How to Remove My Lucky 123 “Virus” (Chrome/Firefox)

Welcome, reader, to our My Lucky 123 “Virus” how to remove guide. The following instructions will aid you in removing the unwanted software from your PC.

Are you having an issue with browser redirects, a changed homepage, dozens of ads and a strange search engine that has appeared on your Chrome or Firefox browser? Some of our non-English speaking users asked us – “jak usunąć my lucky 123?”, “eliminar my lucky 123?”, “como remover my lucky 123?” If these questions interest you then you should know that My Lucky 123 “Virus” is the most probable reason for this disturbance. This is a browser hijacker program, and on this page, you are going to learn how exactly it got inside your system and most importantly, how to remove it. And since this program is a bit tricky to detect, our team has prepared a detailed removal guide with screenshots that will guide you through the whole uninstall process. Should you need additional assistance, there is an My Lucky 123 “Virus” removal tool that is also available for downloading on this page. With the help of both the manual deletion and the automatic scanner there is no way this browser hijacker can remain on your system any longer. Just read the following lines carefully and proceed to the instructions.

First, let’s make the threat level clear.

In case you are facing a browser hijacker like My Lucky 123 for the first time, there is really no need to panic. This program is relatively harmless and if we have to compare it with some real malicious threats like viruses, Trojans or Ransomware, it cannot come any closer to their threat level. First of all, the browser hijacker is identified as an online advertising tool, thus this program is a legal piece of software, unlike the viruses. But despite that it is not malicious, the browser hijacker has some activities that may raise concerns. For example, it usually applies some undesired changes to your browser settings by incorporating a component that replaces your homepage, inserting a new search engine and displaying a huge amount of ads, pop-ups, banners and new tabs. There is no way to overlook the aggressive ads since they are placed all over your screen and very often even your web searches may get redirected to other sponsored pages instead the ones you type. Such activity sometimes causes a great amount of irritation to some people, therefore they wish to uninstall such programs and often refer to them as potentially unwanted.

Distribution methods:

Programs like My Lucky 123 could be found on various web locations such as torrents, spam emails, attachments, direct downloads, file sharing platforms or free download platforms. Usually, they don’t come alone but often are bundled inside installation managers or software wizards, mostly with applications that are available for free download. Basically, the software bundling practice allows many developers to generate income from ads-generating tools like browser hijackers or adware. This happens through the well-known Pay-Per-Click method where all the clicks from the displayed ads or page redirects are converted into nice profits. The vendors usually pay the developers to include such ads-generating software inside the setup of other programs that users download and use. What a great opportunity to display ads, banners and pop-ups directly on the screen of the prospective customers, huh? The thing is that sometimes, the amount of the ads literally floods the screen and users and unable to browse the web in peace, and this is the main reason that makes them wish to remove the ad-generating program.

Be careful with the ads and installations

Here are some good pieces of advice that may really pay off in the future. They may save you not only from annoying browser hijackers and potentially unwanted programs but may even prevent malware like viruses or Ransomware from sneaking into your system. Firstly, whenever you install new software on your system, always opt for the advanced/custom option in the setup. This is the place where programmers (and sometimes hackers) usually bundle additional applications and potentially unwanted programs (or malware). If you overlook that option and proceed with the standard installation, you will not have the option to manually select or deselect these programs and they will automatically get installed along with the software you want. This is probably how you ended up with My Lucky 123.

Another thing to be careful about is the ads. While you cannot expect anything harmful form a program like My Lucky 123, except browsing related irritation, this cannot be said about the pop-ups, banners and the pages you are exposed to. There is a malicious practice called malvertising, which unscrupulous hackers often use to infect unsuspecting users through fake ads or misleading web pages. Therefore, it is a good idea to avoid clicking on such randomly generated messages and notifications since you never know when you may bump into malware. Of course, this is not valid for all the ads you see, most of them are real, however, the risk still exists and you can’t predict it. That’s why, to help you completely eliminate that risk, our team has prepared a removal guide, which you will find below. It contains the exact steps you need to take to detect My Lucky 123 and safely uninstall it from your system. This way, not only will you not see the annoying ads again, but you will also prevent clicking on insecure web content in the future.

SUMMARY:

Name	My Lucky 123
Type	Browser Hijacker
Danger Level	Medium (nowhere near threats like Ransomware, but still a security risk)
Symptoms	Browser redirects, changed homepage, dozens of ads and a strange search engine that has appeared in your  browser are sure signs for a browser hijacker infection.
Distribution Method	Torrents, spam emails, attachments, direct downloads, file sharing platforms or free download platforms, installation managers or software bundles.

 

My Lucky 123 “Virus” Removal

I – Uninstallation

1. Use the Winkey+R keyboard combination, write Control Panel in the search field and hit enter.
   
2. Go to Uninstall a program under Programs.
   
3. Seek the unwanted software, select it and then click on Uninstall
   1. If you are unable to spot My Lucky 123, search for any unrecognized programs that you do not remember installing on your PC – the unwanted software might disguise itself by going under a different name.

II – Safe mode and revealing hidden files

1. Boot your PC into Safe Mode /link/
2. Reveal hidden files and folders /link/

III – Cleaning all your browsers

1. Go to your browser’s icon, right-click on it and select Properties.
   
2. Go to the Shortcut tab and in the Target make sure to delete anything written after “.exe”.
   
3. Now, open your browser and follow the instructions below depending on whether you are using Chrome, Mozilla or IE.

• Chrome users:

1. Go to your browser’s main menu located in the top-right corner of the screen and select Settings.
2. Scroll down, click on Show Advanced Settings and then select Clear browsing data. Just to be sure, tick everything and clear the data.
3. Now, in the left pane, go to Extensions and look through all extensions that are integrated within your browser. If you notice any suspicious add-on, disable it and then remove it.
   

• Firefox users:

1. Similarly to Chrome, go to the main menu and select Add-ons and then Extensions.
2. Remove any suspicious browser extensions that you may have even if they do not have the name My Lucky 123 on them.

• IE users:

1. Go to Tools and select Manage add-ons.
   
2. Click on all add-on types from the left pane and check if there is anything suspicious in the right panel. In case you find anything shade, make sure to remove it.

IV – Removing Shady processes

1. Go to your start menu, type Task Manager in the search field and from the results open View running processes with Task Manager.
2. Thoroughly look through all processes. The name My Lucky 123 might not be there, but if you notice any shady looking process that consumes high amounts of memory it might be ran by the unwanted program.
3. If you spot the process ran by My Lucky 123, right-click on it, open its file location and delete everything in there. Then go back to the Task Manager and end the process.

V – DNS check

1. In the start menu search box write View Network Connections and open the first result.
   
2. Right-click on the network connection you are using and go to Properties.
   
3. Select Internet Protocol Version (TCP/IPv4) and click on Properties.
   
4. If Obtain DNS server addresses automatically is not checked, check it.
   
5. Go to Advanced and select the DNS If there is anything in the DNS server addresses field, remove it and click OK.
   
6. Click OK on the rest of the opened windows.