Hello!
I am new to Apple but I have already done something wrong. There keeps popping up an icon on the top left on my screen asking me to install a software.
When I click it it looks as follows:
How do I delete this program from my computer?
MacBook Pro with Retina display
Do not download anything, do not give the site any details, this is a SCAM. Get Scamzapper from Safari extensions.
Malwarebytes for Mac may also be a possible solution:
https://www.malwarebytes.org/mac-download/
Ciao.
So how do I delete it from my computer?
Thanks alot
First, never use any kind of "anti-virus" or "anti-malware" software on a Mac. That's how you create problems, not how you solve them.
You may have installed a fake "utility" called "Advanced Mac Cleaner." Like any software that purports to automatically "clean up" or "speed up" a Mac, it's a scam, and some variants of it are ad-injection malware.
To remove it, please take the steps below. Some of the files listed may be absent in your case. Back up all data before proceeding.
If you paid for the software with a credit card, consider reporting the charge to the bank as fraudulent.
Step 1
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.pcv.hlpramc.plist
Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select
Services ▹ Reveal in Finder (or just Reveal)
from the contextual menu.* A folder should open with an item selected. Move the selected item to the Trash.
*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select
Go ▹ Go to Folder...
from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You may not see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.
Step 2
Reveal this folder as in Step 1:
/Library/LaunchAgents
Inside it there may be one or more files with a name beginning in
com.WebTools
If so, move those files, and only those, to the Trash. You may be prompted for your administrator login password.
Don't delete the LaunchAgents folder or anything else inside it.
Log out or restart the computer.
Step 3
Open the Applications folder and move an item named "Advanced Mac Cleaner" (if it's present) to the Trash. Empty the Trash.
Step 4
The malware is now permanently inactivated, provided that you don't reinstall it. This step is optional.
Delete the following items, if they exist, as in Step 1:
/Library/Application Support/amc ~/Library/AdvancedMacCleaner ~/Library/Application Support/WebTools
There's no need to log out or restart after taking this step.
Click on the link that I provided, download and install Malwarebytes for Mac. Open it and it will either tell you that it did not find anything or list items that is has found. You may then delete the suspect items.
Ciao.
Your question brings up the subject of removing adware. This is a general comment on that subject.
Under no circumstances should you ever allow anti-virus software to delete something for you.
The only tools that anyone needs to detect and remove adware are the Finder and a web browser, both of which you already have. Anyone who has enough computer skill to install adware can just as well remove it without using anything else.
Apple's general statements about malware protection are here and here, and here are its instructions for removing the most common types of ad-injection malware. Those statements don't mention any third-party "anti-virus" or "anti-malware" product. Apple's method for removing adware involves, as I say, only the Finder and a web browser.
You become infected with malware by downloading unknown software without doing research to determine whether it's safe. If you keep making that mistake, the same, and worse, will keep happening, and no anti-malware will rescue you. The only safety lies in safe computing practices.
The Windows/Android anti-malware industry had more than $75 billion in sales in 2014 [source: Gartner, Inc.] Its marketing strategy is to convince people that they're helpless against malware attack unless they use its products. But with all that anti-malware, the Windows and Android platforms are still infested with malware—most of it far more harmful than mere adware. The same can be expected to happen to the Mac platform if its users trust the same industry to protect them, instead of protecting themselves.
You are not helpless, and you don't have to give full control of your computer—and your data—to strangers in order to be rid of adware.
These are generalities. Regarding the "malwarebytes" product in particular, you may be told that there are no reports that is has caused damage. In fact, there are such reports; for example:
I found malware or adware on my system the other day. I removed it with Maleware Bytes and since then Safari has not worked proper at all.
preferences pane will not load
Read that report and draw your own conclusions—not anyone else's conclusions.
The developer itself admitted that the Windows version of the product has been known to delete essential system files.
Whether the software damages the system or not, it prompts for your password in order to take full adminstrative control, and connects via the Internet to a server controlled by the developer. The developer's privacy policy, linked directly to the product page, reads in part as follows:
"Without limiting the Privacy Policy, you agree that Malwarebytes may track certain data it obtains from your Computer including data about any malicious software or other threats flagged by the Software, data about your license, data about what version of the Software you are using and what operating conditions it runs under and data concerning your geographic location."
(Emphasis added.) So the developer admits to tracking your location, as well as other unspecified data, and gives itself the legal right to collect any data it chooses. How it uses that right, you don't know. By running the software, you accept these terms.
It's sometimes said that the Malwarebytes product only removes adware rather than malware as such (if there's a difference), and that it therefore shouldn't be stigmatized as anti-malware. The developer's own description does distinguish between adware and malware, and specifically mentions removing malware as a selling point six times. A self-described employee of the developer wrote in an ASC discussion, "Actually, it's also a malware removal app..." (emphasis added.)
The question then is: as a security-conscious computer user, do you want to take risks where there is no benefit?
Linc Davis wrote:
Under no circumstances should you ever allow anti-virus software to delete something for you.
As a point of fact and information, Malwarebytes for Mac is not an anti-malware application or anti-virus software and it should not be confused as such because the name contains 'malware'. 'Malware' that is part of the company name that offers that application. It also does not delete anything, rather is displays what is has discovered and the user must make the decision to delete or not delete. Therefore this point is not germane in the context of this discussion.
Apple's general statements about malware protection are here and here, and here are its instructions for removing the most common types of ad-injection malware. Those statements don't mention any third-party "anti-virus" or "anti-malware" product. Apple's method for removing adware involves, as I say, only the Finder and a web browser.
May I point out that Apple does not state anywhere that third party software cannot or should not be used in problem solving. In addition, using an application such as Malwarebytes for Mac is faster and more efficient that the procedures that you are pointing to. In addition, Apple employees have embraced Malwarebytes for Mac. Genius bar technicians use it in preference to the Apple procedures (I say that with authority based on a discussion with the genius' at the local Apple store) and telephone support personnel often advise users to employ Malwwarebytes fo Mac. An endorsement such as that quite illuminating, is it not?
These are generalities. Regarding the "malwarebytes" product in particular, you may be told that there are no reports that is has caused damage. In fact, there are such reports; for example:
I found malware or adware on my system the other day. I removed it with Maleware Bytes and since then Safari has not worked proper at all.preferences pane will not load
Read that report and draw your own conclusions—not anyone else's conclusions.
I have to tell you, as you have been told often in the past, that these examples have been debunked. If you have bonafide examples, use those. There is no legitimate documentation that Malwarebytes for Mac has caused damage to any Mac. But do read that link and pay strict attention to what Thoma R has to say.
The developer itself admitted that the Windows version of the product has been known to delete essential system files.
What is the point of introducing Windows in this discussion? I suggest that you delete this section for the simple reason that it may confuse the third party reader unnecessarily. After all. it really has no relevance to the matter at hand. This programmed post of yours is still full of errors and omisions and I submit should be read with great skepticism by the reader. You still have more work to do.
Ciao.
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