How to delete Flashmail adware trojan from SwissFist

I recently got a Flashmail infection when downloading a streaming video viewer.

There are some older posts covering how to remove Flashmail, but I thought it might be good to review the procedure and note how to remove it from your browser and reset your Home Page.

I am using an older Mac Book Pro running Mac OS 10.6.8 with Chrome and Safari browsers.

I got excellent help from Mark with ClamXav. I can personally recommend the timely and knowledgeable help I got from ClamXav.

~ Alan

Currently ClamXav is designed to prevent adware from taking hold in the first place rather than focussing on removal, but we're currently working on a solution for that and hope to have it available relatively soon.

In the meantime, I've included some manual removal instructions.

You may wish to print out these instructions before you get started.

Copy the following line

~/Library/LaunchAgents

In the Desktop/Finder, select the Go menu at the top of the screen and choose "Go to Folder..."

Press command-V to paste in the line you just copied. Press return and a folder named "LaunchAgents" will open.

Inside the folder you just opened, you should find some files with a name like

Swissfist.AppRemoval.plist

Swissfist.download.plist

Swissfist.ltvbit.plist

Swissfist.update.plist

com.WebShoppers.agent.plist

Drag all the files to the trash and empty the trash. Restart your computer.

It's vital that you restart your computer after deleting the files.

Copy the following line:

~/Library/Application Support

Again, in the Desktop/Finder, select the Go menu at the top of the screen and choose "Go to Folder..."

Press command-V to paste in the line you just copied. Press return and a folder named "Application Support" will open.

Drag Swissfist to the trash.

Don't move the Application Support folder or anything else you find in there.

Go back to the Go menu and select Applications. Again, drag Swissfist to the trash as well. If you can't because the system says the application is still running, select "Force Quit" from the Apple Menu and force quit the application in question, then try deleting it again.

Restart your computer again.

Now, holding down the SHIFT key (bottom left of your keyboard, just above the ctrl or fn key) launch Safari. Go to the Safari menu -> Preferences -> Extensions and remove SwissFist (and possibly one called Ultimate something), or any that you don't recognise.

Go to the Search tab in Safari Preferences and reselect your desired search engine (in some versions of Safari this may be in the General tab). Do the same to reset your Home Page.

Do the same thing in Firefox or Chrome.