Search.searchfcs.com

Search.searchfcs.com is nothing more than a browser hijacker set to hijack your web browser’s settings and change the homepage and new tab pages settings to redirect web traffic and generate advertising revenue. Therefore, you have to remove it from your computer as soon as possible. Apart from hijacking your browser, it will also collect information about you and send it to its developers and use this information to present personalized ads featured in its search results. In short, this browser hijacker is bad news and, in extreme cases, it can jeopardize your computer’s security.

Search.searchfcs.com is similar to Search.yourpackagesnow.com, Search.searchlttrn.com, Search.yourinterestscenter.com, and dozens of other clone browser hijackers. All of the clones were set up by a developer known as SaferBrowser. However, most likely due to bad publicity, Search.searchfcs.com does not have the “Powered by SaferBrowser” logo. Instead, it features a Fast Career Search logo. The logo may have changed, but the core features have remained the same. Like its predecessors, this new hijacker is being distributed using both legitimate and malicious methods. It comes with a dedicated browser extension named Classifieds on Firefox, Fast Career Search on Chrome, and FastCareerSearch on Internet Explorer. This extension is the one doing the hijacking.

Now, you can download this extension on your own accord from the main distribution website at Fastcareersearch.com. This site promotes the extension as some kind of dream application that will help you wind a new job while, in reality, it will just present you with links to websites such as Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com. This is hardly a useful feature, and it is more like a gimmick used as a distraction to divert your attention from its real purpose. When you download the Fast Career Search browser extension, it asks you whether you want to set Search.searchfcs.com as your browser’s homepage and new tab page. However, we have also learned of another, lesser-known, distribution that involves malicious applications. It appears that it is being promoted by adware, and it presents links to Fast Career Search’s direct download in the form of deceptive pop-ups. And, you will not be able to deselect Search.searchfcs.com.

Take note that this hijacker affects the three browsers in different ways. If it is installed on Firefox, it will change the homepage address only, but if it is installed on either Internet Explorer or Chrome, then it will change not only the homepage but the new tab page as well. The changes that occur as a result of installing Fast Career Search/FastCareerSearch/Classifieds have a purpose. This purpose is the redirection of web traffic to Search.searchfcs.com. It is a fake search engine because it uses Yahoo.com to process all of its search queries. Still, we found that the search results to be modified and thus unreliable. Indeed, it is evident that this hijacker is set to generate advertising revenue that comes from links presented in the search results. However, we have reason to believe that, in some cases, some of the links can come from malicious sources and can jeopardize your computer’s security with malicious software.

While conducting our research, we found that Search.searchfcs.com and Fast Career Search work hand in hand to collect information about you. We found that they can obtain information such as your IP address, geographical location, browsing history, entered search queries, operating system type, the domain name of the Internet service provider (ISP,) and so on. All of this seemingly worthless information is used to present promotional links that are in line with your interests and browsing habits. However, this is more of a disadvantage than anything else. Therefore, we urge you to get rid of this fake search engine.

As you can see Search.searchfcs.com is nothing more than a browser hijacker whose objective is to replace your browser’s homepage and new tab page to force you to use it as a search engine and be subjected to commercial ads and links. Given its malicious distribution methods that infect your computer with its browser extension and its less than reliable ads, we recommend that you remove it using the instructions featured below.