Mac Cleanup Pro?

[Jonzjob]

I have a MacBook Pro 13 mid 2010 running OS X 10.13.6. Browser is Waterfox.

Last night I had a quick look to see what was going on in the world before going to bed. I was looking at the BBC news site and wanted to look at some video. I clicked on the video and got a message to upgrade the flash player. I have never been happy about flash player, I think I had read something about it in the dim and distant past? But as I wanted to watch it I started the update. Before it had finished I had a window come up from 'Mac Cleanup' telling me that I have all sorts of problems in all sorts of places and that I need to buy Mac Cleanup Pro to clear them all off of the system. Worst case scenario as I am just getting over a lousy month old cough/cold and very tired, so I thought that this is a load of pony poo and chucked it in the Trash. I had a further thought and did a search on it and finished up on this site.

How to remove Mac Cleanup Pro virus - MacSecurity

It warns about it being a 'scareware' programme and how to get rid properly and that just chucking it in the Trash is no good as it will return, so I did a 'put Back' from Trash and it's sat in Applications again. Is the above proceedure the correct one to use or is there a better way?

Also, as I want to go on looking at various news video and it seems to use flash player is there a safe way to update it?

I have no recollection of ever putting it on either of our Macs and it suddenly appeared at the same time as the flash update.

The situation now is that Mac Cleaner Pro is sat in my Applications folder and I haven't paid anything for it, so I assume that it is some kind of trial period?

Any ideas please folks?

[IWT]

Hi John

Okay. First off: Adobe Flash Player. If you have any version on your Mac, it can be found in "System Preferences", at the very bottom pane. If there, you can click on that and update Flash from there.

If not, then you must download Flash ONLY from the Adobe site. For example: Adobe Flash Player Install for all versions

Next. These "Cleaners" are a blasted nuisance, may be bundled with malware, and tend to get into the very "guts" of your Mac. So, you need a proper uninstaller. Ideally, this would come from the developer, but I doubt this one does.

The Link you provided comes with various suggestions, all of which require downloading some app or another.

I can't really comment on the efficacy of these apps - never used them. But I can recommend AppCleaner which many of us use. It tries to remove all the bits & pieces left behind as well as the app itself.

Even then, it would be worth using "Find Any File" by Thomas Templeton. This finds any residual files associated with the Cleaner that might have been missed.

I hope these basic ideas help you in your quest.

Ian

[badshoehabit]

That's useful, Ian. Didn't realise my MBP updated Flash automatically until I looked in SP.

[Jonzjob]

Thank you for your help Ian. I have now got App Cleaner and used it. It looks as if Mac Cleanup has now departed from my machine. I have just checked our iMac to see if it is on there as well and it isn't. That would indicate to me that I hadn't knowingly installed it or I would have done so to both.

But, I will definitely install App Cleaner on the iMac!

Thank you for your help. Once again, service as usual from the forum, can't be bad

[MacInWin]

If you want to be certain that the system is clean, get DetectX Swift and run it to find any malware that may have crept in. The really nasty part of the "update Flash" scam is that by giving it your admin password to authorize the "update" you have given it authority to install whatever packages it was carrying.

[toMACsh]

Advice to anyone looking in...
If you get a pop-up saying to update Flash, close it. If you're curious, go to the Adobe web site and determine if your Flash Player is up to date.

[Jonzjob]

The fact that I have to enter the systen password has always been a big concern Jake, but is there a way around that?

And ToM I have had a look at the Flash web site and I have not found any way to actually check what level I am on? Sorry to be thick, but as I have said before if I can hit it I can usually fix it, but software leaves my brain cell out clod!

[MacInWin]

Nope, that's part of Apple's security. Nothing can be installed without your ok. It's up to you to be the watchguard.

As for Flash, it's not at the Adobe site. If Flash is installed on your system, it will have a pane in System Preferences, on the bottom row. From there you can check the version and see if updates are available. The pane goes to Adobe.

[Jonzjob]

Jake, I am not sure why I asked the password question as I already knew the answer? It has to have been a very senior moment and thank you for your patience!

I have had a look at Flash on the Sys Preferences and it is up to date, so not too sure why it told me it wasn't? I have Malwarebytes, just the freebee version. It has found 4 threats. I assume that I just 'Confirm' and delete these?

Screen Shot 2019-11-19 at 22.59.25 copy | John Fairbairn | Flickr

[MacInWin]

I have had a look at Flash on the Sys Preferences and it is up to date, so not too sure why it told me it wasn't?

The message was not from Flash, but a spoofer who just wanted to get you to install what they wanted and needed the password to do so. Once you have flash installed and the pane in Sys Prefs, one of the options there is to automatically install, which you can check if you don't want to get any notice at all. I never did that. I don't use Flash now, but when it was installed I had it set to let me manually check. I usually let the spoofer be my trigger to go check. The spoof message would appear, I would get rid of it and then open Sys Prefs and almost invariably find that there was no update to obtain. I guess I could have blocked the spoofing with an ad blocker, but the message served as kind of a to-do reminder. Nothing like taking something bad and using it for good, eh?

[Rod]

Jonzjob, I would be interested to know what results Malwarebytes found. As for the process from there, Malwarebytes will quarantine the offending files on your approval into a folder created by Malwarebytes for that purpose. You can then either Trash them immediately or hang on to them for a while to ensure that removal does not cause a problem.


Sent from my iPhone using Mac-Forums

[pm-r]

I have had a look at the Flash web site and I have not found any way to actually check what level I am on?

Check and test Flash:
Flash Player Help



- Patrick
======

[Jonzjob]

Jonzjob, I would be interested to know what results Malwarebytes found. As for the process from there, Malwarebytes will quarantine the offending files on your approval into a folder created by Malwarebytes for that purpose. You can then either Trash them immediately or hang on to them for a while to ensure that removal does not cause a problem.


Sent from my iPhone using Mac-Forums

Hi Rob, the 4 items shown in my flickr link are adware, 2 files and 2 directories. So I would assume that the logical thing would be just ditch them?

I have both Ghostery and Adblock Plus on both of our systems and they usually sort thyese things out, but I suppose they have their holes too? It's difficult to be perfect init

[toMACsh]

John, I see there's an answer above about checking your version of Flash. Did you try it?

As an aside, about my User Name here... (as there seems to be a disconnect in your reference to "ToM"
It's a two-parter. (MAC and tosh) The second part there is split, with the first part being inside it. So the intended way to say it is "MAC in tosh".
Yes, I know that my computer is a Mac, not a MAC. Since I couldn't use bold text in a User Name, I opted for all caps.

[Jonzjob]

Sorry Mit (short for Mac in tosh ) but I hadn't realised that I had left out the info that my Flash was checked in System Preferences and it is up to date.

Ta for your explanation of your name. I think that you must like crossword puzzles ? I never could get my brain cell around them.