CoolShopper Adware (Mac)

What is CoolShopper?

CoolShopper is a potentially unwanted program (PUP) that falsely claims to save time and money whilst shopping online. These claims often trick users into believing that CoolShopper is a legitimate application. Be aware, however, that CoolShopper often infiltrates systems without users’ permission.

In addition, this PUP delivers various intrusive online ads and tracks Internet browsing activity. For these reasons, CoolShopper is classed as adware.

After system infiltration, CoolShopper generates various online advertisement types such as coupon, pop-up and banner. To do this, CoolShopper employs a 'virtual layer' - a tool that enables placement of third party graphical content on any site.

None of these ads originate from users' visited websites and conceal underlying content, diminishing the Internet browsing experience. Furthermore, unwanted ads can lead to malicious websites often containing infectious content - clicking them is risky and might cause further high-risk adware or malware infections.

In addition, CoolShopper records IP addresses, website URLs visited, search queries entered into the search engines, pages viewed, and other similar data relating to browsing activity. Be aware that this collected information might contain private details that developers of CoolShopper share with third parties (who misuse private data to generate revenue).

Thus, the presence of an information tracking app on your system can lead to serious privacy issues or even identity theft. We strongly advise you to remove CoolShopper from your computer immediately.

CoolShopper is identical to EasyShopper, HotShoppy, BestWeb Shoppers, and a number of other bogus programs. All offer claim to save time and money when shopping online, however, claims to provide coupons and notifications of various deals/discounts available within online stores are merely attempts to give the impression of legitimate software.

None of these applications provide the functionality promised. In fact, all adware-type applications are useless for regular users. Developers aim to generate as much revenue as possible and, thus, their products provide no significant value for regular users. Adware delivers intrusive online advertisements, collects personally identifiable information, and often causes unwanted browser redirects.

How did CoolShopper install on my computer?

To distribute CoolShopper, developers use an official download website and a deceptive software marketing method called 'bundling' - stealth installation of potentially unwanted programs with regular software/apps.

Many users do not pay enough attention when downloading and installing software - aware of this, developers hide potentially unwanted programs within the 'Custom/Advanced' settings. By skipping this section, users expose their systems to risk of various infections and threaten their privacy.

How to avoid installation of potentially unwanted applications?

There are two main steps you should take to prevent system infiltration by PUPs. Firstly, each step of the download/installation processes should be closely analyzed. Secondly, all offers to download and/or install additional programs should be declined. Bundled software is mostly rogue and should, thus, never be installed.

CoolShopper website frequently asked questions (FAQ):

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Quick menu:

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

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

CoolShopper adware removal:

Remove CoolShopper-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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