Over the past 2 years, I’ve had many readers email and ask why we don’t promote ShopAtHome or mention using it as a Cash Back option like we do with Ebates or Mr.Rebates. Rather than continue to explain each time and share links to validate our reasons, I decided to put it into a post for you all. There is a very good reason why you should not use ShopAtHome and you’ll definately want to read this post in full and visit the link to Microsoft below to learn how to fix your computer if you have used them for anything at all in the past – to get a coupon, cash back offer or even a freebie that required you to go through ShopAtHome first in order to get it.
ShopAtHome is a website that boasts various ways to save users money with coupons, coupon codes, freebies and other offers. They use a toolbar that they tell you will save you money when making online purchases and get cash back for those purchases. The shopathome toolbar is a browser re-director that monitors your Web browsing behavior and online purchases. ShopAtHome claims to track points for your ShopAtHome rebates when you buy products directly from other Web sites even without doing so directly through the ShopAtHome Website.
The ShopAtHome Toolbar is what we call spyware or parasite ware – a High Priority Alert for any Anti-virus program and ShopAtHome toolbar removal can be very difficult. If you are using an antivirus program, check this list below to see what name your software uses to identify it and you can search your computer for it.
ShopAtHome Aliases on your computer:
not-a-virus:AWare.Win32.Sahat.o (Kaspersky)
Adware-SAHAgent (McAfee)
Trackware.SAHAgent (Symantec)
W32/Agent.MQ (Command)
Application.Adware.Sahagent (BitDefender)
Win32/Adware.SAHAgent (ESET)
W32/Sahat.O (Norman)
Adware:SAHAgent (Panda)
Adware_Sahagent (Trend Micro)
Adware.SAHAgent.G (VirusBuster)
What it does exactly:
ShopAtHome assigns you a customer ID, which is used to monitor your browsing activities. To receive a cash back rebate, merchants transmit information about the total cost of your order, as well as the customer ID to ShopAtHome servers. According to the license agreement (EULA), ShopAtHome monitors your browsing activities, redirection to merchant Web sites, keyword searches, and the cookies on your computer; this information is sent back to ShopAtHome and may also possibly be shared with Internet behavior monitoring companies. These companies may also monitor the cookies on your computer. ShopAtHome may update itself and may install other programs or files in the background without your knowledge.
If you find this software on your computer – make sure to follow Microsoft’s recommended uninstall method completely for shopathome toolbar removal – which you can find HERE.
Recovery for Spyware:Win32/ShopAtHome.A – it may place an uninstaller entry in your “Add or Remove Programs” in Control Panel. The entry name may be called “ShopAtHome”. If an uninstaller is not available or if you do not want to use the uninstaller that is provided, you can use Microsoft Windows Defender or another up-to-date scanning and removal tool to detect and remove ShopAtHome and other potentially unwanted software from your computer. For more information, visit MICROSOFT.
I hope this post clears up the reason we can not ethically recommend using the ShopAtHome site and why we will continue to only use and recommend Ebates or MrRebates to earn Cash Back for your online shopping – where no toolbar is required.
We also hope that you can recover your computer and your browser without as much trouble with the shopathome toolbar removal as we’ve heard from many in the past – Microsoft has the step-by-step instructions HERE if you need help.
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