, just unscrupulous.

I'm wondering how you make that distinction...it seems to me the latter implies the negation of the former.

seventy one

Level 7

27,460 points

Jun 6, 2013 8:54 AM in response to orbor

If you knew their names (and presumably their reputations) why on earth would you click links or into their sites. It's just asking for trouble.

andyBall_uk

Level 7

20,516 points

Jun 6, 2013 8:09 PM in response to Preditor

>>I have used MacKeeper for 8 years with no problem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackeeper

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeobit

WZZZ

Level 6

13,238 points

Jun 6, 2013 8:14 PM in response to andyBall_uk

ZeoBIT LLC was incorporated in September 2009 in the US State of California.

That must mean it's now 2017.

seventy one

Level 7

27,460 points

Jun 7, 2013 12:19 PM in response to Csound1

Hi Csound. 😀

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Jun 7, 2013 12:21 PM in response to seventy one

Hey, any nearer to that castle yet 🙂

seventy one

Level 7

27,460 points

Jun 7, 2013 12:31 PM in response to Csound1

Sadly no. I can whizz past it in the car, but that's about all. You don't have any Yankee dollars to spare, do you?

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Jun 7, 2013 12:46 PM in response to seventy one

My Sister (the one who lives in Maidstone) calls it silly money as its value is quite low now, so, can you spare a fiver?

seventy one

Level 7

27,460 points

Jun 7, 2013 12:56 PM in response to Csound1

A fiver! That's 3.3 litres of petrol, for heaven's sake. But we are starting to digress again.

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Jun 7, 2013 1:01 PM in response to seventy one

seventy one wrote:

A fiver! That's 3.3 litres of petrol, for heaven's sake. But we are starting to digress again.

🙂 indeed, stay well.

MadMacs0

Level 5

5,233 points

Jun 24, 2013 7:36 PM in response to benpyu

Well said!

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Is MacKeeper a legitimate program?