MacKeeper to pay out $2M in proposed class action settlement

Apple Insider ^ | Monday, August 10, 2015, 03:04 pm PT (06:04 pm ET) | By Mikey Campbell

[Swordmaker]

The original developers of much maligned Mac security software MacKeeper have agreed to a $2 million settlement in a class action lawsuit over deceptive claims and false advertisement, with part of the sum set aside for customer refunds.

Under the proposed settlement, ZeoBIT, creators of MacKeeper that later sold the software to German firm Kromtech, will put up to $2 million in a fund to cover attorney fees, refunds and administrative costs, reports MacWorld. One-third is earmarked for lawyers, with a large chunk of the remainder to be meted out equally among claimants who purchased MacKeeper prior to July 8.

In all there some 513,000 U.S. customers in the settlement class, some of whom paid up to $39.95 per copy to license MacKeeper. Depending on the number of claims, customers could recoup original costs, but full refunds are not guaranteed. The company admits no fault as part of the settlement's terms.

MacKeeper is notorious for aggressively advertising its software and services through online ad agencies, though its new parent firm Kromtech is supposedly abandoning such tactics and has made efforts to cut down on "scare ads" pushed by affiliates. The software's validity is also a subject of debate as tests have shown it to sometimes return false positives in system scans.

Those eligible for compensation must visit the settlement website and submit a claim by Nov. 30 to receive payment.

[Swordmaker]

If you've unfortunately swallowed the line of BILGE that the crooks who were pushing MacKeeper were pushing and you bought or installed MacKeeper on your computer, here's your chance to get your money back! As part of a class action lawsuit, MacKeeper has set aside $2 Million to re-imburse the people they've defrauded! Instructions in this article on how to make a claim. — PING!

MacKeeper Claim for reimbursement Ping!

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

That’s like $2.58 each. Woah!

[Pontiac]

MacKeeper is notorious for aggressively advertising its software and services through online ad agencies

Those pop-ups were so over the top I never gave them a second thought.

I thought they were just a bit too obvious a scam to take seriously.

Surprises me that half a million people fell for those ads.

[Mastador1]

What I don’t comprehend is.................why would anyone buy security software for an Apple product, I mean we are told all the time that it’s bulletproof. I don’t mean to be snarky..............okay, maybe a little.

[Sequoyah101]

Some of the most annoying aggressive popups on the internet.

They deserve to be sued hard and hurtfully. Obvious fearmongering.

[Swordmaker]

What I don’t comprehend is.................why would anyone buy security software for an Apple product, I mean we are told all the time that it’s bulletproof. I don’t mean to be snarky..............okay, maybe a little.

MacKeeper was targeted toward ex-Windows users and played on their Windows experiences and fears. It sold things like "Defragging" the Mac drives, "Optimizing" the file structure, etc., and other utilities that are already built into the Mac OS and are done automatically every time you save or install a new app for the first two, and are for the all of the rest that MacKeeper promised to do for them, which they sold by "ScareWare" are taken care of by OS X as part of its built in housekeeping merely by leaving your Mac turned on overnight. It really wasn't a good anti-virus either. . .

it sold itself by aggressive scareware pop-up ads claiming it had found PROBLEMS on the "Mark's Mac" and hinted at un-deleted files and problems akin to what a Windows' user would associate with a "Registry problem." Of course, the OS X Mac has no such animal as a "Registry" to have problems. But it scared them into thinking they had to buy it to "clean up their Mac" like they used to have to have utilities to clean up their Windows PCs.

[dfwgator]

“Pay to the order of Iron Balls McGinty....One Dollar and Nine Cents.”

[Swordmaker]

I don’t mean to be snarky..............okay, maybe a little.

I didn't think you were. . . It's a serious question. . . with a legitimate answer. MacKeeper was actually Malware, itself. It used social engineering to get itself on users computers by scaring them. It also offered "free" scans and once it was on your computer, it would then CHARGE you to fix what it claimed it found. . . and it always would find something. Such as it would recommend turning off Apple's Gatekeeper, saying MacKeeper could do a far better job of what Gatekeeper did. Not true. . . because by turning Gatekeeper off, everything could be downloaded onto the Mac. . . so that MacKeeper could poorly check it with an incomplete A/V library. . . or it would replace Apple's solid and safe UNIX utilities with its poor versions that were not automatic nor as complete.

Getting it out of your system was a real pain. . .

[Mastador1]

thanks for a straightforward non defensive answer, I being a XP user am of course aware of the “security” scams out there, just didn’t see Apple users getting suckered.

[Nifster]

No system is bullet proof and only a fool would think so. The system itself is less susceptible. Biggest cause of most breaches is operator infection.

[GeronL]

big money, lol

[SWAMP-C1PHER]

Coming from a long time lurker, good post.

I haven’t bought into the whole mac anti malware scams are like this. The only third party “tune up” app I use for Mac is Ccleaner.

It sure looks like they modeled their mascot after eve from walle. Albeit on large amounts of roids.

[freekitty]

These people keep right on advertising.

[MeshugeMikey]

It ran ...overnight...unattended....and turned my mac OFF all by itself.

I cant remember which app that tracks system activity..... recorded the event...

Id sue but I killed mac[-keeper...and all is well.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

thanks for a straightforward non defensive answer, I being a XP user am of course aware of the “security” scams out there, just didn’t see Apple users getting suckered

. . . which is precisely why I’m grateful to Swordmaker for pinging out calm, reasonable, well-informed responses to scams like MacKeeper. I once fell victim (albeit not painfully) to a social engineering attack on my PC. Why did I sucker for it? Because I was worried sick about viruses. Why didn’t I just run an antivirus program? I tried. It was such insufferable bloatware - and I was perforce using dialup at the time - that it was simply unworkable.

Understanding that OS X is Unix, and that Unix, as a multitasking multiuser OS was inherently far more sophisticated and robust than DOS, or for that matter any single-user OS, I leapt at the chance to buy a G4 iMac, and I had confidence in it.

But although Jim Robinson would absolutely never intentionally host malware of any sort, the envy (or whatever you call it) of certain PC users who were suffering with the inherently vulnerable DOS/Windows which had the imprimatur of

IBM

as cover for its inadequacy has resulted in FUD being posted on the Internet and picked up by FR posters. The result has been de facto social engineering attacks having the effect of suggesting that I should sucker for something like MacKeeper. Swordmaker has been a voice of sanity reassuring me that my instincts were right about resisting the Trojan Horse threat in the only possible way - by ignoring it. I’m really glad Swordmaker enjoys helping us.

Have you contributed to FR this quarter?

[Swordmaker]

These people keep right on advertising.

Yes, they most certainly do. . . and I saw one of their pop-up, scareware ads on a computer one of my friends was using just the other day . . . so this lost class action lawsuit has not dissuaded them in any way from their criminal ways. They're just chalking it up to a cost of doing business.

[Morpheus2009]

I sure hope this MacKeeper garbage hasn’t been attempted for the iphone or ipod touch yet.

[martin_fierro]

A, uh, friend of mine tells me that mackeeper per even does popunder ads at porn sites.

[Darnright]

I owe you a beer for your warnings about that dreck. It’s because of your warnings on FR that I steered way away from that blasted spam.