anne e

Q: Mac Defender

Mac Defender has appeared in my iMac (OS X 10.6.7)

I tried to remove it by dragging the program to the trash from the applications folder, but I cant because the program is open.

The program is pretending to be an antivirus program send $$, obviously a scam.

I re-started but I cat stop it from loading.

 

There is very little info on this program out there (MacDefender.app)

 

Any ideas?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Apr 30, 2011 8:41 AM

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Q: Mac Defender

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  • by tylerfrompeterborough,

    tylerfrompeterborough tylerfrompeterborough May 1, 2011 6:42 AM in response to anne e
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 1, 2011 6:42 AM in response to anne e

    Boot to safe boot (hold Shift on startup)

    remove from login items and start up items

    removed from downloads

    remove from Applications folder

    Restart computer.

     

    -Easiest way to remove mac defender

  • by tewfiks,

    tewfiks tewfiks May 1, 2011 10:04 AM in response to MacJoseph
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 1, 2011 10:04 AM in response to MacJoseph

    This worked perfectly!  Thank you!  I was looking up an image for a DIY show and the Macdefender popped up.  that's the only thing I did.  I wasn't trying to download anything, just look at an image.

  • by WZZZ,

    WZZZ WZZZ May 1, 2011 10:11 AM in response to tewfiks
    Level 6 (13,112 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 1, 2011 10:11 AM in response to tewfiks
    tewfiks wrote: I was looking up an image for a DIY show and the Macdefender popped up.  that's the only thing I did.

     

    Sorry if this is getting repetitive, but you said earlier it asked for your password. Just to be completely clear, did you give it, or did it go ahead and install without it? You probably meant it was the only thing you did to prompt the popup, but you just planted a doubt in my mind when you said, "that's the only thing I did."

  • by UJmacdaddy,

    UJmacdaddy UJmacdaddy May 1, 2011 2:45 PM in response to anne e
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 1, 2011 2:45 PM in response to anne e

    Force Quit wouldn't work at all when I tried it. It would come back each time I started up, and when I put the machine to sleep it would also run or small opaque windows would appear in the top right of the screen.

     

    What did work was opening system preferences, clicking on accounts, clicking on login items, and deleting MacDefender.

     

    I also found a process file when I opened and searched Activity monitor and deleted the item that was identified.

     

    I got this advice from this users area. Thanks.

     

    I, too, got this problem searching google photos. I was looking for pictures of landscaping with rocks and ornamental grass.

  • by joybells,

    joybells joybells May 1, 2011 8:34 PM in response to LTScodras
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 1, 2011 8:34 PM in response to LTScodras

    My husband and I are recent converts to a Mac and like many others, thought we were rid of some of these "scareware" headaches we had grown so accustomed to on our old PC.  My husband was doing some research this evening for his business and pulled some images off the www.pella.com website and somewhere in that process, the Mac Defender program auto-installed, or he clicked on something that started the installation process. It definitely scared us when all kinds of popups started appearing telling us we had all kinds of infections, and another window appeared to be running a scan.  Anyway, we found the instructions in all these threads to shut down the program and trash it, and we found related files to delete also.  Folks in the Mac stores have told us repeatedly that buying antivirus software is a waste of money.  Is it really? 

     

    Joy

  • by TaylorN90,

    TaylorN90 TaylorN90 May 1, 2011 8:48 PM in response to joybells
    Level 3 (640 points)
    May 1, 2011 8:48 PM in response to joybells

    Hi Joy

     

    As far as I am aware, there are no virus' for Mac, only malware (like Mac Defender)

     

    You could get a free anti virus application for your Mac, so it wouldn't really be a waste of money - and you would be covered.

     

    But in any case, don't worry about Mac Defender

     

     

  • by joybells,

    joybells joybells May 1, 2011 9:09 PM in response to TaylorN90
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 1, 2011 9:09 PM in response to TaylorN90

    Thanks TaylorN90.  We are so new with our Mac that we don't know what is safe to download in regard to a free anti virus application.  I've seen a few mentioned on these threads, however, so we will probably download something soon!  We were just relieved to find an answer so quickly to halt all those scary warnings that were cluttering up our screen from this Mac Defender program.  "Scareware" is a good word for this!

     

    Joy

  • by TaylorN90,

    TaylorN90 TaylorN90 May 1, 2011 9:12 PM in response to joybells
    Level 3 (640 points)
    May 1, 2011 9:12 PM in response to joybells

    Hi Joy

     

    Some free ones are iAntiVirus, Sophos and ClamXav

     

     

     

     

    Taylor

  • by Ziatron,

    Ziatron Ziatron May 1, 2011 10:11 PM in response to joybells
    Level 4 (3,930 points)
    Apple Watch
    May 1, 2011 10:11 PM in response to joybells
    Folks in the Mac stores have told us repeatedly that buying antivirus software is a waste of money.  Is it really?

     

    I have been using Macs since 1984.

     

    I've worked at companies with 50+ Macs.

     

    I've used every Mac OS From 1.1 to 10.6.7

     

    I have never seen a Mac virus or known anyone that has.

     

    "Mac Defender" Is not a virus, it is a (weak) "Malware".

     

    Despite multiple layers of protection, I've gotten viruses on my Windows machines that required the hard drives to be erased and reformatted and Windows reinstalled. Mac Defender can be dispensed with in under 5 minutes.

     

    I am not saying that Macs are perfect, just waaaaaay better!

  • by pegleg42,

    pegleg42 pegleg42 May 2, 2011 3:30 AM in response to anne e
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 2, 2011 3:30 AM in response to anne e

    Thankyou to all who have posted here. Am new to mac and love it, your advice was fantastic to get rid of the Mac Defender. I managed to snag my unwanted guest of the back of a pdf. One little question do i need to use an anti virus????

  • by TaylorN90,

    TaylorN90 TaylorN90 May 2, 2011 3:32 AM in response to pegleg42
    Level 3 (640 points)
    May 2, 2011 3:32 AM in response to pegleg42

    pegleg42 wrote:

     

    One little question do i need to use an anti virus????

    I think you can read the 4 or 5 posts above yours and your question will be answered

     

     

  • by pegleg42,

    pegleg42 pegleg42 May 2, 2011 3:45 AM in response to TaylorN90
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 2, 2011 3:45 AM in response to TaylorN90

    Yes I agree just got a little excited at getting rid of the  B....... and forgot to read the last few posts. Sorry about that.

  • by noondaywitch,

    noondaywitch noondaywitch May 2, 2011 4:03 AM in response to pegleg42
    Level 6 (8,147 points)
    May 2, 2011 4:03 AM in response to pegleg42

    pegleg42 wrote:

     

    One little question do i need to use an anti virus????

    No. But it may be worth checking out Firefox with the NoScript extension, and setting NoScript's preferences to disable CSS attempts, web bugs and iFrames. I suspect iFrames are being used for this one.

  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R May 2, 2011 6:54 AM in response to WZZZ
    Level 6 (17,685 points)
    May 2, 2011 6:54 AM in response to WZZZ

    WZZZ wrote:

     

    I don't use Safari, but when I did, "automatically open safe files after download" was the first thing I unchecked. It's incredible to me that Apple still has this set as the default option.

    The thing is, the OS considers only things like movies, pictures, text files, PDF's, etc. as "safe files" -- IOW, executable files won't be run whether or not this option is checked.

  • by WZZZ,

    WZZZ WZZZ May 2, 2011 7:15 AM in response to R C-R
    Level 6 (13,112 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 2, 2011 7:15 AM in response to R C-R
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