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Security & Malware

I get notifications frequently to update my "Flash Player" to view contents on the web. Normally I ignore them; however, this morning I did (at request) update. Immediately I received notification that my MacBookPro is infected with adware or more and I should contact Apple Support at the number below or go to some chat area. My Mac's recently appear to be slow. I occasionally run a two year old Malwarebites program (freebie), but have no confidence in it as of recent. My Question IS: Is 1-877-483-0*** a legitimate Apple Support number? or, am I getting suckered in deeper than I already am?




[Edited by Moderator]

Posted on Mar 23, 2021 8:20 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 23, 2021 8:30 AM

Adobe has discontinued Flash and all support for it. So, if you're getting noticies to update your Flash Player, they are phishing attempts.


Do not call that number. Download the free version of Malwarebytes and run it:


https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download/



3 replies

Mar 23, 2021 8:56 AM in response to tracye2

tracye2 wrote:

I get notifications frequently to update my "Flash Player" to view contents on the web. Normally I ignore them; however, this morning I did (at request) update.

Immediately I received notification that my MacBookPro is infected with adware or more and I should contact Apple Support at the number below or go to some chat area.

My Mac's recently appear to be slow. I occasionally run a two year old Malwarebites program (freebie), but have no confidence in it as of recent. My Question IS: Is 1-877-483-0*** a legitimate Apple Support number? or, am I getting suckered in deeper than I already am?



[Edited by Moderator]



Your computer habit is risky responding to popups of this nature—and needs revision.




You should always dismiss a random pop-up and go the source for any related updates—this both vets and verifies the legitimacy of some random warning dialog coming off the internet.


Apple Safari version 14, released for macOS in September 2020, no longer loads Flash Player or runs Flash content.



You have just giving permission to download and install adware/malware onto your Mac.


As recommended by IdrisSeabright above Malwarebytes is a trusted vendor—you do not have to buy anything, update and run the free version .

or

manually you can weed out the adware/malware yourself:


>System Preferences>Profiles click into it and then remove all the suspicious things from the list. (This Preference pane will not be present if no profiles found.)


also Verify you are not using SOCKS proxy:

>System Preferences>Networks>Advanced>Proxy uncheck the box


Adware/malware launch daemons can set SOCKS proxies without user participation.

(SOCKS is an Internet protocol that exchanges network packets between a client and server through a proxy server.)


Adware Removal Guide—Manual removal of : http://www.thesafemac.com/arg-identification/




Another resource that successful identifies and removes adware/malware is this trusted utility https://etrecheck.com




Read further—Recognize and avoid phishing messages, phony support calls ...





Mar 23, 2021 9:07 AM in response to tracye2

If not much has happened since loading that malware, I’d be inclined to restore from my backups.


Some of the scams and phishing and schemes active right now:

Scam Pop-ups, Scam Viruses, Scam Receipts… - Apple Community

Recognize and avoid phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support


If you don’t have a current and complete backup, go get that now. Then either restore, or use the suggestions above to try to eliminate whatever dreck got loaded. What might have already happened with your data is unknown.



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