Home Malware Programs Rogue Anti-Spyware Programs Spyware Clear

Spyware Clear

Posted: September 22, 2014

Threat Metric

Ranking: 14,821
Threat Level: 10/10
Infected PCs: 4,729
First Seen: September 22, 2014
Last Seen: September 30, 2023
OS(es) Affected: Windows


Spyware Clear is a rogue anti-spyware program that creates false warning messages for threatening software as a lead-in to encouraging the purchase of its registration key. In addition to their misleading system information, scamware programs like Spyware Clear may harm your PC's security by modifying settings or even disabling important software, and malware researchers tend to advise deleting Spyware Clear in all cases. Using legitimate anti-malware products, along with the steps necessary for disabling automatically-starting scamware, can help guarantee that Spyware Clear is uninstalled completely.

Clearing the Air About Spyware Clear

While some PC security tools have classified Spyware Clear within the category of a PUP or Potentially Unwanted Program, all evidence to date is indicative of Spyware Clear being a fake anti-spyware product without legitimate spyware-removal features. Its Web domain, spywareclear.com, also has tripped multiple flags common to scamware sites, including its owner's use of an identity-obscuring service and the overall lack of an industry-standardized software-marketing campaign to promote its product. However, because the Spyware Clear website is less than half a year old, many PC security institutions have yet to classify it as unsafe.

Spyware Clear claims that Spyware Clear can provide a safer banking experience, 'real-time protection,' daily updates to identify potential spyware and even anti-virus features, none of which have been confirmed by malware analysts. Although Spyware Clear does generate pop-up warning messages and may also seem to be able to scan your PC for threats, its results frequently bear little resemblance to reality, and the accuracy of its threat database is open to question.

The fake threat information offered by Spyware Clear does serve the purpose of encouraging victims to pay a registration fee. Once registered, Spyware Clear claims to be capable of removing all detected threats, although malware researchers have found no substantial difference in threat-removal functions between registered and unregistered versions of this supposed anti-spyware scanner.

Clearing Spyware Clear Off of Your Hard Drive

Despite Spyware Clear's poor business history and questionable ability to protect your PC, malware experts have yet to connect Spyware Clear to attacks such as redirecting a Web browser, blocking legitimate security products or disabling security features (such as your network firewall). The latter attacks may be symptomatic of the presence of advanced scamware and high-level threats. Currently, Spyware Clear only is categorized as a low-level threat to Windows machines, but still should be removed, as a potential security problem. Spyware Clear also has not yet been seen on non-Windows PCs and has not been classified within any of the major scamware families (FakeRean, WinWebSec, FakePAV, et cetera).

If you've already purchased Spyware Clear's registration key, malware experts recommend that you contact relevant credit card companies or banks to issue a chargeback. Credit card numbers and other confidential data transferred in the process of buying Spyware Clear may be vulnerable to exploitation in future crimes. However, for removing Spyware Clear off of your personal computer, legitimate anti-malware products always should be used. The ideal circumstances for deleting Spyware Clear and most forms of scamware include restarting your PC within Safe Mode or even booting via a recovery USB device.

Technical Details

File System Modifications

Tutorials: If you wish to learn how to remove malware components manually, you can read the tutorials on how to find malware, kill unwanted processes, remove malicious DLLs and delete other harmful files. Always be sure to back up your PC before making any changes.

The following files were created in the system:



%USERPROFILE%\Downloads\SpywareClearSetup.exe File name: SpywareClearSetup.exe
Size: 705.44 KB (705440 bytes)
MD5: 4b4456636e0ede4d0291f7abef29db6f
Detection count: 96
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %USERPROFILE%\Downloads
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 30, 2016
%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\SpywareClearSetup.exe File name: SpywareClearSetup.exe
Size: 7.83 MB (7830064 bytes)
MD5: 16040cb083e9ff9c8ef61f5d91fcfcbe
Detection count: 92
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %USERPROFILE%\Desktop
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 30, 2016
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\3PDU2JEL\SpywareClearSetup.exe File name: SpywareClearSetup.exe
Size: 720.56 KB (720568 bytes)
MD5: 06347dd5e9051f72fc49b8f5b04f155d
Detection count: 91
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\3PDU2JEL
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 30, 2016
%USERPROFILE%\Downloads\SpywareClearSetup.exe File name: SpywareClearSetup.exe
Size: 720.56 KB (720568 bytes)
MD5: 2af421b41ee5d28901fc8e92ff3a587d
Detection count: 90
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %USERPROFILE%\Downloads
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 30, 2016
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\IE\KRDG89NJ\SpywareClearSetup.exe File name: SpywareClearSetup.exe
Size: 705.29 KB (705296 bytes)
MD5: 450054b938491ce73225991ebf31e2f1
Detection count: 72
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\IE\KRDG89NJ
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 30, 2016
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\PEB6TXGI\SpywareClearSetup.exe File name: SpywareClearSetup.exe
Size: 7.83 MB (7830064 bytes)
MD5: c75312ead9c80d680c39c40c5d32e159
Detection count: 72
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\PEB6TXGI
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 30, 2016
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\IE\F3U4ZL0V\SpywareClearSetup.exe File name: SpywareClearSetup.exe
Size: 705.29 KB (705296 bytes)
MD5: ba322f676584a6bb048a9a2c140e34e9
Detection count: 71
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\IE\F3U4ZL0V
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 30, 2016
%USERPROFILE%\DOWNLOADS\SPYWARECLEARSETUP.EXE File name: SPYWARECLEARSETUP.EXE
Size: 720.56 KB (720568 bytes)
MD5: 00fcb5fd0d7bdd440991ed41abd44c69
Detection count: 66
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/EXE
Path: %USERPROFILE%\DOWNLOADS
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 30, 2016
%USERPROFILE%\Downloads\SpywareClearSetup.exe File name: SpywareClearSetup.exe
Size: 7.79 MB (7796504 bytes)
MD5: 96caac10f55cb4fd014f6e0784293c5f
Detection count: 65
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %USERPROFILE%\Downloads
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 30, 2016
%USERPROFILE%\Downloads\SpywareClearSetup.exe File name: SpywareClearSetup.exe
Size: 7.79 MB (7796504 bytes)
MD5: 09c76c5d1120107e94673ee996d29b42
Detection count: 61
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %USERPROFILE%\Downloads
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 30, 2016
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\D4SWVXCS\SpywareClearSetup.exe File name: SpywareClearSetup.exe
Size: 7.79 MB (7798176 bytes)
MD5: b4ab32a26fa3be818282252dc3d2db3d
Detection count: 55
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\D4SWVXCS
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 30, 2016
%USERPROFILE%\Downloads\SpywareClearSetup.exe File name: SpywareClearSetup.exe
Size: 720.56 KB (720568 bytes)
MD5: 1af3e9774af320f084beab7d51f9100e
Detection count: 52
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %USERPROFILE%\Downloads
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 30, 2016
%USERPROFILE%\Downloads\SpywareClearSetup.exe File name: SpywareClearSetup.exe
Size: 7.79 MB (7798176 bytes)
MD5: a8b56db319d1f6bdebdb419da7bc553d
Detection count: 50
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %USERPROFILE%\Downloads
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 30, 2016
%USERPROFILE%\Downloads\SpywareClearSetup.exe File name: SpywareClearSetup.exe
Size: 7.82 MB (7828120 bytes)
MD5: 27f350fc96c9030bf8b1e0e0a927188f
Detection count: 45
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %USERPROFILE%\Downloads
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 30, 2016
%USERPROFILE%\Downloads\SpywareClearSetup.exe File name: SpywareClearSetup.exe
Size: 7.79 MB (7798176 bytes)
MD5: 7630ae92d3ee8e9d3f275d5384f251f9
Detection count: 35
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %USERPROFILE%\Downloads
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 30, 2016
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\IE\0VDNH2NR\SpywareClearSetup.exe File name: SpywareClearSetup.exe
Size: 720.56 KB (720568 bytes)
MD5: 1b03e589178e9f46238ba58e66bdca80
Detection count: 33
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\IE\0VDNH2NR
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 30, 2016
%USERPROFILE%\Downloads\SpywareClearSetup.exe File name: SpywareClearSetup.exe
Size: 7.83 MB (7830064 bytes)
MD5: ef2cedfb8b8957e3e9b1b512411b9f26
Detection count: 31
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %USERPROFILE%\Downloads
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 30, 2016
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\3JVWEZVP\SpywareClearSetup.exe File name: SpywareClearSetup.exe
Size: 705.39 KB (705392 bytes)
MD5: 7f77f1174053190a281f49dadc60823f
Detection count: 30
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\3JVWEZVP
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 30, 2016
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\X80DDHT5\SpywareClearSetup.exe File name: SpywareClearSetup.exe
Size: 705.32 KB (705328 bytes)
MD5: 4e490b0966597993fc85ac749294d233
Detection count: 20
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\X80DDHT5
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 30, 2016
%SystemDrive%\Users\<username>\DOWNLOADS\SPYWARECLEARSETUP.EXE File name: SPYWARECLEARSETUP.EXE
Size: 705.44 KB (705440 bytes)
MD5: 9e29362f456562c67b944a61d42740c4
Detection count: 13
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/EXE
Path: %SystemDrive%\Users\<username>\DOWNLOADS
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 30, 2016
C:\Windows\Temp\7e43e40e-6812-40c2-8654-f13414846c80\spywareclearsetup.exe File name: spywareclearsetup.exe
Size: 8.6 MB (8604600 bytes)
MD5: 2a913b3e5a287a45907e99505b44d9c5
Detection count: 5
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: C:\Windows\Temp\7e43e40e-6812-40c2-8654-f13414846c80\spywareclearsetup.exe
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: December 21, 2020
%USERPROFILE%\Downloads\SpywareClearSetup.exe File name: SpywareClearSetup.exe
Size: 720.56 KB (720568 bytes)
MD5: ecfe11be092dc8ea8cbbbf75be0450ed
Detection count: 5
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %USERPROFILE%\Downloads
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 30, 2016
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\HXX2M5SC\SpywareClearSetup.exe File name: SpywareClearSetup.exe
Size: 720.57 KB (720576 bytes)
MD5: edfea61788c9eb67722530f431fe3fcd
Detection count: 0
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\HXX2M5SC
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 30, 2016

More files

Registry Modifications

The following newly produced Registry Values are:

CLSID{8B01D4B7-0860-452C-AC2B-5CE0140C82D4}{B36D9EA9-ABCA-4F9F-B181-49929A7B73D1}{C03C262D-9260-4124-B50E-04FB49ED0504}{CB83C956-D8A2-40E1-B139-5B8A2F5750DF}{E563E407-B348-41FB-BC3D-EACE3BD4B1A1}{E778C05E-AFF7-4924-B04A-D4084859D53A}File name without pathSpyware Clear.lnkHKEY..\..\..\..{RegistryKeys}SOFTWARE\Google\Chrome\NativeMessagingHosts\com.spywareclear.internetguardSoftware\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Approved Extensions\{E563E407-B348-41FB-BC3D-EACE3BD4B1A1}SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ControlPanel\NameSpace\{8B01D4B7-0860-452C-AC2B-5CE0140C82D4}Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Settings\{C03C262D-9260-4124-B50E-04FB49ED0504}Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Settings\{E563E407-B348-41FB-BC3D-EACE3BD4B1A1}Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Stats\{C03C262D-9260-4124-B50E-04FB49ED0504}Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Stats\{E563E407-B348-41FB-BC3D-EACE3BD4B1A1}SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\SpywareClearShieldSOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\SpywareClearUpdaterSoftware\Spyware ClearSOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Google\Chrome\NativeMessagingHosts\com.spywareclear.internetguardHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\[APPLICATION]\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall..{Uninstaller}{5FB600FF-BC65-471F-A3F8-C2666863BA75}_is1

Additional Information

The following directories were created:
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Spyware Clear%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Spyware Clear with PC Tech Hotline%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Spyware Clear%APPDATA%\Spyware Clear%PROGRAMFILES%\Spyware Clear%PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\Spyware Clear%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\Spyware Clear

Related Posts

Loading...