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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:


User uploaded file

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

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Posted on Feb 11, 2017 11:25 AM

I was viewing a legitimate car page to see new models, and a "Flash media" download appeared to view new car videos from an American car page. After I did so, the videos so play, but a MacKeeper and other scan your computer popups appeared. I've deleted them from from the Finder icon on my MacBook. But the MacKeeper stays on and continually pops up wanting to scan my MacBook, and even put a "eye" icon on top of screen tool bar. How do I unistall the MacKeeper? I always use the iTunes updates and security downloads. Thank you!

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Feb 11, 2017 11:25 AM in response to Brandon Sky

I was viewing a legitimate car page to see new models, and a "Flash media" download appeared to view new car videos from an American car page. After I did so, the videos so play, but a MacKeeper and other scan your computer popups appeared. I've deleted them from from the Finder icon on my MacBook. But the MacKeeper stays on and continually pops up wanting to scan my MacBook, and even put a "eye" icon on top of screen tool bar. How do I unistall the MacKeeper? I always use the iTunes updates and security downloads. Thank you!

Sep 8, 2012 2:30 AM in response to Brandon Sky

It is a legitimate program available in the Mac App store. It gets a bad press fro a number of reasons;

-it got confused with MacDefender, a trojan malware,

-because fanboys are reistant to anything that suggest Macs are susceptible to malware.

-herd mentality, ie repeat something often enough and people will think there is something to it, like 'repair permissions' used to be an often recommended cure for everything, though you don't hear that so much anymore.

-unsophisticated marketing by the developers made it smell suspicious.


The following link offers some balanced information about it.

http://www.cultofmac.com/170522/is-mackeeper-really-a-scam/

Feb 11, 2017 11:43 AM in response to AlanDiaz

That download had nothing to do with Flash. You installed adware. Hopefully, nothing more severe than that. MacKeeper is not on your Mac, but they are heavy users of such advertising.


Download and run MalwareBytes for Mac. It will look for and offer to remove any such junk it finds.


In the future, never, ever believe any site that claims you need to download anything from them to use their site. Any such message is a lie, almost, but not quite 100% of the time. Legitimate messages will tell you to visit Adobe to get Flash. There are no legitimate messages of any kind that insist you download and install software from them.


The one and only place to acquire the Flash Player, or to update it if you already have it installed is directly from Adobe.

Sep 9, 2017 7:54 AM in response to liberxiii

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?

Oct 6, 2017 12:18 PM in response to Kudcubfa

I am going to jump in and say haw bad my experience was with Mackeeper. I bought it two days ago and one of their techs installed it. He spent a lot of time trying to convince me to upgrade me to a higher level of Mackeeper for an additional $100.00. IMHO if the software you are selling for 59.00 do not try and upgrade someone to a better software.

I believe that at the time of installation he opened me up to several viruses to convince me to upgrade. It ****** me off and I got my money back. They want to remove the virus but I would not let that company go into my computer again. I use Avast and there has never been a problem. I am going to report this to the FBI because this is illegal activity.

I have had a mac for 40 years. Never had a problem before.

Sep 8, 2012 2:19 AM in response to Brandon Sky

Many users will see references to an application called MacKeeper on various web sites and via pop-ups on their browser. Not only is it expensive for what it purports to do (freeware applications that do the same or more are readily available), it can sometimes install itself without the user realising it, and it can be very tricky to get rid of.


Most positive reviews of it have been found to have been paid for by Zeobit (developers of MacKeeper) in the form of ‘free upgrades’ etc. For example (posted by fellow contributor Softwater), on their Facebook page and on their webpage they have this apparent endorsement from UNC Charlotte:


https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/125157040

Softwater contacted the Director of IT at the College of Arts and Architecture UNC Charlotte, about whether they endorse MacKeeper and his response, quoted here, was:

No, please do not download and install MacKeeper. We have seen problems with this software in the past.

MacKeeper has been described by various sources as highly invasive malware* that can de-stablize your operating system, adding that it is unethically marketed, with a history of making false advertising claims, by a company called Zeobit and a rip-off.


For more details about Zeobit’s alledgedly fraudulent advertising and paid-for ‘reviews’, and their dubious marketing practises, read this:


http://stemmings.com/the-truth-about-mackeeper-scam/


Further opinion on it and how to uninstall MacKeeper malware can be read here:


http://applehelpwriter.com/2011/09/21/how-to-uninstall-mackeeper-malware/


MacKeeper have recently said that the uninstaller from here:


http://applehelpwriter.wordpress.com/2011/09/21/how-to-uninstall-mackeeper-malwa re/


now works.


This is also worth reading:


http://www.reedcorner.net/news.php/?p=245


Equally phoney was iAntivirus:


http://www.reedcorner.net/news.php/?p=341


until it was purchased recently (May 2012) by Symantic (makers of Norton anti-virus which does not work well with Apple OS X). Even after having tinkered with it, iAntivirus still fails to do the job properly and cannot be recommended.


There are no viruses that can affect Apple OS X and there is therefore no reason to run anti-virus software on a Mac, but a Mac, like all computers, can transmit viruses and malware to other users particularly those running Windows. Note, however, that Trojans are another matter and can represent a genuine threat, an example of which was the recent 'Flashback Trojan' which you can read more about here:


https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3261


For further information you may find this User Tip on Viruses, Trojan Detection and Removal, as well as general Internet Security and Privacy, useful:


https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-2435


The User Tip (which you are welcome to print out and retain for future reference) seeks to offer some guidance on the main security threats and how to avoid them.


* The expression ‘malware’ is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software.

Sep 8, 2012 4:39 AM in response to roam

-herd mentality


There's nothing to herd mentality about why you should avoid MacKeeper. (Sounds like you've been listening to etresoft too much!)


Although I have not actually tested MacKeeper myself (yet!), I have spoken to someone who has run extensive tests on it and who found that its "cleaning" tool completely trashed his test system. That is in addition to the numerous user reports that Phil Stokes has collected to the same effect. It's dangerous, and should not be used!


-unsophisticated marketing by the developers made it smell suspicious.


Again, it's more than "unsophisticated" marketing. On the contrary, it's highly sophisticated, but completely unethical, marketing! Let me give some examples. First, the developers bought the clamxav.org domain, which is similar to a competing product's site (clamxav.com). On that site, they put a "review" of ClamXav with a download button that redirected to the MacKeeper site. They eventually changed it after getting really bad press, and obfuscated their ownership of the clamxav.org domain. They have done similar things with other domains.


Second, they have been known to offer financial rewards to people who were willing to go post good reviews online. This is not hearsay, I've seen the actual e-mail that they sent to their customers. After they made this offer, both MacUpdate and C|Net were flooded, within a 48 hour period, with glowing reviews for MacKeeper, taking it from one or two stars on both sites to near 5 stars within that 2 day interval. (The owner of MacUpdate, who also receives a lot of advertising money from MacKeeper ads, would not listen to multiple people's concerns that these reviews were fraudulent, despite the obviously fishy clustering of hundreds of 5-star reviews in such a short time period.)


Third, they pay reviewers for positive reviews. After I posted an article on my own site explaining much of this and warning people away from MacKeeper, they approached me and offered me a job as a consultant, telling me to name my fee, and also asked me to write a new review.


All these behaviors, and more, go together to paint a picture of completely unscrupulous developers who probably should not be trusted with your credit card number.

Sep 9, 2012 9:37 AM in response to Brandon Sky

MacKeeper 911 is the App Store version of MacKeeper. It is not a rip-off of MacKeeper, it's a version that has been limited to allow its inclusion in the App Store. Both are made by the same unethical developer, and both have the potential to do damage (though the App Store version actually has less potential, due to the sandboxing imposed on all apps in the App Store).


You may have chosen to believe that roam's story is the truth, but that does not make it so.

Sep 9, 2012 10:16 AM in response to Brandon Sky

Regardless, why would you pay for something that has the potential to cause damage? Sure, there are some reports from "neutral" users claiming that it hasn't harmed their system -- and, I've seen reports from some who initially had no problems, but which did later develop. It's a real crapshoot.


And even if does no harm, which is highy questionable, almost all its functions can be found in free programs, which are known to be fully compatible with Macs and at least, if not more (mostly more), as effective.


Even if it is completely harmless, I wouldn't want to legitimize or support its unusually aggressive and unethical marketing by purchasing it.


See T. Reed's list of those programs.


http://www.reedcorner.net/beware-mackeeper/

Is MacKeeper a legitimate program?

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