Fantastigames.metacrawler.com is one of the nasty browser hijacker viruses that invades the target computer without any approval and then modifies browser settings to redirect user to other suspicious websites. Computer users may get this virus installed by clicking malicious code or distribute unsafe advertising pop-ups, visiting pornographic website or downloading attachment from spam emails. It is proved that this malicious virus can hijack browsers including Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome etc. After successfully downloaded, weird things could happen on your PC.
At the first beginning, you will find that every time you go to Google to search up something, it lags and then when you click a link, it redirects you to a different site. It also can change your defaulted search engine such as Google, Yahoo and Bing to MetaCrawler search engine which is a bogus search engine in reality. No matter what you want to search using MetaCrawler, you will be presented a lot of unwanted information. In addition, it can bring other dangerous threats to your PC so that remote hacker is allowed to gather information about any sites you visit and store all personal and financial data you enter on different pages. All your information could be used for their malicious and dishonest purposes. Thus, never look down upon this issue, it can bring huge risk to your PC. Once detect, you should immediately get rid of Fantastigames.metacrawler.com virus without a doubt.
1. Annoying pop-up alerts and advertisements always come up while a user is browsing online;
2. Other spywares and viruses will be installed without your permission under the help of Trojans; for instance, PC screen could be locked up by some threatening messages claimed to be from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security ransomware;
3. Personal privacy is in high risk of loss as Fantastigames.metacrawler.com can create a fake website for you to register and enter important information and passwords;
4. Significant files will be relocated or hidden which may pose a sudden death of computer;
Considering this malware can’t be fixed by any security tools, uses can use the manual guide below to fix this issue without any risk.
1. Clear all the cookies of your affected browsers.
Since tricky hijacker virus has the ability to use cookies for tracing and tracking the internet activity of users, it is suggested users to delete all the cookies before a complete removal.
Google Chrome:
Click on the “Tools” menu and select “Options”.
Click the “Under the Bonnet” tab, locate the “Privacy” section and click the “Clear browsing data” button.
Select “Delete cookies and other site data” to delete all cookies from the list.
Internet Explorer:
Open Internet explorer window
Click the “Tools” button
Point to “safety” and then click “delete browsing history”
Tick the “cookies” box, then click “delete”
Mozilla Firefox:
Click on Tools, then Options, select Privacy
Click “Remove individual cookies”
In the Cookies panel, click on “Show Cookies”
To remove a single cookie click on the entry in the list and click on the “Remove Cookie button”
To remove all cookies click on the “Remove All Cookies button”
2. Remove all add-ons and extensions
Google Chrome: Wrench Icon > Tools > Extensions
Mozilla Firefox: Tools > Add-ons (Ctrl+Shift+A)
Internet Explorer: Tools > Manage Add-ons
3. Show hidden files and folders.
Open Folder Options by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking Appearance and Personalization, and then clicking Folder Options.
Click the View tab.
Under Advanced settings, click Show hidden files and folders, uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) and then click OK.
4. Remove all the malicious files manually.
%AppData%\Local\[random].exe
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce\
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInternet Settings “ProxyEnable” = “1”
Fantastigames.metacrawler.com can bring unwanted Metacrawler Toolbar to the compromised PC and it redirects a web browser to a predefined site whenever the user enters invalid address or performs an Internet search. It is affiliated with browser hijackers and the ZeroAccess Rootkit that can infect a computer by exploiting security vulnerabilities. It acts itself as a search engine, however this thing can only provide fake search results that include advertisements and other methods of driving affiliate-based money right back to Fantastigames.metacrawler.com. Bear in mind that this is a malicious website that attempts to install malware to visitors via drive-by-downloads and other privacy invading techniques. If you find your browser is redirected to this domain, you should remove it as quickly as you can to secure your PC.
If you have no idea how to do about that, please contact experts from YooCare Online Tech Support for further help.
Published by & last updated on June 11, 2013 7:26 am
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