MacKeeper is a Scam?

MacKeeper or MacKrapper?  

MacKeeper is a maintenance program for Mac that claims to fix a lot of issues on you Mac and to speed it up, plus, on the top of that, few utilities added as a bonus, i.e antivirus, hider, anti theft...etc 
MacKeeper is a hot subject, you either love it or hate it.
MacKeeper has not invented anything new, it's basically a re-bundled software.  Where few years ago you had multiple apps that each did a specific job, MacKeeper is a "bundle" of those, a kind of Repackaged-Does-It-All. 
I have nothing against repackaging, everybody does it, From Toyota-Lexus, Fiat-Ferrari, to Coke, Tide and American Express.  It's either called SKU Extension, Aspirational Marketing or avoiding Brand Dilution.

So, MacKeeper has features such as Anti-Theft, Antivirus, Login Items, Shredder, file finder, hider  etc etc.. So far So good ..
My first thought was to notice that most of those features already exist by default on your Mac, minus few. It's just that they come under one GUI with a sleek interface. 
Ok, if you are a Mac novice, a grand beginner, that could simplify your life a bit, So, you'll have one click instead of two, but that gain of one click is going to cost you $39 minimum.  After all, it's your call. 
If you are the "LOL OMG guyz!! Dis iz so Kool" type, it could provide some help.  Ditto if you are the natural child of Paris Hilton, Jessica Simpson and Snooki from Jersey Shores: Yes, the sea is salted because of the whales, Buffalo Wings are made out of Buffalo meat, etc etc .. Do you catch my drift?  If your are a Jessnooki Hilton, well... buy it ...

Otherwise, fasten your seat belt and hold onto your credit card, here come the surprises .... 

92% Off, A $510 value for only  $39    $59   $89

Yes, it's called a "+50 -20": Jack up the price, then give a discount. It's a dubious marketing technique, but it's legal. I have myself a stock of UberPremium NanoCarbon based Space Pencils that can write in Zero Gravity, Each of those technical wonders sells for $1,000, but with your 90% discount coupon code, you'll get them at only $100. Premium VIP Shipping and Handling included. Want one?
☞ Dubious Marketing

Download 15 days Trial

 



"15-days fully functional trial with all features available"
One or two little issue though... 
All features available, but not all fully working.  Furthermore, as long as you don't have purchased MacKeeper,  annoying pop-ups reminder will appear on your screen.  Another feature of the "Trial" was the pop-up left behind when MacKeeper was removed. Apparently, it's no longer the case, but if you google "Mackeeper pop up" you'll get an idea on how bad it was.
Mackeeper was also known to be very hard to remove, after 3 years of complains, they finally added a full remover.  Before that, pop-us , crumbs, and a clusterf**** of little things left behind. 
☞ Deceptive / False Advertising
  
ZeoDisk 
ZeoDIsk is a feature that .... is "under development" ...for the past 3 years. It's a non-working Dropbox!

Nevermind, ZeoBit is marketing as working. Look closely, you'll see a tiny "under development" And still valued at $59...
That, in my eyes, and under my personal and private opinion, it's borderline scam and absolutely taking your customer for a bunch of moronic idiot.

 








Pushing something as a non-existing feature yet, is something rarely seen, but the best with ZeoDisk, is that, beside not working, it's valued at $60 on their "90% off", and in order to market a non existing feature, you must have some serious guts! Not only you sell wind, but it's expensive wind ... :  "Con me if you can" should be the name of the feature. 
Using the Wayback machine, I can find traces and mention of ZeoDisk as far back as April 2010.  It has never worked but has always been presented as a "feature".  Such practice are fairly rare in the software industry and I must say that, it feels like an extremely deceptive practice to do such.   I am surprised that MacKeeper has not been hit by a class action law suit yet. 
On the Top of everything,  take a look at the EULA, and you'll see that "Additional fees may also apply to using the ZeoDisk service."

☞ Deceptive Practices / False Advertising / Unethical 
☞ Replace with DropBox  (Free) (Working) (Very Well)

As long as it's not working, please don't include that in the "16 apps in 1"   14 should be the count. 
-Yes,  Windows protection for a Mac?  huh?

Data Encryptor  
Quoted: "Data Encryptor makes your personal data invisible on the hard drive. It can use a password so that the data cannot be retrieved through Finder or Terminal"

Invisible??







Well, invisible for a very short period of time;) MacKeeper simply reverse the name of the file / folder, so your "foobar.doc" become "cod.rabooF". As you can see a simple "find -name" on terminal will find it. 
The encryption does exist, also by default on your Mac. Not to restart a whole previous post about encrytion, but just in case you missed it, OS X does it already. Furthermore Lion and Mountain Lion can encrypt on-the-fly, not just a file, but the whole disk. Otherwise, create a disk image and encrypt it. (Disk Utility)
☞ Existing feature
☞ Invisible as long as you don't look for it.
☞ Replace with Disk Utility 


Backup
A backup is always very useful.  That's why your mac comes directly equipped with Time Machine. Time Machine is amazingly good. So, here again, MacKeeper ask you to pay for something already existing. Furthermore , as you can see, ZeoDisk is mentioned again, even they know it's not working. Try to backup something in a non existent feature and let me know how it works for you... 
As a last words on the backup, Time Machine does a backup, automagically, of any file changed in the last hour. It means that you do NOT have to think about it, and that's pretty good. 
 

☞ Deceptive / False Advertising
☞ Existing Feature
☞ Replace with Time Machine, Disk Utility (to create, i.e,  a bootable USB stick ) Dropbox, or with Drive Genius 3
 

Antivirus
There is one, working.  Although, when I tested it, it was not as good as they claimed it, no one can say that MacKeeper is lying on the Antivirus feature.  
Their Antivirus is using a Wine emulation, and is kinda slowish, nevertheless Antivirus it is. 
As most of us, always skip the EULA, I made an exception, and it falls under the Good To Know:
"ZeoBIT will provide a limited service of free antivirus updates for a period of one year from the first time you activate MacKeeper." 
Hence, one could expect a fee on the top. I do not know what the fee is.

Nevertheless, Antivirus it is, so we're all good. 
☞ Antivirus: Working 
☞ Replace with Sophos Free Mac Edition

- Wait ... 
- What?   
- ARE YOU SERIOUS????   
- You MUST be kidding me! 

According to Thomas Reed, of Thomas Tech Corner (http://www.reedcorner.net/beware-mackeeper/) 
MacKeeper has done something that is beyond unethical and nothing less than Mafia Marketing

Quoted: 
" ZeoBIT has also, however, done something that shows conclusively that they have no ethics.  One of the features of MacKeeper is anti-virus protection.  There is a free, and quite excellent, anti-virus program for the Mac called ClamXav.  The ClamXav web site is clamxav.com.  ZeoBIT has purchased a very similar domain – clamxav.org – and has posted a “review” of ClamXav there.
The page that ZeoBIT has posted on that site appears to be a ClamXav review.  In the past, at the end of that review, there was a big green “Download” button that actually redirected the user to the MacKeeper web site.  After a number of people (including me) criticized them for that in a public forum, they added an itty-bitty little link below the Download button that was nearly unreadable.  That link read something like “Download ClamXav” and pointed to the real ClamXav site, but the Download button still redirected to the MacKeeper site.
"
I would recommend to anyone to read the Article in Full , and I apologize to Thomas Reed for quoting such a long paragraph (well beyond the acceptable quotation length) 

I also did some digging and went to the Wayback Internet Archive,  The link that Thomas mention is true, re-directing you direrectly to MacKeeper.  There is also a tiny link below that redirect you to ClamXav. Obviously placed for legal reasons.  Image Retrieved via Wayback, Image date June 2011

 









MacKeeper has pop-ups everywhere, pop under, planted reviews, and has also a very aggressive "Excellent Reviews" Blogger for hire everywhere,  but this ... is disgusting ... It shows the true mentality and the ethics of the people behind that ClamXav.org scam ... 
As a Rule Of Thumb,  If a company is willing to do such with others, just don't expect the company to be straightforward with you. 
☞ Deceptive / False Advertising
☞ Mafia Marketing
☞ Lies / Libel / Planted Reviews

Shredder
When "deleting" a file/folder,  you simply in fact remove the first letter of the name and replace it by a question mark, i.e   "foobar.jpg" becomes  "?oobar.jpg"  Your system now knows that it can overwrite the space available. 
It's faster than "erasing" or "Wiping" large aera of your HDD. 
One issue, it's easily recoverable.  In order to Erase, Wipe or Secure Delete, you have to re-write over that space. 
Multiple option exist: Just re-writing zeros over it , either one pass, 3 pass, using a 7 pass secure delete also known as "DoD" (Department of Defense), or the Absolute Nuke: Gutman 35 pass. 
MacKeeper provides you with that feature.  As well as your Mac. 
Nothing new here, Existing feature again, Use Secure Delete on your Mac.
Please be aware that "Gutman 35"  takes 35 times longer than a one pass.  After 7 pass, you have to be NSA/CIA level to attempt to recover data.  The NSA/CIA Geek Squad does not use Gutman, they use a Degausser and then shred -physically- the drives to a fine powder.
☞ Existing Feature
☞ Replace With Secure Delete or Drive Genius 3


Anti-theft
Ok, a Feature that does not exist by default on you Mac.  Even thought I consider the Anti-Theft feature on MacKeeper a bad Knock-Off of PreyProject (Free) Mac Keeper has indeed that feature. 
I have one little problem with it:  If I install an anti-theft/recovery feature on Mac, I want it as Stealth as possible. 
MacKeeper has it visible for everyone, including the thief.  

Knowing that, it does not take a PhD to figure out a Counter solution.  Not Only Prey is free, is Stealth, but is also Goddam efficient.  Get Prey! 
☞ Anti-Theft: Working
☞ Replace With PreyProject

Recovery
AKA "Undelete" 
Yes! a true feature.  For the inner workings, read above "shredder" (?oobar.jpg > Foobar.jpg) It won't recover everything, but it can be useful in case of a "Oopsie".  If you wait too long, chances are that the clusters will be overwritten and you won't be able to recover your deleted-by-mistake files. 
If you are looking to Undelete old files, or files that have been shredded,Overwitten, Deleted, Erased, DoD'ed or even Gutman'ed, there is a Free solution for you:  Time Machine.  ;)  Works like a charm ..... 
For you Geeks and Geekettes, as well as smart people , a Time Capsule is the best thing I can recommend, plus you'll get a fantastic Dual Band Router and a WIFI Backup.  It's worth every penny. 
☞ Recovery: Working
☞ Replace With Time Machine

Login Items
Login items????? 
Muahahahahah!  You must be joking, huh? Seriously....  What's next?  The Color Screen App? 
This MacKeeper feature is borderline insulting.  And you should feel insulted!  Unless you have the IQ of a sponge.
☞ Existing Feature by default on OS X

File Finder
Falls under the same category as Login Items.  Click Finder, use the search bar, and a "+" will appear. You'll then have 1000 ways to search files on your Mac, probably more ways and details than you can chew, i.e finding a picture based on the fact that "Flash" was ON or OFF,  or even finding the ISO settings, etc etc.
☞ Existing Feature
☞ Replace with Finder or FileFind.app (free)

Disk Usage
Again...  Same stuff, already existing moronic feature. You're just paying for nothing else than a little bit of color and a lot of wind.
☞ Existing Feature

Default Apps
I am seriously considering making my Color Screen.app. If MacKeeper can sell that, I should find people to buy my Color Screen App. 
Default Apps is .... a Moronic re-packed re-branded already existing version of "Get Info"
That's not even funny... They are insulting anyone with an IQ superior to a rubber ducky.
☞ Existing Feature

Update Tracker
Read ALL of the above, then if you do not understand, you may need the "Color Screen App" A fantastic,  ultra fast App that allows you to turn your average Mac Screen into a Ful Color Screen (million of different colors!) 
☞ Existing Feature (app store)

Fast Cleanup
This is a working feature,  Nothing new, you'll find plethora of identical app and utilities, some "free", some "fee"
☞ Working Feature
☞ Replace with (Free)  Onyx, Monolingual,
☞ Replace with (Fee)    Clean My Mac

Duplicate Finder
This is a working feature, As above, multiple Apps available.
☞ Working Feature
☞ Replace with


Smart Uninstaller 
Again,  Nothing new, just a knock-off of previously invented app.  Any "Smart Uninstaller" can be useful, so I'll grant them a point for that.
Nevertheless,  there is an extra mention for MacKeeper Smart Uninstaller:  For the longest time, it was unable to uninstall MacKeeper ;)  leaving ..."crumbs" behind ....
As a Rule-Of-Thumb:  Where there is "Crumbs" , One could find "Cockroaches" too. (Computer Proverb) 
Some more details below ...
☞ Working Feature
☞ Replace with App Cleaner (Free)

Support, AKA Geeks on Demand
A true genuine feature, well, after all, it was about time. Nevertheless, they have a support available.
Before jumping too high,  back again to the EULA:
"ZeoBIT will make an effort to provide you with email, phone and chat support pertaining to your use of MacKeeper. The said support will be limited to topics within the domain of basic usage of MacKeeper. ZeoBIT is not required to offer you general advice on technologies underlying or related to MacKeeper. ZeoBIT reserves the right to cease offering support of any kind pertaining to the usage of older releases of MacKeeper whenever a new release, whether for free or for pay, of MacKeeper becomes available."

I won't throw a stone at them for that, it's kinda normal to limit the support.  But in that case, don't put a picture of an Apple Certified Tech if you only intend to help as "Support will be limited to topics within the domain of basic usage of MacKeeper."



So, here we go... 
The Results
Working                                     : 5  (non existing features found by default on a Mac)
Genuine Original Features      :1   (support) 
Replaceable For Free               :10
Non working dubious feature  :1 (ZeoDisk)

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
Obvioulsy, support is appreciated.  What is NOT appreciated is the Gangster Marketing, the lies, the planted review(s), the fake website to libel competition, the tricky links to coerce you to download their soft, the pop ups, pop-under, reminders, and an absolutely disgusting disregard to the bare minimum level of ethics.
If a company uses such gutter techniques to sell you a product,  one can expect some rotten surprises down the pipe.

MacKeeper had, for the longest time, made their soft extremely hard to remove, always leaving crumbs behind to remind you that "Your Mac Was at Risk"  Do you know how it is called?  Some call it "Malware" or "Trickware", and down the line "RansomWare".  A Genuine company, with a good software does not use this type of trick to coerce you into buying their product.
 It took over 2 years to finally bend to the pressure and do something about it and provide an uninstaller.  Anyone or any software having this type of behavior should be considered as suspicious.

MacKeeper: Scam or Not? 
In the USA, it's a "Buyer Beware" market, there are no laws that prevent companies for using Moronic Marketing or making claims that would be hard to verify.  Legally, in its whole, MacKeeper does not fall under the strict description of a Scam, even though, one could argue that ZeoDisk, being marketed as working on some pages and being under development for almost 3 years, could be perceived as deceptive and fraudulent: What is a reasonable amount of time is long gone.
What has prevented them to be sued is probably that they guarantee you a 365 days full refund. In case of "dissatisfaction"  you can be refunded.
Ethically it's another story, but it is suggestive. If you have purchased MacKeeper and is very happy with it, nobody can tell you that you should not.  Only after reviewing what it does, you could question the ethics behind it.     

My 2 cents:  Stay Away From MacKeeper!  I would rather give my money to an ethical company that does not engage in deceptive marketing, nor plant fake reviews of its competition.

How to save $510 
  
Anti-Theft / Recovery 
Prey Project

AntiVirus 
Sophos Free Mac Edition

Encryption
Disk Utility, FileVault (OS X)
FileVault2 (10.7, 10.8)
TrueCrypt     (Free)  (For Advanced Users)

Backup
Time Machine (OS X)
Carbon Copy Cloner
SuperDuper
DropBox

Shredder
Secure Delete (OS X)
Drive Genius 3
Permanent Eraser

Wise / Smart Uninstaller
AppCleaner (Free)

File Finder
Finder OS X (Use the options, you silly!)
File Finder

Duplicate
Finder
DupeGuru (Fairware)
Drive Genius 3

Geek On Demand (With Premium)
Apple Store ;) (No Premium)
Google (No Premium)

ZeoDisk
DropBox

Login Items & Default Apps

OS X by default ... 

2) but if you insist .... Don't forget to ask about The Color Screen.App

ColorScreen App
This app transform your regular Macbook pro, or iMac screen into a full color one! 
A Genuine non-working-yet-app-under-development with no promise whatsoever that it will work one day

Buy now! $99 for a limited time only!