How to Remove Fruitfly Adware from Mac

George Herman

IT Security Expert

Get a FREE scan to check for problems

Some infections like this virus can regenerate themselves. There is no better way to detect, remediate and prevent malware infection, than to use a professional anti-malware software like SpyHunter. One Application that is capable of solving all MAC problems.

Go to Spyhunter.com

SpyHunter Anti-Malware FREE 15-day trial available.

What is Fruitfly

Fruitfly is a nasty parasite that falls into the Adware category. Once it infiltrates your computer, it won’t waste time to launch an attack on your browsers and swarm your screen with multiple ads every time you open them. And before you start thinking that this parasite is harmless, let us explain why you should not underestimate it. It will produce shady ads, pop-ups, update messages, banners, and more, just to get your attention and make you click on them. And if you fall into that trap, they might lead you to infected sources that can damage your Mac even further. And as if that’s not enough trouble, such ad attacks will result in frequent browser crashes. Every time you try to load a website, you’ll be met with lagging and slow internet speed. This can easily ruin your browser experience and stop you from doing any kind of work online. And the intrusive ad content will continue to grow with each minute you stay idle and don’t act against the parasite.

How it is distributed

The Fruitfly adware is mostly distributed via software bundling. This malicious app was most likely hidden as an additional software that automatically gets installed on your computer if you’re not paying attention to the installation process. That’s why it is important to not just mindlessly skip the Terms and Conditions and click ‘I Agree‘ without giving much thought about what actually gets installed on your device. We advise against the installation of any bonus programs, since there’s a big chance that they may be harmful. Among the other ways this dangerous app can get access to your computer are email messages that contain infected attachments, torrent files, as well as fake updates.

How it operates

After the adware manages to invade, it will start to spy on your online activity. It will have no trouble collecting data like browser history and search results, to help its mission. With the help of this valuable information, the parasite will be able to provide customized advertisements that will suit your taste and make you more likely to click on them. In most cases, the distributed adverts are in the form of exclusive offers, on-time-only deals, personalized coupons, etc. Such ads are beneficial for both the cyber criminals and the sponsored pages, all because of the pay-per-click scheme. They will get paid for each time you follow a link or an ad sponsored by Fruitfly, while you will most likely get redirected to shady websites and allow other threats to enter your device. The longer you delay the removal of this Fruitfly adware, the more time you give it to steal your private information like passwords, IP addresses, Login credentials, bank accounts, credit card numbers, etc. Stealing personal information and opening doors to other malicious threats that can harm your computer are definitely things you don’t want to happen to you. Keeping the adware on your device puts your personal information in jeopardy, so do not waste time! Learn how to manually remove it from your Mac with the help of the instructions in this article.

Staying safe from Fruitfly

Apart from having a reliable AV software installed on your Mac, there are other things you can do to ensure your device’s safety. We highly recommend you to:

• Pay close attention when you install third-party software, especially torrent files, so you don’t install shady additional applications that you don’t want. In most cases, that’s how malicious parasites are able to infect your computer;

• Read any Terms and Conditions you see, so you know exactly what you agree to. The last thing you want is to unknowingly give permission to a nasty virus to infiltrate your Mac;

• Follow links that lead to trustworthy sites only;

• It is best to visit only reliable and official websites. You never know what dangers might lurk behind an unfamiliar site;

• No matter how attractive an ad is, if you are not familiar with the website it redirects to, it might be best to steer clear of it and not click;

• Always check the sender’s email address before opening a message. If it states that it’s from an official company, compare the email with the one given in their official page. If there is no match, delete the message, since it most likely is fake and has malicious aims.

• Don’t open email attachments from unknown senders. More often than not, such files carry infections that can seriously damage your computer.

How to manually remove Fruitfly from Mac

If you’ve had the misfortune of getting your Mac infected with the Fruitfy adware, the instructions below can help you to remove it manually. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Go to Utilities. You can do that by using the ⇧+⌘+U key combination, or going to Finder and choosing Utilities from the Go main menu at the top.

2. Find Activity Monitor and double-click it.

3. A list will be displayed. Find any processes that seem suspicious to you and use the ‘Force Quit‘ option to quit them completely.

4. Open Finder. Click on the Go button from the main menu at the top, and choose Applications. An alternative way is to use the ⇧+⌘+A key combination.

5. Look for any suspicious applications, especially ones with a name similar to Fruitfy. If any are found, right-click on them and select the ‘Move to Trash‘ option.

6. Remove any related left-over files by going to Finder‘s search bar and typing the name of the app you want to remove. Make sure to modify the two drop down menus above to ‘System Files‘ and ‘Are Included‘, so that any hidden files are visible for you to remove. Once you find the files you want to remove, simply drag them to Trash.

7. All that’s left for you to do is remove any related extensions to Fruitfy from your Mac browsers.

• For Mozilla Firefox extensions:

  – Open the Firefox browser and from the ‘burger’ menu in the top right corner of the window select ‘Add-ons‘.

  – Select any suspicious extensions that may be related to the virus and click ‘Remove‘.

• For Google Chrome extensions:

  – Open the Chrome browser and select Tools > Extensions from the menu (the three dots in the top right corner of the browser window).

  – Locate any suspicious extensions that may be related to the virus and remove them.

• For Safari extensions:

  – Open the Safari browser. From the Safari menu choose Preferences. Select Extensions from the options at the top.

  – Find any extensions you think are related to the virus, select them and click ‘Uninstall‘. A new window will show up asking for confirmation. Click Uninstall again, for the extension to get deleted permanently from your browser.