LiveShoppers Adware (Mac)

What is LiveShoppers?

LiveShoppers is a dubious application that supposedly helps to save time and money when shopping online by providing various coupons, notifications of special deals/discounts available on online stores, and enabling other similar features.

On initial inspection, LiveShoppers may seem legitimate, however, this app is classed as a potentially unwanted program (PUP) and adware. There are three main reasons for these negative associations: stealth installation without users' consent, tracking of web browsing activity, and display of intrusive online advertisements.

Following infiltration, LiveShoppers employs a 'virtual layer' to generate pop-up, coupon, banner, and other similar ads. The virtual layer enables placement of third party graphical content on any site. Therefore, these ads that do not originate from visited websites and often conceal underlying content, significantly diminishing the Internet browsing experience.

Some lead to malicious websites and, thus, even accidental clicks can lead to high-risk adware or malware infection. Furthermore, LiveShoppers records IP addresses, website URLs visited, search queries, and other similar information that might be personally identifiable.

Most of this recorded information is shared with third parties who cooperate with the developers of LiveShoppers - misusing personal data to generate revenue. Therefore, the presence of an information-tracking app on your system might result in serious privacy issues or even identity theft.

For these reasons, we strongly advise you to uninstall LiveShoppers adware immediately. LiveShoppers is similar to MacBar, MyOnlySearch, and a number of other potentially unwanted programs. By falsely claiming to provide valuable functions, adware-type programs often trick users to install.

Research shows, however, that all adware is designed only to generate revenue for the developers. Most provide no real value for regular users. Apps such as LiveShoppers collect personally identifiable information (which is later sold to third parties) and generate intrusive online advertisements (using the 'Pay Per Click’ [PPC] advertising model).

How did LiveShoppers install on my computer?

As well as the official download website, LiveShoppers is also distributed using a deceptive software marketing method called 'bundling' - stealth installation of third party apps with regular software/apps. This method is effective, since many users do not pay enough attention during the download/installation processes.

Potentially unwanted programs are concealed within the 'Custom/Advanced' settings of these procedures. Therefore, skipping this section often leads to inadvertently installation of bogus applications/software. This behavior causes serious privacy issues or various computer infections.

How to avoid installation of potentially unwanted applications?

Installation of PUPs can be prevented by closely observing the download/installation steps and declining all offers to download/install third party apps. Select the 'Custom/Advanced' settings, analyze each step, and opt-out of all additionally-included applications.

Deceptive application installer promoting LiveShoppers adware:

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Quick menu:

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

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

LiveShoppers adware removal:

Remove LiveShoppers-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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