MyShopBot Adware (Mac)

What is MyShopBot?

MyShopBot is a rogue application that supposedly saves time and money by providing various coupons and notifying users of special deals/discounts available within online stores.

Many users believe that MyShopBot is a legitimate and useful application, however, this app records user/system information, displays intrusive online advertisements, and often infiltrates systems without users' permission. For these reasons, MyShopBot is categorized as adware and a potentially unwanted program (PUP).

Following infiltration, MyShopBot employs a 'virtual layer' (a tool that enables placement of third party graphical content on any site) to generate coupon, pop-up, banner, and other similar intrusive advertisements. These ads do not originate from users' visited websites and often conceal underlying content, significantly diminishing the Internet browsing experience.

Furthermore, these displayed ads lead to malicious websites - clicking them can lead to high-risk adware or malware infections. MyShopBot records various information relating to users' Internet browsing activity. Examples of recorded data include IP addresses, URLs visited, pages viewed, and search queries.

This information might contain personally identifiable details that developers of MyShopBot share with third parties (potentially, cyber criminals) who attempt to generate revenue by misusing private data. This can lead to serious privacy issues. Therefore, we strongly advise you to uninstall MyShopBot adware immediately.

MyShopBot is identical to My ShopMate, SmartShoppy, ShoppyTool, and many other applications. All offer identical features, however, none provide any real value. Applications such as MyShopBot are designed only to generate revenue for the developers.

Claims to enhance the Internet browsing experience are merely attempts to give the impression of legitimacy. These apps merely generate intrusive online advertisements and collect private information.

How did MyShopBot install on my computer?

This application is distributed via an official download website and using a deceptive software marketing method called "bundling" (stealth installation of PUPs with regular software/applications). Many users do not express enough caution when downloading and installing software.

Therefore, users who rush and skip most/all of the download and installation steps often inadvertently install bundled programs, usually hidden within the "Custom/Advanced" settings.

How to avoid installation of potentially unwanted applications?

Installation of PUPs can be prevented by closely analyzing each step of the download/installation processes and declining all offers to download or install third party apps. Select the "Custom/Advanced" settings, carefully observe each step, and opt-out of all additionally-included applications.

Bundled programs are often categorized as rogue and, thus, should never be installed. The key to computer safety is caution.

MyShopBot website frequently asked questions (FAQ):

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Quick menu:

• What is MyShopBot?
• STEP 1. Remove MyShopBot related files and folders from OSX.
• STEP 2. Remove MyShopBot ads from Safari.
• STEP 3. Remove MyShopBot adware from Google Chrome.
• STEP 4. Remove MyShopBot ads from Mozilla Firefox.

Video showing how to remove adware and browser hijackers from a Mac computer:

MyShopBot adware removal:

Remove MyShopBot-related potentially unwanted applications from your "Applications" folder:

Click the Finder icon. In the Finder window, select “Applications”. In the applications folder, look for “MPlayerX”,“NicePlayer”, or other suspicious applications and drag them to the Trash. After removing the potentially unwanted application(s) that cause online ads, scan your Mac for any remaining unwanted components.

Remove browser hijacker-related files and folders

Click the Finder icon from the menu bar. Choose Go, and click Go to Folder...

Check for browser hijacker generated files in the /Library/LaunchAgents/ folder:

In the Go to Folder... bar, type: /Library/LaunchAgents/

In the "LaunchAgents" folder, look for any recently-added suspicious files and move them to the Trash. Examples of files generated by browser hijackers - "installmac.AppRemoval.plist", "myppes.download.plist", "mykotlerino.ltvbit.plist", "kuklorest.update.plist", etc. Browser hijacker commonly installs several files with the exact same string.

Check for browser hijacker generated files in the ~/Library/Application Support/ folder:

In the Go to Folder... bar, type: ~/Library/Application Support/

In the "Application Support" folder, look for any recently-added suspicious folders. For example, "MplayerX" or "NicePlayer", and move these folders to the Trash.

Check for browser hijacker generated files in the ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ folder:

In the Go to Folder... bar, type: ~/Library/LaunchAgents/

In the "LaunchAgents" folder, look for any recently-added suspicious files and move them to the Trash. Examples of files generated by browser hijackers - "installmac.AppRemoval.plist", "myppes.download.plist", "mykotlerino.ltvbit.plist", "kuklorest.update.plist", etc. Browser hijacker commonly installs several files with the exact same string.

Check for browser hijacker generated files in the /Library/LaunchDaemons/ folder:

In the "Go to Folder..." bar, type: /Library/LaunchDaemons/

In the "LaunchDaemons" folder, look for recently-added suspicious files. For example "com.aoudad.net-preferences.plist", "com.myppes.net-preferences.plist", "com.kuklorest.net-preferences.plist", "com.avickUpd.plist", etc., and move them to the Trash.

Scan your Mac with Combo Cleaner:

If you have followed all the steps correctly, your Mac should be clean of infections. To ensure your system is not infected, run a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus. Download it HERE. After downloading the file, double click combocleaner.dmg installer. In the opened window, drag and drop the Combo Cleaner icon on top of the Applications icon. Now open your launchpad and click on the Combo Cleaner icon. Wait until Combo Cleaner updates its virus definition database and click the "Start Combo Scan" button.

Combo Cleaner will scan your Mac for malware infections. If the antivirus scan displays "no threats found" - this means that you can continue with the removal guide; otherwise, it's recommended to remove any found infections before continuing.

After removing files and folders generated by the browser hijackers, continue to remove rogue extensions from your Internet browsers.

Remove browser hijackers from Internet browsers

Remove Safari browser hijackers:

Open the Safari browser, from the menu bar, select "Safari" and click "Preferences...".

In the preferences window, select "Extensions" and look for any recently-installed suspicious extensions. When located, click the "Uninstall" button next to it/them. Note that you can safely uninstall all extensions from your Safari browser - none are crucial for regular browser operation.

Change your homepage:

In the "Preferences" window, select the "General" tab. To set your homepage, type the preferred website URL (for example: www.google.com) in the Homepage field. You can also click the "Set to Current Page" button if you wish to set your homepage to the website you are currently visiting.

Change your default search engine:

In the "Preferences" window, select the "Search" tab. Here you will find a drop-down menu labeled "Search engine:" Simply select your preferred search engine from the drop-down list.

• If you continue to have problems with browser redirects and unwanted advertisements - Reset Safari.

Remove Google Chrome browser hijackers:

Click the Chrome menu icon (at the top right corner of Google Chrome), select "More Tools" and click "Extensions". Locate all recently-installed suspicious extensions, select these entries and click "Remove".

Change your homepage

Click the Chrome menu icon (at the top right corner of Google Chrome) and select "Settings". In the "On startup" section, disable the malicious extension (if present), look for a browser hijacker URL below the "Open a specific or set of pages" option. If present, click on the three vertical dots icon and select "Remove".

Change your default search engine:

To change your default search engine in Google Chrome: Click the Chrome menu icon (at the top right corner of Google Chrome), select "Settings", in the "Search engine" section, click "Manage search engines...", in the opened list look for a browser hijacker URL, when located click the three vertical dots near this URL and select "Delete".

• If you continue to have problems with browser redirects and unwanted advertisements - Reset Google Chrome.

Remove malicious extensions from Mozilla Firefox:

Click the Firefox menu (at the top right corner of the main window) and select "Add-ons and themes". Click "Extensions", in the opened window locate all recently-installed suspicious extensions, click on the three dots and then click "Remove".

Change your homepage

To reset your homepage, click the Firefox menu (at the top right corner of the main window), then select "Settings", in the opened window disable malicious extension (if present), remove the browser hijacker URL and enter your preferred domain, which will open each time you start Mozilla Firefox.

Change your default search engine:

In the URL address bar, type "about:config" and press Enter. Click "Accept the Risk and Continue".

In the search filter at the top, type: "extensionControlled". Set both results to "false" by either double-clicking each entry or clicking the button.

• If you continue to have problems with browser redirects and unwanted advertisements - Reset Mozilla Firefox.

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