SurfBuyer Adware (Mac)

What is SurfBuyer?

SurfBuyer is a rogue application claiming to save time and money by notifying users of special deals/discounts available on various e-shops, providing coupons, enabling price comparison, and other similar features. These claims often trick users into believing that SurfBuyer is legitimate and useful.

In fact, this app is categorized as a potentially unwanted program (PUP) and adware. There are three main reasons for these negative associations: 1) infiltration without users' consent; 2) display of intrusive online advertisements, and; 3) tracking of Internet browsing activity.

Following infiltration, SurfBuyer employs a 'virtual layer' to generate pop-up, coupon, banner, and other similar advertisements. The virtual layer enables placement of third party graphical content on any site. Therefore, the displayed ads often conceal underlying web content, thereby significantly diminishing the web browsing experience.

Furthermore, they often generate results leading to malicious websites - clicking them is risky and can result in further adware or malware infections. Another downside is information tracking. SurfBuyer records IP addresses, websites visited, pages viewed, queries entered into search engines, and other similar data relating to web browsing activity.

Note that this collected data might include personal details that SurfBuyer's developers share with cooperating third party companies.

There is a high probability that personal information will be misused to generate revenue. Therefore, the presence of an information-tracking app such as SurfBuyer on your system can lead to serious privacy issues or even identity theft. You are strongly advised to eliminate this adware immediately.

Threat Summary:

Name	Ads by SurfBuyer
Threat Type	Mac malware, Mac virus
Symptoms	Your Mac became slower than normal, you see unwanted pop-up ads, you get redirected to shady websites.
Distribution methods	Deceptive pop-up ads, free software installers (bundling), fake flash player installers, torrent file downloads.
Damage	Internet browsing tracking (potential privacy issues), displaying of unwanted ads, redirects to shady websites, loss of private information.
Malware Removal (Mac)	To eliminate possible malware infections, scan your Mac with legitimate antivirus software. Our security researchers recommend using Combo Cleaner. ▼ Download Combo Cleaner for Mac To use full-featured product, you have to purchase a license for Combo Cleaner. Limited seven days free trial available. Combo Cleaner is owned and operated by Rcs Lt, the parent company of PCRisk.com read more.

SurfBuyer is identical to MyShopBot, My WebEnhancer, My ShopMate, and a number of other applications. Furthermore, it shares many similarities with hundreds of other adware-type programs. All claim to enhance the web browsing experience by providing 'useful features', however, these promises are merely attempts to give the impression of legitimacy.

Adware-type applications are designed only to generate revenue for the developers and regular users receive no value. These applications deliver intrusive online advertisements and continually record various data.

How did SurfBuyer install on my computer?

SurfBuyer has an official download website, however, developers also promote it using a deceptive marketing method called "bundling".

Research shows that many users rush the download/installation processes and skip most steps. Therefore, bundled applications are hidden within the "Custom" or "Advanced" settings. Skipping this section often leads to inadvertent installation of bogus programs.

How to avoid installation of potentially unwanted applications?

This situation can be prevented by taking two simple steps. Firstly, never rush when downloading and installing software - select the "Custom/Advanced" settings and closely analyze each step. Secondly, decline offers to download/install additional applications and opt-out of those already included. The key to computer safety is caution.

Here's how ads generated by SurfBuyer adware looks like on an infected computer:

SurfBuyer adware generating intrusive online ads (marked as 'Powered by SurfBuyer' or 'Ad by SurfBuyer'):

Deceptive application installer promoting SurfBuyer adware:

Website promoting SurfBuye adwarer:

Instant automatic Mac malware removal: Manual threat removal might be a lengthy and complicated process that requires advanced IT skills. Combo Cleaner is a professional automatic malware removal tool that is recommended to get rid of Mac malware. Download it by clicking the button below:
▼ DOWNLOAD Combo Cleaner for Mac By downloading any software listed on this website you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. To use full-featured product, you have to purchase a license for Combo Cleaner. Limited seven days free trial available. Combo Cleaner is owned and operated by Rcs Lt, the parent company of PCRisk.com read more.

Quick menu:

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

Video showing how to remove SurfBuyer adware using Combo Cleaner:

SurfBuyer adware removal:

Remove SurfBuyer-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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