gp1940

Q: Mac-protection.com froze safari. What do I do now?

I Went to this site because of a (bogus?) error message and it froze safari. What do I do now to restore safari to working condition?

Posted on Jun 29, 2015 2:46 PM

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Q: Mac-protection.com froze safari. What do I do now?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Kappy,Apple recommended

    Kappy Kappy Jun 29, 2015 2:48 PM in response to gp1940
    Level 10 (271,291 points)
    Desktops
    Jun 29, 2015 2:48 PM in response to gp1940

    Helpful Links Regarding Malware Problems

     

    If you are having an immediate problem with ads popping up see The Safe Mac » Adware Removal Guide, remove adware that displays pop-up ads and graphics on your Mac, and AdwareMedic. If you require anti-virus protection Thomas Reed recommends using ClamXAV. (Thank you to Thomas Reed for this recommendation.) You might consider adding this Safari extensions: Adblock Plus 1.8.9.

     

    Open Safari, select Preferences from the Safari menu. Click on Extensions icon in the toolbar. Disable all Extensions. If this stops your problem, then re-enable them one by one until the problem returns. Now remove that extension as it is causing the problem.

     

    The following comes from user stevejobsfan0123. I have made minor changes to adapt to this presentation.

     

    Fix Some Browser Pop-ups That Take Over Safari.

     

    Common pop-ups include a message saying the government has seized your computer and you must pay to have it released (often called "Moneypak"), or a phony message saying that your computer has been infected, and you need to call a tech support number (sometimes claiming to be Apple) to get it resolved. First, understand that these pop-ups are not caused by a virus and your computer has not been affected. This "hijack" is limited to your web browser. Also understand that these messages are scams, so do not pay any money, call the listed number, or provide any personal information. This article will outline the solution to dismiss the pop-up.

     

    Quit Safari

     

    Usually, these pop-ups will not go away by either clicking "OK" or "Cancel." Furthermore, several menus in the menu bar may become disabled and show in gray, including the option to quit Safari. You will likely have to force quit Safari. To do this, press Command + option + esc, select Safari, and press Force Quit.

     

    Relaunch Safari

     

    If you relaunch Safari, the page will reopen. To prevent this from happening, hold down the 'Shift' key while opening Safari. This will prevent windows from the last time Safari was running from reopening.

     

    This will not work in all cases. The shift key must be held at the right time, and in some cases, even if done correctly, the window reappears. In these circumstances, after force quitting Safari, turn off Wi-Fi or disconnect Ethernet, depending on how you connect to the Internet. Then relaunch Safari normally. It will try to reload the malicious webpage, but without a connection, it won't be able to. Navigate away from that page by entering a different URL, i.e. www.apple.com, and trying to load it. Now you can reconnect to the Internet, and the page you entered will appear rather than the malicious one.

  • by Linc Davis,Apple recommended

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Jun 29, 2015 2:55 PM in response to gp1940
    Level 10 (207,995 points)
    Applications
    Jun 29, 2015 2:55 PM in response to gp1940

    It's a Web scam that only affects your browser, and only temporarily. There are several ways to recover.

    1. Some of those scam pages can be dismissed very easily. Press the key combination command-W to close the tab or window. A huge box will pop up. Press the return key and both the box and the page will close. If that doesn't happen, continue.

    2. Press and hold command-W. You may hear repeating alert sounds. While holding the keys, click the OK button in the popup. A different popup may appear, which you can cancel out of as usual.

    3. From the Safari menu bar, select

              Safari ▹ Preferences... ▹ Security

    and uncheck the box marked Enable JavaScript. Leave the preferences dialog open.

    Close the malicious window or tab.

    Re-enable JavaScript and close the preferences dialog.

    4. If the Preferences menu item is grayed out, quit Safari. Force quit if necessary. Relaunch it by holding down the shift key and clicking its icon in the Dock. None of the windows and tabs will reopen.

    After closing the malicious page, from the menu bar, select

              Safari Preferences... Privacy Remove All Website Data

    to get rid of any cookies or other data left by the server. Open your Downloads folder and delete anything you don't recognize.

  • by nananaatasha,

    nananaatasha nananaatasha Jul 1, 2015 8:55 PM in response to gp1940
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 1, 2015 8:55 PM in response to gp1940

    This just happened to me and none of this hold shift, force quit, reloading stuff worked for me at all .. and this might sound stupid, but I just opened safari again, clicked to exit the tab before the malware page completely loaded, and it worked. It closed the page, and now everything is fine.

  • by iPhoned ,

    iPhoned iPhoned Jul 2, 2015 6:38 AM in response to gp1940
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Apple TV
    Jul 2, 2015 6:38 AM in response to gp1940

    I got this in with old Safari 5x in Snow Leopard.

    This is happening to OSX Yosemite? I would hope not.

    How can that be with Apple being so secure and locked down?

     

    btw, How do you get to be a big shot Level when you are just pasting canned responses?

  • by Kurt Lang,

    Kurt Lang Kurt Lang Jul 2, 2015 7:16 AM in response to iPhoned
    Level 8 (37,892 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 2, 2015 7:16 AM in response to iPhoned
    How can that be with Apple being so secure and locked down?

    There's no browser in the world that can stop you from going to a compromised site, or one that has been deliberately set up to display these bogus popups. After all, you're the one who told it to go there. Occasionally, a browser may warn you that you are about to enter a known bad site, but you can still go past the warning it you want.

    btw, How do you get to be a big shot Level when you are just pasting canned responses?

    You get to be a "big shot" when you answer questions that help others and they award you points for that help. When you've been a member for a while, you see the same questions many times. You also then get tired of completely typing out very similar responses over and over, so you create boilerplate responses for those commonly asked questions to save time.

  • by iPhoned ,

    iPhoned iPhoned Jul 2, 2015 7:37 AM in response to Kurt Lang
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Apple TV
    Jul 2, 2015 7:37 AM in response to Kurt Lang

    I never had any of these issues with iCab in OS8/9

  • by Kurt Lang,

    Kurt Lang Kurt Lang Jul 2, 2015 7:51 AM in response to iPhoned
    Level 8 (37,892 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 2, 2015 7:51 AM in response to iPhoned

    Do you mean using the iCab app, or going to iCab's web site? Either way, it doesn't matter. It simply means their site hasn't been hacked and one of these types of scam popups added to any of their pages. I've never seen one anywhere I typically go on the web, either. Doesn't mean that someday I won't, I just haven't yet.

  • by Frank Milano,

    Frank Milano Frank Milano Apr 29, 2016 5:39 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 1 (139 points)
    Safari
    Apr 29, 2016 5:39 PM in response to Kappy

    Thank you. The shift key worked!!