Caution: regarding a phishing spam scamming behavior that utilizes a convincing copy of the Apple Support logo & the Safari icon in its pop-ups

I have received some very helpful and useful advice from

other users of this message board and I sincerely hope

that this nasty intrusive spamming/phishing scam

experience might be avoided by anyone reading this post.

I also reported it to the spam reporting addresses for Apple,

my internet provider, and government agencies that deal

with spam. I hope that it happens that the source is discovered,

removed from being operational -so that others do

not experience it.

Let me describe it so that you might recognize it as

quickly as possible, having been forewarned.

It was an internet scam/phishing spam event 

using the Safari browser icon (or a very convincing

copy of it to my eye) and the Apple Support trademark font

and image to motivate the receiver to call a phone number

the scammer provided, 'in order for one’s computer to be

unfrozen from a "Trojan virus" attack'. All three panels that

appear overlapping can not be closed; the read and yellow

buttons are grey.

Hopefully this is enough so that if it happens to you

and you don't know what to do technically in such a

condition, you might call the Apple Support helpers

as the best practice. In that interaction among other

things I was asked if the updates were up to date;

and they were (so this is happening after the

latest Safari update, to put the incident in prospective.)

I contacted Apple Support and was helped out of

what felt like a scary situation with relative ease.

Why did it happen?

How might you avoid it, or be more aware of it?

You see, I unfortunately went further than the clues that I am

sharing on this message board so far, before I asked for help.

I closed the top panel using a tab provided within the spam, and

an alarmed female voice message recording came on then

continuously, about the machine being attacked and to call the

number provided. Another clue: the number was listed next to

an excellent imitation of the words "Apple Support" in the correct

font and the phone number provided is the right number

with the wrong area code. The area code was 888;

authentic Apple Support informed me that they

only us the area code 800.

Another trickiness that is easy, very easy to avoid

is that this spam popped up because I misspelled

the website address for malwarebytes.com

(Malwarebytes are the terrific virus

protection people; ironic, eh.)

I spelled it malewarebytes and that "e" is what

allowed the entire very unpleasant experience to

unfold. (The "e" turns malware into maleware -

easy to avoid; easy to remember -- and hopefully

helpful to the investigation of the source of this

disturbance.)

Continuing to keep safe.

Be well.