How to remove Hackers Are Watching You! POP-UP Scam Mac

Find and delete Hackers Are Watching You! POP-UP Scam in Mac computer (Remove Mac Virus)

What is Hackers Are Watching You! POP-UP Scam? What it does?

This scam page is categorized as Mac Virus designed to tricks you into downloading/installing some potentially unwanted application (PUA) or malware in your Mac computer. Hackers Are Watching You! POP-UP is presented as fake virus notifications claims that your Mac/iPhone is infected with a certain number of viruses and asks you to remove those viruses as soon as possible.

It also claims if you don’t fix this in two minutes, they will reveal your identity and send your browsing history and other sensitive details in front facing camera photos to everyone in your contacts. However, this Security Alert scam also provides some fake recovery method and claims you can fix this problem with just three steps including clicking on ‘Protect your Connection’ button, redirected on App Store, and install & run its fake protection app in your device.

In security terms, this scam website/webpage can’t be trusted even when they promote some genuine protection apps. The attackers behind this scam can collect your browsing-related data or other sensitive information by installing its fake protection tools in your device. Once installed, they can also make some unwanted changes in browser’s settings and/or in System’s settings without your knowledge.

Hackers Are Watching You! POP-UP Scam installs some fake browser helper objects, unwanted extensions, plug-ins or toolbars in your browser that are designed to run malicious advertisements campaigns and monitor your online activities to collect your data. They can deliver ads or popups in the form of banners, coupons, fake software updates, fake security alert messages and other types of advertisements. However, these malicious ads or popups can attempt to install some PUAs, adware or malware in your computer by executing certain commands.

In simple word, this fake security alert popup or virus alert scam is not safe for your online privacy and System security. They can collect your some information such as IP address, URLs search, typed words, browser history, search queries, age, address or geolocation, email ID, username & password of your various accounts, banking information and more details.

They can share these collected data to other cybercriminals or third parties to generate some revenue from them. Also, they can misuse these collected data for illegal purposes. For example, once they gain access to your email account by collecting your email login credentials, they can change password of your email account and attempt to access other online accounts associated with your email account. In other word, this Mac virus can lead to privacy issues. So, it is important to find and remove Hackers Are Watching You! POP-UP Scam in Mac computer as soon as possible to prevent System from further attacks.

How did you get Hackers Are Watching You! POP-UP Scam in Mac computer?

Potentially unwanted applications (PUAs), adware or malware like Silver Sparrow Malware are distributed through other software package as additional offers. This false marketing method of packaging regular or legitimate software with PUAs, browser hijackers or malware is known as Software Bundling Method – is the mostly used mechanism by cybercriminals.

‘Custom/Advanced/Manual’ installation is required if you don’t want browser hijackers, adware or malware in your computer. These settings in software installation setup offers you can select or deselect the checkboxes associated with programs included in software package, you want to install or not. If you deselect any checkboxes for any programs in these settings, such programs will not be installed. So, you should choose ‘Custom/Advanced/Manual’ settings in setup during software installation and remove all unnecessary programs or malicious additions by unticking their checkboxes.

System is already infected with malware: How to remove Hackers Are Watching You! POP-UP Scam?

If System is already infected with PUAs, adware or malware, then you can go with our automatic method of malware removal to get rid of it. Here, automatic method offers you can find all threats including latest malware in computer with some powerful antivirus software, and then you can delete all detected threats with just one-click. After System scan is completed, please check if Hackers Are Watching You! POP-UP Scam or related infection is removed.

Remove Files and Folders Related to Hackers Are Watching You! POP-UP Scam

Open the “Menu” bar and click the “Finder” icon. Select “Go” and click on “Go to Folder…”

Step 1: Search the suspicious and doubtful malware generated files in /Library/LaunchAgents folder

Type /Library/LaunchAgents in the “Go to Folder” option

In the “Launch Agent” folder, search for all the files that you have recently downloaded and move them to “Trash”. Few of the examples of files created by browser-hijacker or adware are as follow, “myppes.download.plist”, “mykotlerino.Itvbit.plist”, installmac.AppRemoval.plist”, and “kuklorest.update.plist” and so on.

Step 2: Detect and remove the files generated by the adware in “/Library/Application” Support folder

In the “Go to Folder..bar”, type “/Library/Application Support”

Search for any suspicious newly added folders in “Application Support” folder. If you detect any one of these like “NicePlayer” or “MPlayerX” then send them to “Trash” folder.

Step 3: Look for the files generated by malware in /Library/LaunchAgent Folder:

Go to Folder bar and type /Library/LaunchAgents

You are in the “LaunchAgents” folder. Here, you have to search for all the newly added files and move them to “Trash” if you find them suspicious. Some of the examples of suspicious files generated by malware are “myppes.download.plist”, “installmac.AppRemoved.plist”, “kuklorest.update.plist”, “mykotlerino.ltvbit.plist” and so on.

Step4: Go to /Library/LaunchDaemons Folder and search for the files created by malware

Type /Library/LaunchDaemons in the “Go To Folder” option

In the newly opened “LaunchDaemons” folder, search for any recently added suspicious files and move them to “Trash”. Examples of some of the suspicious files are “com.kuklorest.net-preferences.plist”, “com.avickUpd.plist”, “com.myppes.net-preference.plist”, “com.aoudad.net-preferences.plist” and so on.

Step 5: Use Combo Cleaner Anti-Malware and Scan your Mac PC

The malware infections could be removed from the Mac PC if you execute all the steps mentioned above in the correct way. However, it is always advised to be sure that your PC is not infected. It is suggested to scan the work-station with “Combo Cleaner Anti-virus”.

Once the file gets downloaded, double click on combocleaner.dmg installer in the newly opened window. Next is to open the “Launchpad” and press on “Combo Cleaner” icon. It is advised to wait until “Combo Cleaner” updates the latest definition for malware detection. Click on “Start Combo Scan” button.

A depth scan of your Mac PC will be executed in order to detect malware. If the Anti-virus scan report says “no threat found” then you can continue with guide further. On the other hand, it is recommended to delete the detected malware infection before continuing.

Now the files and folders created by the adware is removed, you have to remove the rogue extensions from the browsers.

Remove Hackers Are Watching You! POP-UP Scam from Internet Browsers

Delete Doubtful and Malicious Extension from Safari

Go to “Menu Bar” and open “Safari” browser. Select “Safari” and then “Preferences”

In the opened “preferences” window, select “Extensions” that you have recently installed. All such extensions should be detected and click the “Uninstall” button next to it. If you are doubtful then you can remove all the extensions from “Safari” browser as none of them are important for smooth functionality of the browser.

In case if you continue facing unwanted webpage redirections or aggressive advertisements bombarding, you can reset the “Safari” browser.

“Reset Safari”

Open the Safari menu and choose “preferences…” from the drop-down menu.

Go to the “Extension” tab and set the extension slider to “Off” position. This disables all the installed extensions in the Safari browser

Next step is to check the homepage. Go to “Preferences…” option and choose “General” tab. Change the homepage to your preferred URL.

Also check the default search-engine provider settings. Go to “Preferences…” window and select the “Search” tab and select the search-engine provider that you want such as “Google”.

Next is to clear the Safari browser Cache- Go to “Preferences…” window and select “Advanced” tab and click on “Show develop menu in the menu bar.“

Go to “Develop” menu and select “Empty Caches”.

Remove website data and browsing history. Go to “Safari” menu and select “Clear History and Website Data”. Choose “all history” and then click on “Clear History”.

Remove Unwanted and Malicious Plug-ins from Mozilla Firefox

Delete Hackers Are Watching You! POP-UP Scam add-ons from Mozilla Firefox

Open the Firefox Mozilla browser. Click on the “Open Menu” present in the top right corner of the screen. From the newly opened menu, choose “Add-ons”.

Go to “Extension” option and detect all the latest installed add-ons. Select each of the suspicious add-ons and click on “Remove” button next to them.

In case if you want to “reset” the Mozilla Firefox browser then follow the steps that has been mentioned below.

Reset Mozilla Firefox Settings

Open the Firefox Mozilla browser and click on “Firefox” button situated at the top left corner of the screen.

In the new menu, go to “Help” sub-menu and choose “Troubleshooting Information”

In the “Troubleshooting Information” page, click on “Reset Firefox” button.

Confirm that you want to reset the Mozilla Firefox settings to default by pressing on “Reset Firefox” option

The browser will get restarted and the settings changes to factory default

Delete Unwanted and Malicious Extensions from Google Chrome

Open the chrome browser and click on “Chrome menu”. From the drop down option, choose “More Tools” and then “Extensions”.

In the “Extensions” option, search for all the recently installed add-ons and extensions. Select them and choose “Trash” button. Any third-party extension is not important for the smooth functionality of the browser.

Reset Google Chrome Settings

Open the browser and click on three line bar at the top right side corner of the window.

Go to the bottom of the newly opened window and select “Show advanced settings”.

In the newly opened window, scroll down to the bottom and choose “Reset browser settings”

Click on the “Reset” button on the opened “Reset browser settings” window

Restart the browser and the changes you get will be applied

The above mentioned manual process should be executed as it is mentioned. It is a cumbersome process and requires a lot of technical expertise. And hence it is advised for technical experts only. To be sure that your PC is free from malware, it is better that you scan the work-station with a powerful anti-malware tool. The automatic malware removal application is preferred because it doesn’t requires any additional technical skills and expertise.

Download the application and execute it on the PC to begin the depth scanning. Once the scanning gets completed, it shows the list of all the files related to Hackers Are Watching You! POP-UP Scam. You can select such harmful files and folders and remove them immediately.