I think my iMac is infected and could really use some help

First, go to Thomas's web page, http://www.thesafemac.com and read up on his guidance and advice...you can get his adware and popup blocker to stop that behavior. Be very wary of those third-parties as most are scams. You can trust Thomas's stuff.

Absolutely do not get anything like MacKeeper as that is some of the worst malware out there.

No infections. These are all scams you can ignore. I suggest that you enable your browser's pop-up blocker which will help with some of these annoyances. For more extensive preventions I recommend GlimmerBlocker.

Helpful Links Regarding Malware Protection

An excellent link to read is Tom Reed's Mac Malware Guide.

Also, visit The XLab FAQs and read Detecting and avoiding malware and spyware.

See these Apple articles:

Mac OS X Snow Leopard and malware detection

OS X Lion- Protect your Mac from malware

OS X Mountain Lion- Protect your Mac from malware

About file quarantine in OS X

If you require anti-virus protection Thomas Reed recommends using Dr.Web Light from the App Store. It's free, and since it's from the App Store, it won't destabilize the system. If you prefer one of the better known commercial products, then Thomas recommends using Sophos.(Thank you to Thomas Reed for these recommendations.) If you already use Sophos, then be aware of this if you are using Mavericks: OS X Mavericks- Sophos Anti-Virus on-access scanner versions 8.0 - 9.1 may cause unexpected restarts

From user Joe Bailey comes this equally useful advice:

The facts are:

1. There is no anti-malware software that can detect 100% of the malware out there.

2. There is no anti-malware that can detect anything targeting the Mac because there

is no Mac malware in the wild, and therefore, no "signatures" to detect.

3. The very best way to prevent the most attacks is for you as the user to be aware that

the most successful malware attacks rely on very sophisticated social engineering

techniques preying on human avarice, ****, and fear.

4. Internet popups saying the FBI, NSA, Microsoft, your ISP has detected malware on

your computer is intended to entice you to install their malware thinking it is a

protection against malware.

5. Some of the anti-malware products on the market are worse than the malware

from which they purport to protect you.

6. Be cautious where you go on the internet.

7. Only download anything from sites you know are safe.

8. Avoid links you receive in email, always be suspicious even if you get something

you think is from a friend, but you were not expecting.

9. If there is any question in your mind, then assume it is malware.

many pop ups

Please post a screenshot that shows what you mean. Be careful not to include any private information.

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Crysalice wrote:

I recently purchased an iMac for the 1st time and am having many pop ups, survey requests and emails sent from my account to people in my address book. I used the chat help that came up on the Apple support which was a 3rd party who did a diagnostic check on my computer. They told me my computer was infected and wanted to charge me $159 to fix it. I could really use some suggestions. I have heard that apple computers don't get infected but it appears mine did.

Was this company named iTech, URTechies or similar and most important! did you allow them to remotely log in to your Mac and take control of it?

Crysalice wrote:

Thankk you very much! I did use his adware removal and it helped a lot! I love his site too.

You are very welcome. Thomas Reed is a regular on the ASC discussions and great help to many. Does a good job in explaining things in human terms 😝

Crysalice wrote:

Unfortunately, yes I did allow remote access.

Oh dear.

My advice now is to backup and erase your hard drive, then reinstall OSX and your applications, finally restore your Data (only) from a backup. I would also cancel the credit card you used to pay and change all other credit cards and passwords that are stored on your Mac.

I speak from (anothers) painful experience here.

When I got involved I found that a copy of LogMeIn had been used by the 'tech' it was still installed and it was attached to an account and a password for remote access had been set. This would allow anyone with the password (presumably the 'tech') to login to her Mac whenever they wanted to, as it is extremely difficult to tell what else they may have done I we decided to erase everythig. The lady in question keeps up to date backups so we did not have to make one but it was a fairly long task.

A week later 2 charges appeared on a credit card of hers, not the one used to pay the 'tech' but one whose details were available on the Mac.

That company traded (and still trades) under the name URTechies (New Jersey last time I looked)

Take this seriously.

Crysalice wrote:

I never gave them my credit card though and I don't think it's stored on my computer. Is there a way I can check?

How did you pay their bill?

My advice remains the same, Erase your Mac and reinstall, it is the only way to ensure that nothing is still compromised.

There is no page at that address:

Csound is correct, you are at the point that it is best to erase and reinstall the Mac OS X: restart holding the Command and R keys so you boot to the recovery hard drive (a hidden partition on the hard drive). Click Utilities on the menu bar if the drop down does not appear automatically. Choose Disk Utility, then the internal hard drive, and then Erase. After that finishes, Quit Disk Utility, and choose Install OS X...you will then have a completely clean installation which you will have to setup again as a new machine...enter all of the settings you previously had for user accounts, Apple ID, email, network, and so on.

It takes a little effort but will remove all remnants of anything that had been placed on your hard drive.