'UpgradeFilterd Will Damage Your Computer' Message
Users who encounter a macOS prompt that displays a warning similar to 'UpgradeFilterd will damage your computer. You should move it to Trash.' most likely have adware lurking inside their computers. This particular strain of adware has been extremely prolific in targeting users from the Apple ecosystem. It is important to note that adware oftentimes infiltrates computers without the users even realizing it. This is achieved through dubious marketing tactics such as bundling or fake software updates.
UpgradeFilterd is not an exception, as it operates in the typical manner of an adware application. Once established onto the user's device successfully, the application wastes no time in monetizing its presence. As a result, affected users will be bombarded with unsolicited advertisement materials including pop-ups, suspicious surveys, banners, etc. It is not advised to click on any of the displayed advertisements as that could increase the security risks facing the user drastically. Redirects to dedicated phishing pages that will scrape all information entered by the user or domains pushing applications that turn out to be barely-working PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Programs) are a common destination for the redirects.
Dealing with applications such as UpgradeFilterd manually may be a tricky process. Many applications of this type create a persistence mechanism executed through files dropped in various locations on the computer.
