PUP.UnFriendChecker

Posted: September 16, 2013

Threat Metric

The Threat Meter is a malware assessment that SpywareRemove.com's research team is able to give every identifiable malware threat. Our Threat Meter includes several criteria based off of specific malware threats to value their severity, reach and volume. The Threat Meter is able to give you a numerical breakdown of each threat's initial Threat Level, Detection Count, Volume Count, Trend Path and Percentage Impact. The overall ranking of each threat in the Threat Meter is a basic breakdown of how all threats are ranked within our own extensive malware database. The scoring for each specific malware threat can be easily compared to other emerging threats to draw a contrast in its particular severity. The Threat Meter is a useful tool in the endeavor of seeking a solution to remove a threat or pursue additional analytical research for all types of computer users.

The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:

Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.

Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.

Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.

Trend Path: The Trend Path, utilizing an up arrow, down arrow or equal symbol, represents the level of recent movement of a particular threat. Up arrows represent an increase, down arrows represent a decline and the equal symbol represent no change to a threat's recent movement.

% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.

Threat Level:	1/10
Infected PCs:	684

First Seen:	September 16, 2013
Last Seen:	June 2, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

PUP.UnFriendChecker is a browser add-on that supposedly provides functions for monitoring Facebook users who have unfriended you or vice versa, but also includes many suspicious browser changes that are unrelated to its Facebook features. SpywareRemove.com malware experts were particularly quick to note that PUP.UnFriendChecker prevents any normal uninstallation through your browser's add-on manager – and that PUP.UnFriendChecker also may hijack your browser, redirecting it towards various unrelated Web pages. PUPs like PUP.UnFriendChecker usually are not unhealthy to your computer at first, but tend to make your browser less secure than usual through their modifications, and deleting PUP.UnFriendChecker with a good anti-malware product should be considered the default response to the Unfriend Checker.

The Browser Add-On that Makes Friends by Watching Your 'Unfriends'

Designers of various browser add-ons and toolbars usually keep a thumb on the most popular social networks of the day, and the design of browser extensions for piggybacking off of known name recognition is the norm, rather than the exception. PUP.UnFriendChecker is one of the newest of such browser add-ons to capitalize on Facebook's popularity by claiming to enhance your ability to track your interactions with other users, although SpywareRemove.com malware researchers have noted signs of poor functionality from PUP.UnFriendChecker's apparent feature set.

However, what's of more concern to SpywareRemove.com malware researchers than that is PUP.UnFriendChecker's history of being installed without permission and trying to avoid being uninstalled. Besides its Facebook features, PUP.UnFriendChecker also has been noted regularly to be associated with browser redirects to other sites, particularly from e-mail websites that may block your access to the original domains. PUP.UnFriendChecker redirects currently also result in frequent error messages that SpywareRemove.com malware researchers estimate to be part of a Web page's failure to load its intended content.

Unfriending the PUP Named Unfriend Checker

PUP.UnFriendChecker has been confirmed to install in Internet Explorer but also may be compatible with other types of Windows browsers, and usually will not provide any uninstall methods from the browser's add-on management interface. On the other hand, since PUP.UnFriendChecker does modify your browser to display a new toolbar, identifying PUP.UnFriendChecker should be simple – even if getting rid of PUP.UnFriendChecker is more tedious than it should be. Based on PUP.UnFriendChecker's history, SpywareRemove.com malware researchers recommend the use of reliable anti-malware products, whenever you need to delete PUP.UnFriendChecker, as the easiest way to make sure all of its browser changes are deleted completely.

PUP.UnFriendChecker often is installed without any permission, but malware researchers have not yet pinned down the specific infection vectors PUP.UnFriendChecker uses. Until further information has been found, a general awareness of safe Web-browsing practices, along with using Web-security software and avoiding suspicious download sources all are good ideas for keeping PUP.UnFriendChecker off your PC.

Technical Details

Additional Information

The following URL's were detected:

dfbmsgs.com/search?q