Norton pop ups that look like they are coming from System Settings

areichsman wrote:

I recently fell into a trap when I clicked on a link in a professional webinar chat, was supposed to take me to the recording of the webinar. It took me to a page that managed to fool me into clicking on a link but instead took me to a page that said that my computer was infected. I closed that window but I have been left with pop ups in the upper left hand corner that look just like the system settings notifications and they pop up every minute or two. For now I have turned off notifications from system settings.

I would appreciate ideas for getting rid of them.

Check Safari>settings>Websites>Notifications disable any and all if necessary

Customize website notifications in Safari on Mac - Apple Support

+1 on MalwareBytes.

And to the OP: never ever believe any popup that says "click here" to "fix" or "remove" any virus. It is ALWAYS a scam: first, there are no viruses on the loose in the mac ecosystem; second, by clicking and following these links YOU will most likely are going to install malware (not the same a viruses, because it requires users falling for these tricks and actually installing malware themselves).

You can't get rid of them with any AV software because there's nothing on your Mac.

Regarding the notices sliding in the from the top right of the screen, a site you visited has given itself permission to send push notifications. Everything you're seeing is nothing but a scam.

Open Safari's preferences. Click on the Websites tab and then scroll down to Notifications. Clear any entries in the right hand window. You might find something similar in the Pop-up Windows heading below that. Block any you don't recognize.

Then if you want, uncheck the box below as shown here.

I personally can't think of any reason why I would ever want any website to push notices to me.

As leroydouglas said, check the websites that appear under notifications. The reputable ones you can allow.

And if you are concerned about being hacked (which you weren't), you can run the free version of MalwareBytes and have scan your system.

Try downloading and running the free version of Malwarebytes. It was developed by a long time contributor to these forums and a highly respected member of the computer security community.  It is designed to look for and isolate for deletion adware and malware.

This is clearly a scam.

Please run Etrecheck and post its full report here.

Use the “additional text” button and paste the report into the text box.

You have a granular control over Notifications. You can turn them on or off per application. So it remains to be seen which is producing these.

Take a careful look at the System Settings->Notifications and see which applications are allowed to do what.

Also it may help us help you if you could post a screenshot of one of those notifications.

areichsman wrote:

I did that but I would like to get notifications back

Those instructions only disable Safari notifications. You can turn system notifications back on.

I am concerned that the ability of the hackers to put that message there may indicate s more serious condition that I need to deal with.

Unfortunately, that's not anything that "hackers" put there. It's a feature. At least, that was the idea. But sometimes the only people that ever use any of these new web "features" turn out to be scammers. That's definitely the case for these web notifications. There is no legitimate use for them.

That's something that I try, and usually fail, to get across to people. The internet isn't true. It is full of people openly running scams and other illegal activity. There are no laws on the internet.

Don't go looking from protection from hackers. Your Mac is already protected. If go looking for some kind of 3rd party "protection", you will most likely only wind up being scammed again.

I called apple and they helped me with the issue. I came here to explain it but I actually don’t know the names of the files you’ll have to click but call apple and the tech support will help you in less than 10 min with the issue also to reassure you no one can see your passwords or access them if this pop up is your only issue but they will have your clear your browser history unsaving all passwords and the website that caused the pop ups to begin but there’s another Step I forgot and can’t figure out again so I would just call them if you’re wanting the issue resolved asap

want to get rid of Norton Pop-ups on my MacBook air

How do you get rid of this notification and why might my laptop be very slow when there’s no malware or viruses detected by cleanmyMac X or malwarebytes I understand I don’t have a virus or malware because this has checked that, but how do I get rid of the notification or if there is some sort of virus and not not malware how would I know or scan for the virus?

Thank you so much for your advice. This worked immediately, hopefully people will not buy unnecessary products to stop the Norton Anti-Virus pop ups, they are very annoying and do cause you to panic. One thing I have to say is I did actually click on it to see if I could get it to go away, but Safari would not let me go to the site, which was a blessing in disguise! Thanks again !

Well said!