As bothersome as MyCouponsmart is, this program is definitely not a malevolent virus. In fact, there is a very big difference between real security hazards, for example, Ransomware or Trojans, as opposed to a Browser Hijacker such as MyCouponsmart, Search Mine, Search Marquis. Generally, the Browser Hijackers are special programs that are made to display undesirable ads, pay-per-click messages, and page-redirect links. Usually, those programs work by installing some add-on or an extension to your main browser, that could be hidden and/or challenging to remove. The moment you start a new browsing session, the added component starts to display hundreds of sponsored commercial messages and spams your screen with various click-prompts. But who has the need to flood your browser with advertisements and with what purpose? Well, it all has to do with the online marketing industry where a lot of money is involved. Marketers and different online advertisers try to promote their products, services and web pages directly on the users’ screen and for that, they use different methods and software. They typically pay to developers to create apps that can generate specific sponsored ads during the web browsing and use remuneration models like pay-per-click to stimulate the programmers to display more ads for profits. Programs like MyCouponsmart simply take this online advertising tactic to a new level, which oftentimes turns out to be very aggressive and annoying.

Despite the fact that Browser Hijackers like MyCouponsmart don’t fit in the virus category, however, they could still expose your system to some dangers. Unfortunately, in some cases, some of the unpleasant adverts you may see on your screen could end up being a significant security threat. For instance, they may be misleading or infected with nasty viruses like Ransomware or Trojans. That’s why, basically, any time you select an ad, you risk being redirected to a virus-infected site or some other type of web content which might be unreliable. All this sounds pretty intimidating and could be a good reason for some users to immediately uninstall the Hijacker from their system. Nevertheless, it should be said that getting infected with malware thanks to something, displayed by a Browser hijacker is not that common. Yet, there is another potentially unwanted consequence of having a program like MyCouponsmart on your PC –  it may track your Internet activity. Such software is used to collect valuable marketing-related information that’s why more often than not the hijacker may take note of everything you do on the web and then processes that data to deliver user-oriented ads. The biggest issue with this is that the data can afterwards be sold to unknown third-party companies for profits. Additionally, the constant ad-generating and page-redirecting activity that might be running in the background may consume a fair share of the system’s resources which may lead to issues with the PC performance. If you notice a slowdown, a browser unresponsiveness, or sluggishness of your PC, there is a possibility that MyCouponsmart could be the reason behind it. That’s why don’t curse your computer and try to first remove the unwanted application and see if this can improve the performance.

SUMMARY:

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MyCouponsmart Virus Removal

Step 1: Closing Safari (or any other browser that you may be using at the moment)

First, you will need to close your browser if it is still open. If you can’t do that normally, you will need to Force Quit it:

Open the Apple Menu and select Force Quit to do that. You can also use the ⌘ key + Option Key combination to open the Force Quit Applications dialog box. In this box, select the Safari browser (or whatever browser you are using) and then click on the Quit button. Confirm the action by selecting Force Quit again.

Step 2: Killing suspicious processes

Open Finder and go to Applications > Utilities and then open Activity Monitor. Now take a careful look at the processes there – look for any that seem suspicious, unknown and questionable. If you think that a given process may be the culprit behind the issue or may at least be related to it, highlight it with the mouse and select the i option at its top.

In the box that opens, click on Sample.

Scan the sample files with the online scanner we have on this page and if any of them get flagged as malicious, delete them and then kill their processes.

Step 3: Safely launching the browser

Hold the Shift from your keyboard and then launch Safari – holding Shift will prevent any previously opened pages to load again, just in case any of them were related to the problem.

If any problematic pages still load after you safe-launch the browser, then do the following:

Force-Quit the browser (Safari) again and then turn off your Wi-Fi connection by clicking on the Wi-Fi off option from the Mac Menu. If you are using cable Internet, simply disconnect the cable from your Mac.

Step 4: Uninstalling suspicious extensions

After you safe-launch Safari and are sure none of the previously opened pages load now, go to Preferences > Extensions.

Select and uninstall (by clicking on the Uninstall button) all extensions there that are unfamiliar to you or that you think may be suspicious. If you are not sure about a certain extension, it’s better to uninstall it – no extension is required for the normal functioning of the browser.

Step 5: Cleaning Safari

If you have other browsers aside from Safari, do the following:

In Safari, open Preferences from the browser’s menu and go to Privacy.

Select Remove All Website Data and then Remove Now. Note that this will delete all stored site data including any saved passwords and usernames. In other words, you will have to manually log-in to every site where you have a registration so make sure you remember your usernames and passwords.

Back in Preferences, click on General and see what your Safari’s homepage is. If it has been changed without your permission, change it back to what it used to be or to whatever you like it to be now.

Now go to the History menu and select the Clear History option.

Do the same to all other browsers you may have in your computer – here are examples with Chrome and Firefox.

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Cleaning Chrome

Open Chrome and open its main menu, then go to More Tools > Extensions. Click on the Remove button next to all of the extensions that you do not trust.

Next, from the main menu, go to Settings and type Manage Search Engines in the search bar. Open the result that shows up and then delete all search engines other than the one you normally use by clicking on the three-dot icon next to the other ones and selecting Remove from list.

Back in Settings, type Reset and clean up and open the option that shows up (Restore settings to their original defaults). Confirm by selecting Reset Settings.

Cleaning Firefox

Open Firefox and then open its main menu. Go to Add-ons and open the Extensions menu from the left. Look at the extensions and Remove the ones you do not trust.

Next, open the menu again, go to Help > Troubleshooting information and in the page that opens, select Refresh Firefox and then confirm the action in the window that opens.

The post Remove MyCouponsmart Virus (Mac Guide) Safari/Chrome/FF appeared first on Malware Complaints.