marlenefromdenver

Q: Safari-Alert ?scam?

I was browsing Safari on my IMac today when I suddenly got a dialogue box supposedly from Apple Security called Safaro-Alert. It claims suspicious activity detected. Your browser might have been hijacked and then it gives a number to call 1-866-782-9808 (Not Apple)

Since then I cannot quit Safari on the IMac and when I force quit it returns as soon as I open it.

Anyone else had this experience. Bob (Using my wife's MacBook)

iMac (21.5-inch Late 2009), OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)

Posted on Sep 3, 2014 3:29 PM

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Q: Safari-Alert ?scam?

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  • by HackedShadow,

    HackedShadow HackedShadow Nov 6, 2014 11:59 AM in response to stevejobsfan0123
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 6, 2014 11:59 AM in response to stevejobsfan0123

    I attempted to open safari without a connection hoping the message would not show up, but it still did, with the message there I could not oorn the menu tab which would allow me to select the "clear wedsite data" option. That was only available after the cleaning. There are probably 100 other ways to do it but seeing I had the program already, that's what I used. Don't but anything just to clean this off, deleting cache manually should work too.

  • by Wukidd36,

    Wukidd36 Wukidd36 Nov 7, 2014 6:08 AM in response to Stephisa
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 7, 2014 6:08 AM in response to Stephisa

    Thanks Stephisa. I followed your instructions and it worked. I appreciate it

  • by sturjohd,

    sturjohd sturjohd Nov 17, 2014 7:42 AM in response to marlenefromdenver
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 17, 2014 7:42 AM in response to marlenefromdenver

    All, I just had this same situation happen on my wife's Airbook.  Very frustrating but part of our world today.  I did the following based on one of the posts below:

    1.  Closed out of Safart

    2.  Restarted Safari by holding the "shift" key down during the opening process.

    3.  Once open, I went to the Preferences portion of Safari and disabled JavaScript.

         a.  Did this by going to the Security portion of the Preferences and unchecked Enable Java Script

    4.  Went to the Downloads folder and selected all (cmd-A) and moved everything to the trash.

    5.  Emptied the trash.

    6.  Reopened Safari with no problem.

    7.  Tested it by going to a known secure site with no pop-up.

    8.  Opened Safari Preferences again and re-enabled JavaScript.

    9.  Back in business.

     

    Message and lesson for my wife, remember when you go to any sites that do not look right, have multiple pop-ups that may interfere with clicking on what you want of in general just not having good internet security practices, one will obtain something that is not good.  So to all my Mac family, we are not immune to issues that present a negative outcome.  I suspect this is because of the popularity of Mac and that we do have a very good and robust system.  So persons want to exploit those challenges.  Good luck and good surfing..

  • by Maestro P.,

    Maestro P. Maestro P. Nov 26, 2014 3:26 PM in response to marlenefromdenver
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 26, 2014 3:26 PM in response to marlenefromdenver

    This is a scam. They use different phone numbers but it is still the scam people.

    Tonight I got so fed up with them, I called, played along for a while, and then gave them a piece of my mind, telling them they were low life scammers and that they should get real jobs instead of p!ss!ng people off.

  • by sturjohd,

    sturjohd sturjohd Nov 26, 2014 8:23 PM in response to Maestro P.
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 26, 2014 8:23 PM in response to Maestro P.

    Yes you are correct this is a scam.  This and the other adwares are scams especially when it relates to this situation.  I finally had to take the course of going into various areas of the computer manually and get rid of the darn thing.  I never did get an answer on the phone thank goodness.

    Thanks for your post and again, I agree it is a worthless SCAM!!

  • by stuntrek,

    stuntrek stuntrek Nov 29, 2014 7:17 AM in response to marlenefromdenver
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 29, 2014 7:17 AM in response to marlenefromdenver

    Yesterday I was on my MACBook Pro when all of a sudden it locked up and I got the "window" that some people are talking about.  It is a scam and this company was the one who froze my Safari and then wanted $$$ to unfreeze it.  The number did not look correct to me for Apple so I would not let them do anything especially that I am sure they were about to ask to for my Credit Card number.  I called Apple and they helped me unlock Safari and and then sure that my Computer was not infected with a malware.

  • by darkknight1999,

    darkknight1999 darkknight1999 Nov 29, 2014 2:57 PM in response to stevejobsfan0123
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 29, 2014 2:57 PM in response to stevejobsfan0123

    My daughter had this problem tonight. She had removed Avast off her Air (13" Mid 2012 model(1.8Ghz I5)) not knowing what it was.

     

    She is running Yosemite 10.10.1

     

    The pop up window basically locks you out of changing any settings in Safari. The only option that seems to be available is to close it or call them.

     

    So I did the following:


    Using a flash drive I installed Avast back onto the machine and began a Full System Scan. With Avast running in the background I did the following:


    Closed Safari (I was able to just use Command + Q)

    Disconnected from the wifi

    While holding the 'shift' key, I click the Safari icon in the dock to relaunch it

    Once that opened I was able to was able to get into the Preferences

    In the Privacy Tab I removed all the websites data twice. As it came right back the first time. The second time it was removed.

    It also disables the pop up blocker, which I turned back on in the Security Tab.

     

    Once I did these steps I was able to get it to stop.

     

    What a pain in the butt.

     

    Thanks for the help stevejobsfan0123

  • by JonThompson,

    JonThompson JonThompson Dec 4, 2014 8:17 AM in response to marlenefromdenver
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Dec 4, 2014 8:17 AM in response to marlenefromdenver

    So I had two clients with this issue today.

     

    First, I believe it is the result of a page asking to install a 'media player'

    Next, It doesn't seem to actually install software, it's just that the browser window is still open, and you can't close it.

     

    With that in mind, I followed the steps outlined to get back to the "Clear History.." dialog, and _only_ checked "Close all Safari Windows". This seems to have cleared the issue.

  • by ChitlinsCC,

    ChitlinsCC ChitlinsCC Dec 7, 2014 4:02 PM in response to marlenefromdenver
    Level 5 (7,778 points)
    Notebooks
    Dec 7, 2014 4:02 PM in response to marlenefromdenver
  • by katedelange,

    katedelange katedelange Dec 16, 2014 12:58 PM in response to Stephisa
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 16, 2014 12:58 PM in response to Stephisa
  • by sturjohd,

    sturjohd sturjohd Dec 16, 2014 7:43 PM in response to marlenefromdenver
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 16, 2014 7:43 PM in response to marlenefromdenver

    Hello,

    Perhaps this may help.  In my home we also had this experience.  After determining it was a SCAM I did the following:

    clear history and website data

    - remove extensions

    - close safari

    - open Finder / click on GO in menu bar

    - click on COMPUTER

    - click on MAC HD

    - click on LIBRARY

    - empty CACHES, LAUNCH AGENTS, LAUNCH DAMAONS

    - click on GO again

    - hold down OPTION key

    - click on LIBRARY

    - move SAFARI folder to desktop

    - open PREFERENCES folder

    - move com.apple.safari.plists to trash

    - RESTART

    - move SAFARI folder to trash

    - empty trash

    - hold down left SHIFT key when opening SAFARI the first time

    - Reset Homepage


    Hopefully this will help.  It has worked fine since I've done this.  Good luck

  • by chill54321,

    chill54321 chill54321 Jan 3, 2015 8:12 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 3, 2015 8:12 PM in response to Linc Davis

    worked like a charm

    thanks

  • by samer.mozannar,

    samer.mozannar samer.mozannar Jan 13, 2015 3:25 PM in response to marlenefromdenver
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 13, 2015 3:25 PM in response to marlenefromdenver

    I had Mac-alerts.com on safari. I followed how to remove unwanted adware for Mac Remove unwanted adware that displays pop-up ads and graphics on your Mac - Apple Support .     

     

    Went to the store. they told me to call apple care. called apple care and the tech did what i already did and then asked me to use adware searcher.

    keep searching for a while and could not find a solution for it. Then i called a friend of mine. he told me to do this. download this free adware remover tool Adwaremedic  http://www.adwaremedic.com/AdwareMedic.dmg

    Search for the files in a sec and removed them. Asked me to reboot. and the problems is solved. never had it again.

     

    I did take it off after that because the program keep popping up for donations when i start my Mac. but after i removed it. All good.

     

    Give it a try .

     

    Have a nice one.

     

    Sam

  • by stevejobsfan0123,

    stevejobsfan0123 stevejobsfan0123 Jan 13, 2015 3:31 PM in response to samer.mozannar
    Level 8 (43,767 points)
    iPhone
    Jan 13, 2015 3:31 PM in response to samer.mozannar

    samer.mozannar wrote:

     

    I did take it off after that because the program keep popping up for donations when i start my Mac. but after i removed it. All good.

    I've never seen AdwareMedic do that. When you launch the program, it may ask for a donation, but not every time you start up your Mac. Maybe it was in your login items. You can always check the box that says "I already donated," which even if it isn't true, is the equivalent of "don't ask again."

     

    That said, there's no problem in removing it, as you shouldn't need to constantly run it and do scans unless you're actually experiencing adware symptoms.

  • by kirksanfran,

    kirksanfran kirksanfran Jan 30, 2015 4:30 PM in response to marlenefromdenver
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 30, 2015 4:30 PM in response to marlenefromdenver

    Hi all,

     

    there is a great answer in the thread but I thought I would post it again here for convenience. These are scams- mine was an 877-899 number. Adware Medic did not correct it. I read further and then read and was reminded about the easy way through this. Force-Quit Safari with Command-Option-Escape, the select Safari and force-quit. Hold down the shift key and start Safari- bingo that should do it. Just as a precaution, I went back into preferences and found an "error 409" cookie that was part of the error message I received when the problem occurred and I removed it.

     

    Things are back to normal.

     

    If it doesn't work for you at least it only took about 60 seconds to try. Good luck and pox on the scammers.

     

    kirk

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