Search-me.club virus - How to remove

It’s a common opinion that Macs are much safer than Windows OS, but lately matters started shifting and recent threats, Search-me.club virus included, proved that now hackers are not afraid to take a challenge and target the not-so-popular and well-protected Mac. Even though some infections cannot yet cause a huge damage, they are still a menace to the compromised machine and its user.

Search-me.club is one of these Mac viruses, categorized as a browser hijacker, which after invasion replaces search provider‘s default settings and sets itself as a main engine and tool for online surfing. Infected browsers are not able to provide the relevant content, act fast, keep your search sessions private because they act according to hackers and do whatever they tell them to. Moreover, Macs with already improperly running processes become more susceptible to more malware.

Due to its malicious nature, Search-me.club hijacker is able to infect any type of browser that you are currently using – Mozilla, Chrome or even Safari is not a problem for this dangerous virus. Struggles removing Search-me.club browser virus speak louder than words, when it comes to proving its risks and why should other users avoid this threat as much as possible. But even if you do see Search-me.club already settled in on your Mac, don‘t give up just yet, because there are more ways to take care of the threat.

How does Search-me.club work

The behavior of Search-me.club hijacker is based on the reason why it is created in the first place, or in other words, how can it profit crooks. Despite a plethora of money-making methods, Search-me.club is using Online marketing to generate revenue. This is considerably easy money because with a few good obfuscation techniques, advertising tricks, smart dissemination ways and generous sponsors the hijacker with no supervision increases the numbers of developer‘s bank accounts. That, however, can end pretty badly for an infected user, whose browser is under the influence.

When crooks behind Search-me.club virus, are counting their profit, their victims are dealing with very annoying pop-up ads, redirects, sponsored offers, targeted deals and other forms of aggressive advertising. Not to mention that typically these third-party promos can include malvertising links that later cause ransomware, crypto miner, trojan and etc. infections that are much harder to fix. But dangerous side is not the only reason to remove Search-me.club hijacker.

Honestly, Search-me.club search engine is absolutely impractical. Its plain design tries to imitate the well-known providers like Google, Bing and etc., but, of course, unsuccessfully. This browser virus doesn‘t even use its own search engine but redirects victims to some other also sponsoring providers, in this case, Webcrawler.com. This way the company gets additional traffic and Search-me.club browser hijacker doesn‘t have to develop its own web and they get paid for that.

The more Macs browser hijacker infects, the more ads/affiliate content it shows, the more it earns. That is why there are tons of other identical variants of Search-me.club virus from the same developers, like Chumsearch.com, Saferqueries.com, Search.mytab.club, Search.mysafesearch.net and etc. They all work in the same principle just post different online promotions. Another feature that is common for these hijackers is distributing a questionable application for Mac computers, called MacKeeper and tracking user’s online behavior and sharing it with third parties, not for free, of course.

Clearly, to have a freedom to successfully over-advertise Search-me.club hijacker has to use malicious Javascript codes that allow the virus to install as a plugin, then change the main home page to Search-me.club and alter other authorization settings and etc. That makes the system vulnerable and susceptible to more malware. That is especially dangerous if you are performing important tasks that include sensitive information, like credentials, logins, bank data, on your Mac. But fortunately, it can be reversed.

How did Search-me.club virus infect your Mac

As our research showed, Search-me.club hijacker very easily could have entered as a Potentially unwanted app in a bundled software package. You can end up with these infected installers if you get programs from shady sites, including all Freeware/shareware distributing web pages and torrents. Obviously, these sites will unlikely lose their popularity, but if you are actively using them, at least make sure to pick Advanced or Custom installation mode whenever you add anything, cause that is the only time when you can pick which hidden and preselected apps in the Setup Assistant shouldn‘t go through.

How to remove Search-me.club browser hijacker

The longer you wait, the harder it gets to clean your Mac because of all additional threats that came due to exposed vulnerabilities and malvertising. This is why is if your browser got infected with Search-me.club virus quite a while ago, you should get a Combo Cleaner to remove the threat and scan the whole system for all other possible infections. This anti-spyware will neatly clean harmful files without you having to do anything.

Automatic Malware removal tools

If Search-me.club just got into your Mac and you haven‘t done anything with it, then manual elimination should be enough to make sure that your browser is clean again. Below you will find the removal guides for all browser if you will need assistance. Afterwards, it is advisable to run a scan with Spyhunter, which will determine if the system is clean and safe to use again.

How to remove Search-me.club virus from Safari:Top

Remove malicious extensions

• Click on Safari menu on the top left corner of the screen. Select Preferences.
  
• Select Extensions and uninstall Search-me.club virus and other suspicious extensions.
  
• If your homepage was changed, click on Safari menu on the top left corner of the screen. Select Preferences and choose General tab. Enter preferable URL to the homepage field.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings(older versions) If you are still experiencing any issues related to Search-me.club virus, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on Safari menu on the top left corner of the screen. Select Reset Safari…
  
• Select which options you want to reset (usually all of them come preselected) and click on the Reset button.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program. Top

How To remove Search-me.club virus from Firefox on Mac OS:

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla window and select the “Add-ons” icon (Or press cmd+Shift+A on your keyboard).
• Go through Extensions list, remove everything Search-me.club virus related and items you do not recognise. If you do not know the extension and it is not made by Mozilla, Google, Microsoft, Oracle or Adobe then you probably do not need it.
• Enter “about:preferences” in URL bar and hit enter.
• Open Search settings tab.
• If your search engine is changed, click 'Default Search Engines' and set your preferred search engine.
• If your homepage was changed, click on the Firefox menu in the top right corner, select Preferences-> General. Enter a preferable URL to the home page field.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to Search-me.club virus, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla Firefox window. Click on the Help button.
• Choose Troubleshooting Information on the Help menu.
• Click on the Refresh Firefox button.
• Click on the Refresh Firefox button on the confirmation box. Mozilla Firefox will close and change the settings to default.

If the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program to identify malicious entries.

TopHow to remove Search-me.club virus from Google Chrome on Mac:

• Open Chrome browser.
• Enter in the url field “chrome://extensions” address and hit Enter.
• Find Search-me.club virus on the extensions list and click on the recycle bin icon next to it.
• Click on 'Chrome' button at the top left corner. Select 'Preferences' on a drop-down menu box.
• Find 'Search' options on Settings tab. If your search engine is changed, click 'Manage Search Engines' and set your preferred search engine.
• On the same page find 'Show home button' checkbox and change your homepage.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to Search-me.club virus, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• On the 'Preferences' menu window, scroll down to the bottom and find 'Reset settings' button. Click it.
• Confirm your selection and click 'Reset' on the following window.

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.