Annoying Virus warning popup

There isn't any malware. There never was any malware. There was only an irritating Notification or webpage or pop-up or similar attention-getting annoyance fraudulently alleging there was.

By turning off or otherwise disabling that Notification, you eliminated the threat of potentially downloading or installing something that would have been malware. Good job!

The irritating Notifications you encountered are just one of many similar random pop-ups, web pages, or other attention-getting scams alleging something exists that does not exist in its ultimate effort to get you to buy something.

It's always about money — yours. You got it, they want it, and that's the end of it.

Excerpted from Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community:

Beware spontaneously appearing, unsolicited popups demanding immediate action. Think before you click.

• ...
• If you encounter a website, popup, text message, email, or phone call alleging your Mac is infested with some ick or that you need to take immediate action lest dire circumstances ensue, it is 100% fraudulent. Ignore it. Read Avoid phishing emails, fake 'virus' alerts, phony support calls, and other scams.
• The same goes for website Notifications — attention-getting banners that appear at the top right corner of your screen. Safari gives you a great degree of control over them: Customize website notifications in Safari on Mac. Most of those Notifications are simply annoying, but some are intended to frighten and deceive you into installing something nefarious.

This thread will help

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254511125

Beautiful_daize wrote:

<Etrecheck Report.log>

Thanks

Did you uninstall the VPN as suggested above...(?)

<Free VPN.app>

VPN have known scam popup adds

Never download software from aggregator sites like: MacUpdate, SoftTonic, Softpedia

These free sites make there money including PUP and adware.

Some suspects :

<Friendly Streaming>

<VOX >

Effective defenses against malware and other threats… - Apple Community

Effective defenses against malware and ot… - Apple Community

Beautiful_daize wrote:

I have tried so many things now that I am beginning to think that I will never get rid of it.

You need to follow the instructions I posted. For another, more recent explanation, refer to this Discussion: Virus notification on MacBook Pro, and for an illustrated example, this one: fake mcafee expiration/renewal pop up - Apple Community

Beautiful_daize wrote:

Can someone please help me get rid of the virus warning popup that wants me to do a scan? A popup appears, which looks exactly like the System Settings icon, and tells me that I have 3 viruses and that I must do a scan. I am including a picture of the warning as well as the URL.

The URL is:

Thanks

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/8585eb15-830c-415e-9920-e2bd99869f93

[Link Edited by Moderator]

I suspect you have installed adware/malware:

I will say if you installed Anti-Virus that is the source of your problem—

Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/VPN/Anti-Virus

all known to cause issues on the macOS and compete with Mac's own built in security

>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 [Ventura >System Settings> search “Proxy”]

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/

or

Try running this trusted utility https://www.malwarebytes.com/mac/

Beautiful_daize wrote:

Well I tried each of your suggestions, but am still getting the popups with the System Settings icon. Even Malwarebytes was unable to remove it. As it was doing a scan, it detected two items of malware, so I quarantined them, but soon after, the popups continued.

I suppose I may have to download and run a dedicated adware program.....

Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/VPN/Anti-Virus

all known to cause issues on the macOS

No insight or resolve—another trusted utility to get a good look at your System config. and reveal conflicts or issues, you can download/run this trusted utility https://etrecheck.com  

If you need help interpreting the report you can post it here in its entirety in the "Additional Text" box in the editing toolbar below, in your reply.