Ad-malware
By far the most common. A free app you installed contains ad SDKs that flood your screen with pop-ups, lockscreen ads, and fake virus warnings. Annoying, not destructive.
FAULT · VIRUS & MALWARE · MOBILE · TABLET · LAPTOP
Pop-ups. Slowdowns.
That weird app you don’t
remember installing.
Almost every ‘virus’ we see is ad-malware, browser hijacks, or a dodgy app that’s asked for too many permissions. We’ll find it, kill it, block it from coming back, and tell you exactly what caused it — so the next person who tries the same trick gets nowhere.
DIAGNOSIS
Always free
ANDROID DEFAULT FIX
$35 · 30 min
IPHONE CONSULT
Free — you don’t have one
COMPUTER SCAN & CLEAN
From $85
PHONE TAKEN OVER?
It’s almost never a real virus.
‘Virus’ gets used as shorthand for about ten different things. Real viruses — self-replicating malicious code — are rare on modern phones and uncommon on Macs. What you’re seeing is almost always one of the six cousins on the right. Each one has a different fix, and the price reflects that.
Browser hijack
Your browser home page or search engine has been silently replaced. Every search routes through a tracker that earns the hijacker money. Quick to clean.
Scareware / fake AV
A pop-up tells you your phone is infected and you must install Super-Cleaner-Pro right now. The ‘cleaner’ is the malware. Install it and it asks for $40 a year to remove fake threats.
Sketchy permissions
A real app, but one that asked for accessibility / device admin / overlay permissions and is now using them to display ads or harvest data. Common with off-Play-Store APKs.
Phishing & SMS scams
Text messages claiming to be Auspost / ATO / your bank with a link. The link is the trap. No malware on your phone — yet — but they’re trying.
Actual malware
Rare, real, and the only case where we need to wipe and reinstall the operating system. Almost always arrived via an APK sideloaded from outside the Play Store on Android, or a downloaded executable on Windows.
FIND YOUR DEVICE
Three paths.
Yours is below.
What we do depends entirely on the OS — Android, iOS, Windows and macOS each get infected in their own way and need different cures.
PATH 1 · ANDROID
MOST COMMON
Pop-ups, ad-malware, sketchy apps
SAMSUNG · PIXEL · OPPO · ANY ANDROID
We connect your phone to our diagnostic tools, identify which app is firing the pop-ups (it’s almost never the one you’d guess), remove it, and configure the phone’s DNS to block known ad-malware servers so it doesn’t happen again.
STANDARD CLEAN
~30 MIN
$35
+ 30 days of monitoring
- Diagnostic scan to find the rogue app
- Removal + permission audit on remaining apps
- Ad-server DNS blocking installed
- Written report — ‘the app that did it was X, came from Y’
- 30-day monitoring: bring it back within 30 days if it happens again, we fix free
IF IT’S A REAL INFECTION (RARE)
Backup your essential data, fully reinstall Android from official sources, restore your data onto a clean phone. From $65.
PATH 2 · IPHONE / IPAD
Good news. You don’t have a virus.
iOS · iPADOS
Every app on your iPhone runs in its own sealed container — Apple calls it sandboxing — so it physically can’t reach into other apps or the system the way real malware needs to. We have never seen an iPhone with an actual virus.
What you’re probably seeing is one of: an aggressive in-app ad, a scareware page in Safari, a redirect from a dodgy link, or notification spam from a website you accidentally allowed.
WHAT TO DO
Free consult.
Walk in. We’ll look at your phone with you, figure out exactly what’s annoying you, and give you the fix. No charge.
- Clear Safari history & website data
- Revoke notification permissions on dodgy sites
- Remove configuration profiles that snuck in
- Show you what red flags to spot next time
PATH 3 · WINDOWS & MAC
Computer running like it’s 2008?
WINDOWS · MACOS · LAPTOP OR DESKTOP
Two options. Scan and clean if the computer’s saveable. Wipe and reinstall if it’s deep in the weeds. We’ll diagnose for free and tell you which one you’re looking at.
OPTION A · STANDARD
2-4 HR
Scan & clean
$85+
Off-network safe scan, malware quarantine + removal, browser reset, startup audit. Includes setup of proper ongoing protection.
OPTION B · LOST CAUSE
3-5 HR
Wipe + OS reinstall
$165+
Back up your files, factory-reinstall Windows / macOS clean, restore files in their folders. Programs you reinstall yourself.
PATH 1 · ANDROID DEEP DIVE
30 minutes.
And then 30 days of cover.
Finding the rogue app is easier than it sounds with the right tools. We hook your phone up to a diagnostic console that surfaces every app, what permissions it’s using, and exactly which one is throwing pop-ups when the screen is ‘asleep’. Five minutes of detective work, twenty-five minutes of cleanup.
Once it’s clean, we install a small DNS-level ad-server blocker that catches the network calls these apps need to actually serve the ads. Even if you accidentally install something similar later, it’ll be quieter than before.
30-DAY MONITORING — INCLUDED
We leave a lightweight monitor in place for 30 days. If you install ‘Free PDF Reader Plus’ that’s actually riddled with ad SDKs, your phone will let you know what it is — so you can remove it yourself, or bring it back to us and we’ll handle it free of charge within the window.
PATH 3 · PC & MAC DEEP DIVE
Different operating systems,
different cleanups.
We work on Windows 10, Windows 11, and every macOS back to Big Sur. Desktop towers, laptops, iMacs, MacBooks, even the dusty Mac mini under the desk. Drop-off, courier, or remote screen-share for the simple stuff.
MOST INFECTIONS
Windows is the #1 target by a margin — bigger install base, more legacy software, way more chances to install something stupid. The good news: that means we’ve seen every flavour of it.
WHAT WE SEE WEEKLY
- 01Fake AV / scareware
‘Your PC has 47 viruses’ pop-ups from sites like McAfee-Total-Protection-Alert.com. The pop-up is the malware vendor. We remove the redirect chain at browser + registry level.
- 02Browser hijackers
Yahoo or Bing replaces Google, every new tab opens search.something-random.com. Lives in browser policies + scheduled tasks + a tiny startup helper. Cleanup hits all three.
- 03PUPs & bundled toolbars
‘Potentially Unwanted Programs’ — Driver Updater, PC Speedup, MyPC Optimizer. Came in piggy-backed on a free download. Manual uninstall + leftover hunt + registry cleanup.
- 04Cryptominers
Fans constantly spinning, computer warm even when idle. Hidden process mining crypto for someone else. We catch it in startup & scheduled tasks, then audit what got in alongside it.
- 05Ransomware (rare)
Files renamed to .lockbit or .encrypted, ransom note on desktop. We don’t pay. Honest assessment of what’s recoverable from shadow copies / backups, then a clean OS install.
- 06Edge / Chrome notification spam
Push notifications from random websites — flashing ‘Windows Defender Alert’ banners. Site-level permissions reset across every browser profile on the machine.
Macs aren’t magically immune. They get fewer infections, but the ones that exist are sneakier — most arrive disguised as a system tool or an update prompt.
WHAT WE SEE WEEKLY
- 01Adware bundlers
Genieo, MacKeeper, Advanced Mac Cleaner. Installed alongside a ‘free’ app (often a fake Adobe Flash ‘update’). The single most common Mac malware family by miles.
- 02Malicious Safari extensions
Search hijacks & pop-ups driven by an extension you don’t remember installing. Manual removal + reset of Safari’s default search and homepage.
- 03Fake update prompts
‘Your Flash Player is out of date’, ‘Update Chrome now’. Adobe killed Flash years ago and Chrome updates itself silently. We disable the trigger and clean up what was installed.
- 04Configuration profiles
A profile you didn’t install is in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Profiles, redirecting DNS or forcing a homepage. One-click remove, but you have to know to look.
- 05‘Mac Cleaner’ scareware
Pop-ups claiming you have 3,427 junk files. The cleaner itself is the malware — and it’s notarised by Apple, which makes people trust it. We’ve uninstalled this thousands of times.
- 06Cracked-app payloads (rare)
Pirated Final Cut / Photoshop dmgs sometimes carry payload installers. Usually wants admin password during install. If you gave it one, full clean install is the only safe option.
OUR PROCESS · BOTH OS
What a 2–4 hour scan-and-clean actually looks like.
-
01
Off-network boot
Boot the machine without internet so any malware can’t phone home or update itself.
-
02
Multi-engine scan
Three tools, not one — Malwarebytes, ESET online, plus signature DB checks.
-
03
Startup audit
Manually go through every auto-start entry, service, scheduled task, login item.
-
04
Browser reset
Extensions, search engines, homepage, notification permissions, profiles — all clean.
-
05
Network & DNS check
Make sure DNS hasn’t been hijacked. Test resolution against known-good targets.
-
06
Long-term protection
Set up free, non-bloated AV. Mac: built-in XProtect verified. Windows: Defender properly configured.
WHEN WE ESCALATE
If steps 1–6 don’t leave a clean machine — or we find something nasty enough that we’d never trust the OS again (rootkits, ransomware, deep persistence) — we recommend the $165 wipe & reinstall. Your files are backed up first and restored where they were, but only your files make it over — you’ll need to reinstall your programs from scratch.
NUKE OPTIONWINDOWS — THE HONEST TRUTH
You don’t need a paid antivirus subscription. Windows Defender, properly configured, is genuinely good. The thing that gets people infected is installing things they shouldn’t — cracked software, dodgy ‘download accelerators’, ‘system optimisers’. We’ll set Defender up correctly and talk you through what to actually watch for.
MAC — THE HONEST TRUTH
You really don’t need MacKeeper, CleanMyMac, or any ‘Mac optimiser’ — most of them are the problem they claim to solve. macOS has XProtect & Gatekeeper built in. Avoid pirated apps, never run an ‘Adobe Flash’ installer, and you’ll almost never see us. When you do — we know exactly what to look for.
VIRUS & CLEANUP · WALK-IN
Bring the device. We'll bring the quiet.
Most cleanups done in 30 minutes while you wait, with 30 days of free re-clean if anything pops back. Walk in to DFO Uni Hill — no appointment needed.
VIRUS QUESTIONS
Common questions, plain answers.
Not sure which path you're on? Walk in or send a screenshot of what you're seeing — we'll tell you in 5 minutes whether it's a real problem or just annoying.
Can't I just run a free virus scanner?
You can — and it'll find the wrong thing or sell you a subscription. The free scanners that actually work (Malwarebytes, Bitdefender Free) won't find the rogue accessibility-permission app that's causing your pop-ups, because that app isn't technically malware — it's a real app misusing permissions. Our $35 clean catches what the scanners miss because we're looking at permissions, not signatures.
Do I really need to bring my iPhone in?
If it's just pop-ups in Safari or notification spam, no — we'll tell you what to do over the counter for free. But come in if anything is unusual: random redirects, weird profiles installed, drained battery, or you've ever clicked an APK install. Real iOS malware is rare, but the few cases are serious and worth a proper look.
What if the 'virus' comes back?
That's what the 30-day cover is for. If the same pop-ups or behaviour come back inside 30 days, we re-clean free of charge and figure out what we missed (usually a second app we didn't catch the first time). After 30 days, it's a fresh job — but in practice that's rare with the DNS block installed.
Why does the Windows full-reinstall cost more than Android?
It's a different kind of work. Android cleanup is 30 minutes on a bench — find the rogue app, uninstall, harden. Windows full-reinstall is 24–48 hours because we're backing up your files, doing a clean OS install, reinstalling drivers, patching, restoring your data into the right folders, and verifying it all works. More hands-on time.
Will reinstalling Windows / macOS lose my files?
No — we back everything up first. Documents, photos, downloads, desktop, browser bookmarks and saved passwords. Programs you reinstall yourself (we give you a list of what was on there). Some apps need their license keys re-entered — bring those if you have them.
I think my bank account got into / my Apple ID got hacked. What do I do?
That's outside our remit but here's the playbook: call the bank immediately (they freeze the card before fraud lands), change the Apple ID / Google account password from a clean device, enable 2FA if you haven't already, and check Find My / Google account activity for sign-ins you don't recognise. We can help you with the device side (clean it, change passwords) but the financial side is the bank's job and the account-recovery side is Apple's or Google's. Free advice — pop in.
My phone says 'System update required' from a pop-up — should I install it?
Absolutely not. That is the malware. iOS and Android both deliver system updates exclusively through Settings, not browser pop-ups. If you see one anywhere else, it's fake. Close the tab/window, don't tap anything inside the pop-up, and check Settings → General → Software Update yourself.
Is my phone really infected, or just slow / full?
Often slow / full, not infected. Check Settings → Storage — if you're 95%+ full, iOS / Android both throttle background tasks to save space, which feels like a virus. Clearing 5GB usually restores normal speed. Real ad-malware shows itself in pop-ups, not just slowness.