Remove Vinkens.com Pop-up scam Mac Virus

George Herman
George Herman
IT Security Expert

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Some infections like this Vinkens.com 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.

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What Is Vinkens.com Mac Virus?

remove vinkens.com mac pop-up scam

 

Vinkens.com is a scam website that pop-ups unwanted advertisements on your Mac. You should never download anything from Vinkens.com, as it is not a legitimate website and you may find yourself with a virus on your Mac or Windows PC if you go to the website by clicking on their advertisement. There are many misleading Vinkens.com pop-ups showing up on Mac OS X, which may trick users into thinking that they are getting a great deal when they purchase the product. We highly recommend that you remove Vinkens.com immediately before you have a chance to infect your Mac with a harmful virus or malware program. As soon as you start your Mac, you will see a new popup telling you that your system has been infected with several viruses. This is not true, as there are no viruses showing up on your screen in the first place. This pop-up is actually a scam created by Vinkens.com to trick Mac users into going to their website.

How Is Vinkens.com Mac Virus Distributed?

Vinkens.com is designed by cyber criminals to trick you into installing malicious software onto your Mac. Vinkens.com will often appear when you open the Safari browser, as you have clicked on one of the advertisements. You will see a message warning about multiple infections on your Mac, and it will tell you that you can remove all of them by downloading their “Mac Security Tool Kit”. We highly recommend that you do not trust Vinkens. com and that you remove Vinkens.com from your Mac as soon as possible. If you feel uncomfortable with removing Vinkens.com from your Mac, we suggest that you use a legitimate anti-malware program. Alternatively, you may follow the removal guide below that will help you manually delete all of the Vinkens.com pop-ups and adware from your Mac.

The distribution methods also may include:

  • Fake software updates from the website.
  • Freeware (video recording, download-managers etc.) with spyware or adware.
  • Bundled with other free software.
  • Malicious links in emails and attachments.
  • Drive-by downloads (rogue/fake download sites that install malware/adware).

How harmful is Vinkens.com hijacker? 

Vinkens.com is not a legitimate website, as it is created by cyber criminals to trick users into installing a malicious program onto their Mac. Vinkens.com will often appear when you open the Safari browser on your Mac, especially if you have just opened your Mac and turned it on. It can also be a sign that you have downloaded a malware program or malicious software onto your computer without knowing it. You will see a popup message that says that your computer has been infected with malware or viruses, and it will warn you not to download anything from the website Vinkens.com. The message may have a virus icon or a fake virus scan that you can click on so that the system recognizes a threat on your Mac. This is an attempt to make you visit their website in order to remove the malware threats from your computer, even though there are no real viruses or malware threats showing up in your browser.

Once this scam website is hijacks your browser, its first activity is to convince you that your Mac has viruses. To do that it shows a pop up with the following message:

We assume that your OS (59%) may be DAMAGED BY BROWSER TROJAN VIRUSES while browsing recently corrupted sites.

It is advisable to install a mobile security app, otherwise sensitive data such as your Facebook account, WhatsApp messages, photos and private apps could be infected and stolen.

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After conducting some investigation on the domain name itself we can see that the individual responsible of the website is residing in Russia. Here is the raw information:

Raw Whois Data
Domain name: VINKENS.COM
Registry Domain ID: 2674201944_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.reg.com
Registrar URL: https://www.reg.com
Registrar URL: https://www.reg.ru
Updated Date: 2022-02-10T19:44:14Z
Creation Date: 2022-02-10T16:02:41Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2023-02-10T16:02:41Z
Registrar: Registrar of domain names REG.RU LLC
Registrar IANA ID: 1606
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: email@reg.ru
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +7.4955801111
Status: clientTransferProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Registrant ID: 
Registrant Name: Protection of Private Person
Registrant Street: PO box 87, REG.RU Protection Service
Registrant City: Moscow
Registrant State/Province:
Registrant Postal Code: 123007
Registrant Country: RU
Registrant Phone: +7.4955801111
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax: +7.4955801111
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: email@regprivate.ru
Admin ID: 
Admin Name: Protection of Private Person
Admin Street: PO box 87, REG.RU Protection Service
Admin City: Moscow
Admin State/Province:
Admin Postal Code: 123007
Admin Country: RU
Admin Phone: +7.4955801111
Admin Phone Ext:
Admin Fax: +7.4955801111
Admin Fax Ext:
Admin Email: email@regprivate.ru
Tech ID: 
Tech Name: Protection of Private Person
Tech Street: PO box 87, REG.RU Protection Service
Tech City: Moscow
Tech State/Province:
Tech Postal Code: 123007
Tech Country: RU
Tech Phone: +7.4955801111
Tech Phone Ext:
Tech Fax: +7.4955801111
Tech Fax Ext:
Tech Email: email@regprivate.ru
Name Server: curt.ns.cloudflare.com 
Name Server: jill.ns.cloudflare.com 
DNSSEC: Unsigned
URL of the ICANN WHOIS Data Problem Reporting System: http://wdprs.internic.net/
>>> Last update of WHOIS database: 2022.03.23T14:58:22Z <<<

For more information on Whois status codes, please visit
https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/epp-status-codes-2014-06-16-en.

How did I get infected?

The malicious software that you downloaded onto your computer can have many different names and are not always easy to spot. One possible way that you could have been infected with an adware preset with Vinkens.com. Vinkens.com can be installed on your computer via a bundle with an innocent video or music file, or by clicking on an advertisement that you are not interested in. There are sometimes warning messages that appear on your Mac, which will tell you that your system has been infected with a virus or malware program. The pop-up could also have an icon on it that you can click on to install these adware programs onto your Mac.

How can I remove Vinkens.com virus ?

There is a Vinkens.com removal solution available for you, which can help you remove all of the Vinkens.com pop-ups and adware from your Mac at once and completely remove all adware from your computer. You can use our manual removal guide below to get rid of the fake Vinkens.com pop-up from your Mac. We recommend that you backup all of your documents, pictures, and other important files before beginning the removal process, just in case something goes wrong with the removal process or does not work correctly.

Step 1: Uninstall Vinkens.com and remove related files and objects

  • Open your Finder –> Click on GO –>Click on Utilities

macos utilities

  • Find Activity Monitor and open it

activity monitor macos

  • Review all the processes in Activity Monitor and write down the ones related to Vinkens.com virus

Vinkens.com stop

  • Select Quit

Vinkens.com info

  • To kill the malicious process, choose the Force Quit option.

force quit Vinkens.com

Step 2: Remove Vinkens.com – related extensions from Safari / Chrome / Firefox

Remove vinkens.com form Safari

The first thing you need to do is to make sure Safari is not running. If you have troubles closing it, you may need to Force Quit Safari – (Start Activity Monitor by opening up Finder, then proceed to Application –> Utilities –> Activity monitor. Locate the Safari process and force quit it.

Safely launch Safari again by holding the Shift key and clicking on the Safari application icon – This will prevent Safari’s previously opened malicious web pages.

In case that you still are having trouble with scripts interrupting the closing of unwanted pages, please do the following:

  • Force Quit Safari again.
  • Disconnect form Internet and try again.

Then Re-Launch Safari but don’t forget to press and hold the Shift button to prevent pop-ups. Then, click on Preferences.

  • Carefully take a look at your default home page and change it if the hijacker altered it.

  • Then go to the Extensions tab and make sure there are no unknow extensions installed.

  • Next step is to click on Privacy tab

  • Manage website data

  • Here you can remove any unwanted website data or just remove them all. Please, keep in mind that after you do this all stored website data will be deleted. You will need to sign-in again for all websites that require any form of authentication.
  • The next step is to Clear History (if you want), select the tab.

  • Click the menu next to clear and choose a time period — if you want to completely reset Safari, choose all history.
  • Press Clear History

Remove vinkens.com form Chrome

  • To remove from Chrome, open the browser and click the icon with the three dots located in the top-right.
  • Select to More Tools –> Extensions and review what Chrome Extensions are present in the browser
  • Remove the ones that you do not recognize.

bad toolbar

  • If the parasite continues to disrupt your browsing with Chrome, this is what else you can do:
    1. Click again the menu of Google Chrome, and open Settings.
    2. Select the Search Engine from the left panel, review the available search engines and change the default to your preference.default search engine
    3. Then, click on Manage Search Engines, review the list of search engine availabilities and if any of the listed items looks suspicious, click the three-dots next to them, and delete.suspicious search engine
    4. Click on Privacy and Security in the left panel, select the Clear browsing data option, check every box except the Passwords one, and click Clear Data.clear browsing data
    5. Next step is to clear Notifications, select the Site settings option in the Privacy and Security section, then locate Notifications.clear notifications
    6. Review the listed websites in the Allow to send notifications section and if any of the entries shown there seem dubious or related to the browser hijacker, select the three dots next to the object and click on Remove.

Remove vinkens.com form Firefox

  • Start Mozilla Firefox
  • On the top right click the three dashes

  • go to add-ons and themes
  • The add-ons manager will open
  • Carefully review review four Firefox Extensions
  • If any unwanted extension is present, click on the three horizontal dots and then Remove

  • After the extension is removed, restart Mozilla Firefox by closing it from the red dot in the top left and start it again.

To make sure Vinkens.com is removed from the browser  we recommend to scan with a reputable antimalware program like SpyHunter for Mac

Step 3: Scan for and remove Vinkens.com files from your Mac

Fix your browser settings with SpyHunter Anti-Malware

Once you download and install SpyHunter for Mac run a scan.

Once the scan is complete, your mac will be virus free.

How Can SpyHunter Benefit You?

SpyHunter for Mac delivers advanced malware detection and remediation, optimization features, one-on-one technical support and other key features.

  • Malware Detection & Removal

Detect and remove malware, ransomware, spyware, trojans, botnets, keyloggers, worms, browser hijackers, adware and other harmful or potentially unwanted programs.

  • Detection & Removal of Potentially Unwanted Programs & Privacy Issues

Scan and identify spyware, potentially unwanted programs, certain tracking cookies, and other pesky and unwanted piece of code in your Macs. You will have the option to individually exclude any of these programs.

  • Latest Malware Definition Updates

Daily malware definition updates to identify and remove the latest malware threats.

  • One-On-One Customer Support

SpyHunter for Mac includes the Spyware HelpDesk: an interactive one-on-one customer support solution designed to handle any malware related issues and even more.

  • Exclusions

The exclusions feature allows you to exclude certain software from being detected in future SpyHunter for Mac scans.

  • User-Friendly Interface

SpyHunter for Mac’s easy-to-use interface lets you effectively detect and remove even highly persistent malware with just a few clicks.

  • Optimizations

Can easy locate and identify large files and duplicate files and provide you the option to be selectively deleted to free up valuable space. SpyHunter for Mac can also help identify potentially unnecessary files such as log files, app leftovers, and many other files users may wish to remove to free up space.

  • Startup Manager

Take increased control over the programs and apps that launch at system startup. Optimize your system by managing your startup settings directly within SpyHunter for Mac.

  • App Uninstaller

Seamlessly remove unnecessary and unwanted apps, including their often hard-to-find peripheral files, to free up valuable disk space.

Vinkens.com malware Frequently Asked Questions:

  • How do I get rid of Vinkens.com?

Vinkens.com is a Browser hijacker – malicious software that can be installed by third-party applications or websites. They usually change the settings of web browsers and search engines to display certain ads, pop-ups, banners, etc.

  • What are the symptoms of Vinkens.com infection in your Mac?

Vinkens.com becomes your web browser’s built-in search engine.

Your browser’ s search queries are redirected through Vinkens.com.com

The “Vinkens.com” browser extension or some shady software is installed on your Mac.

  • How do I remove Vinkens.com from my browser?

Depending on your browser you need to go to the settings, then Manage add-ons. Under Add-on Types, select Search Providers. Select your search engine from the list of providers and click Remove to remove it. In Google Chrome, go to Settings (at the top right) and choose Search in the On Startup drop down menu.

  • How do I uninstall Vinkens.com?
If you made a mistake when installing an app on your mac, the easiest way to uninstall it is by right clicking on its icon in your dock, then going to ‘move to trash’. Once it’s gone, restart your mac. If that didn’t work for you, try rebooting and looking for an icon opening up. Once you’ve found that, go to utilities/get info, then go to the ‘Applications’ tab and look for the app. Right-click it and select ‘Get Info’ and then look for the option to ‘Uninstall this Version’. If that doesn’t work, restart your mac again. If you don’t have any luck you can always use the SpyHunter free uninstall.

How to Make Your Mac Run Faster?

You might be wondering how to make your Mac run faster? It is a common misconception that the more processing power you have, the faster your computer will run. In reality, it’s actually about what’s going on in your processor and memory. For the average person using a computer for just general applications like word processing and web browsing, you don’t need much in the way of computing power.

– Use an SSD drive instead of a hard disk drive.

– Double your RAM if possible.

– Disable System Integrity Protection (SIP). (Attention! – do this only if you know the consequences.)

References:

  1. More about pop-up advertisements on Wikipedia.
  2. MacOS malware
  3. Information on Browser Hijackers
  4. SpyHunter Anti-Malware overview and also the reasons why we recommend it for malware elimination.

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