How to Get Rid of Alphashoppers From Mac

When you’re online shopping, do you notice a lot of ads that pop up on your browser? And sometimes these ads appear even when you’re visiting a regular website. If you’re seeing unnatural number ads when browsing the internet, then your device has probably been infected by adware.

Adware is a type of malware especially designed to deliver ads to the affected user. There are thousands of adware proliferating the internet today, and one of these is the Alpha Shoppers or Alphashoppers. As the name suggests, Alpha Shoppers is a type of adware that pops up when you visit online shopping websites.

Running into advertisements when you shop online is normal, but getting bombarded with intrusive ads, even outside the online shopping platform is outrageous and downright unethical. Not only do they occupy your screen and get in the way of the website navigation, the constant redirects are also a waste of time and clicks. Plus, you’ll never know what type of website you’ll be sent to, which can be dangerous.

What is Alphashoppers?

Alpha Shoppers is an app that claims to help users when doing online shopping by offering deals, coupons, and discounts. However, what it actually does is shove numerous unwanted ads on Windows and Mac systems with the goal of generating profits for its clients.

Alpha Shoppers is a typical adware program that tricks users into clicking on sponsored content and redirecting the web traffic to dodgy and trash websites. Once the program is installed on your computer, a browser extension is also added to the Mac’s default web browser, which is Safari. Most of the time, the browser extension is installed without the user’s knowledge. However, it is also possible for the user to intentionally download the extension from a website that promotes Alpha Shoppers. From there, the user will be redirected to the page where the extension can be downloaded, such as this Chrome web store page.

In the case of Safari, there is no web store where users can download this browser extension but there are several websites that promote Alpha Shoppers and redirect the users to third-party repositories. It is also possible for the Alpha Shoppers extension to be bundled with other software and installed on the device when the core app is installed.

Alpha Shoppers is offered by alphashoppers.co. According to their website:

AlphaShoppers is the new homepage for you. With us, there is no need to search around the web for the best deals and offers out there. AlphaShoppers will do all the work for you and will give you direct access to all of your favourite products, deals, websites and more.

This means that your browser’s homepage will be set to Alphashoppers.co. According to the extension’s description the new homepage includes:

– Search bar for your convenience
– Quick links to the top online coupons providers
– Quick links to the top online cash-back providers
– Most visited shopping websites, always available
– Huge shopping retailers are available for you through Alpha Shoppers links tiles
– Best online deals for your recent searched products

Once installed, Alpha Shoppers displays an annoying number of coupons, deals, and pop-ups that are intrusive, preventing users from browsing the internet properly. A lot of Mac users recently reported being attacked by this unwanted software, but Windows infections are common.

What Does Alphashoppers Do?

Initially, the Alpha Shoppers extension might look like a useful software that offers coupons and discounts for those who shop online. Unfortunately, this seemingly useful coolest coupons finder is in fact malicious. It works by redirecting the user to malicious websites when the sponsored search result is clicked. Right now, Alpha Shoppers is considered a notorious adware on the same level as Norassie and MainReady.

In terms of distribution of Alpha Shoppers, it is usually promoted via its official website and Chrome web store. However, there are also several websites that were created to promote this extension. Some users also reported getting this add-on after installing other software. This technique used for distributing Alpha Shoppers using legitimate software is known as bundling.

You might think that getting a few pop-ups won’t harm your computer, apart from the inconvenience caused by persistent ads. However, one the reasons why adware are considered malware is because of their ability to collect information, such as your search history, browsing habits, purchases, and other personal data. If you read Alpha Shoppers’ privacy policy, you’ll see that the company collects a lot of information. According to the website, these are the types of information being gathered by the extension:

“Non-personally identifiable information: this is the information we collect about the use of the Product and related services, and does not identify you in any manner. The type of such information includes: your system language, type, version, user agent, default browser type and version, and interaction you make with elements on the Site or the Product as a whole (like clicks or purchase you make, based on the Offers). We also collect the site from which you arrived at the Site and the Site to which you headed right after, for affiliation and tracking purposes. In addition, we may collect information about e-commerce sites you visited, if they meet a white list we maintain.

Personal identifiable information: this type of information includes information that personally identifies you as a person, or information that potentially can identify you when combined with other information we have about you.

How to Remove Alphashoppers From Mac

Getting rid of Alphashoppers from Mac means getting rid of all of its components, including the malicious program, the browser extension, the malicious files, and other launch entries. To remove this adware completely from macOS, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Stop All Alpha Shoppers Processes.

You need to kill all processes associated with the adware before uninstalling it to prevent running into errors. To do this:

1. Open the Utilities folder by navigating to Finder > Go > Utilities.
2. Click on Activity Monitor.
3. Find all processes with AlphaShoppers or Alpha Shoppers on their name.
4. Select that process and click Quit Process.
5. Click Force Quit in the pop-up dialog box.

Step 2: Uninstall Alpha Shoppers.

If the Alpha Shoppers PUP was installed on your Mac, you can uninstall it by going to Finder > Go > Applications and dragging the Alpha Shoppers icon to the Trash. Make sure to empty the Trash after to make sure that it is completely deleted from your device.

Step 3: Remove Alpha Shoppers From the Login Items.

If Alpha Shoppers was configured to launch during startup, you need to check the Login Items tab and remove Alpha Shoppers from the login entries. To do this, go to Apple menu > System Preferences, choose Accounts then click the Login Items tab. This lists down the items that are loaded when your Mac boots up. When you see Alpha Shoppers from there, highlight it, then click the delete (-) button at the bottom.

Step 4. Delete the Alpha Shoppers Extension and Reset Your Browser.

Once you have deleted Alpha Shoppers from your Mac, you can proceed to revert the changes done to your browser.

Safari

1. Launch Safari and go to Safari > Preferences.
2. Scroll down to the Homepage section and type in the URL of your preferred homepage.
3. Click on the Extensions tab, click on Alpha Shoppers, then uninstall the extension.

Chrome

1. Launch Chrome and open the menu settings by clicking the three dots or horizontal lines.
2. Click More tools > Extensions.
3. Look for the Alpha Shoppers extension and click the Remove button.
4. Go back to the menu and select Settings, then click Advanced at the bottom.
5. Click Reset settings to their original defaults under Reset and clean up.
6. Click Reset Settings again to confirm.

Firefox

1. Launch Firefox and open the menu settings by clicking the three horizontal lines.
2. Select Add-ons and look for the Alpha Shoppers extension.
3. Toggle the switch beside the Alpha Shoppers extension until it becomes gray and you see the Disabled status.
4. Go back to the menu and click Help.
5. Click on Troubleshooting Information > Refresh Firefox.
6. Click Refresh Firefox again to confirm, then click Finish.

Summary

Just like other types of adware, the dangers associated with Alpha Shoppers is relatively lower since its only goal is to deliver ads to the victims. However, you can’t ignore the risk of being redirected to a malicious website. Hence, you need to get rid of the Alpha Shoppers malware from your Mac, regardless of how harmless you think it might be. Simply follow the steps above to make sure that it is eradicated from your Mac completely.