Fake Amazon Assistant Virus

This page aims to help you remove the fake Amazon Assistant Virus pretender pretender. Our removal instructions work for Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer, as well as every version of Windows.

What is Amazon Assistant?

Amazon Assistant is a browser extension created by Amazon that provides the user with a number of helpful features that are aimed at improving and enhancing one’s online shopping experience. Some of said features include an option for price comparisons, the ability to keep track of the progress of an ordered delivery, notifications regarding the best offers on Amazon and others. It’s a free piece of software and can be installed directly into your browser.

So far so good. However, a lot of users have been complaining from a program that seems to possess traits similar to those of a Browser Hijacker, which pretends to be Amazon Assistant. Normally, Browser Hijackers are considered to be unwanted since they are capable of messing with the end user’s browser and internet settings by adding new toolbars and/or search engines to the browser as well as changing its front page and causing page redirects. Most Hijackers tend to invade all popular Windows browsers such as Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, IE, Edge, etc. And changing to another browser often times does not get rid of the problem. Here, we will explain to you what such Hijackers are normally used for, how problematic they can be and what you must do in order to avoid them. If you already have Amazon Assistant Virus pretender on your machine, we will help you eliminate it. Our removal manual at the bottom of this article contains detailed instructions on how one can uninstall and fully remove the unpleasant Hijacker program.

Browser Hijackers are not malware

Programs like the Amazon Assistant Virus pretender pretender could certainly be quite frustrating. The changes they make to the browser and the internet settings of the PC can heavily reduce the quality of one’s Internet experience to the point of frustration and utmost annoyance. This, however, is not to say that Hijackers like this one are some sort of nasty and harmful malware programs. Most applications that fall under the Hijacker category are legal and legit pieces of software and though they might often times be quite irritating, they are usually not considered as harmful. There’s undoubtedly a big difference between programs like Amazon Assistant Virus pretender and real viruses such as, for example, Trojan Horses, Spyware and Ransomware. In many cases users are actually able to put up with the unpleasant changes introduced by the Amazon Assistant Virus pretender and tend to simply ignore them. However, there are a couple more reasons why it might still be better to consider removing such a program from your PC. In the end, the decision whether to get rid of the potentially unwanted program is up to the individual users, yet we ought to mention some common Browser Hijacker traits that we consider to be rather questionable.

Hijacker-related issues

It is okay if you want to keep Amazon Assistant Virus pretender. Many Browser Hijackers or programs similar to them actually have some sort of useful features that you might find worth allowing the program to remain on your computer. Nevertheless, we should still give you a general idea about what you might be facing if you have a Browser Hijacker on your PC.

  • Some programs of this type are known to go as far as to alter the system’s Registry keys or add new ones. Such unauthorized and unwanted changes to the computer’s Registry can potentially lead to your system becoming less protected and more vulnerable to malware attacks from malicious viruses like Ransomware and Trojans.
  • Fake browser warnings and deceitful online offers are not uncommon among Browser Hijackers. If the user is not careful and clicks on the wrong advert or banner, they might get redirected to some shady and potentially hazardous web-address.
  • Something very typical for programs of this type is that they oftentimes try to extract personal user data from the browser history. Such information is highly valued by internet marketing companies and after it is obtained from your browser it is more than likely going to be sold to third parties or at least used by the Hijacker’s owners for advertising purposes.

Hijacker installation

There are numerous ways to land a Browser Hijacker. Everything from obscure online adverts to spam e-mails and shady Skype/Facebook messages can be potentially used to spread this type of programs. As far as Amazon Assistant Virus pretender is concerned, the most common method for getting it installed onto users’ computers is by bundling it to other programs (usually ones that are free). Most of the times, the user has no idea that they’ve installed anything other than the program that they initially wanted. This is why it is very important to always pay extra attention to the details of the setup wizard of any new programs that you’re about to install. Should you see that anything’s been added there that looks suspicious and might turn out to be unwanted, make sure to un-tick it before you click on the Install button or else, you might land some unpleasant and irritating program like the one we’ve been talking about.

SUMMARY:

Name N/A – a program pretending to be Amazon Assistant 
Type PUP/Browser Hijacker
Detection Tool

Amazon Assistant Virus pretender Removal

You are dealing with a malware infection that can restore itself unless you remove its core files. We are sending you to another page with a removal guide that gets regularly updated. It covers in-depth instructions on how to:
1. Locate and scan malicious processes in your task manager.
2. Identify in your Control panel any programs installed with the malware, and how to remove them. Search Marquis is a high-profile hijacker that gets installed with a lot of malware.
3. How to clean up and reset your browser to its original settings without the malware returning.
You can find the removal guide here.

For mobile devices refer to these guides instead: Android , iPhone


About the author

Brandon Skies

Brandon is a researcher and content creator in the fields of cyber-security and virtual privacy. Years of experience enable him to provide readers with important information and adequate solutions for the latest software and malware problems.

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