safari pop up alert telling me to call a support number

Choose Force Quit from the Apple menu, force quit Safari, and then launch it with the Shift key held down. If that doesn't work, disconnect the computer from the Internet.

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1. Safari had been set to load a malicious site upon launch; pressing the Shift key caused it to ignore that setting.

2. Visiting a malicious website.

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No, you didn't.

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I had a similar issue except i did allow them to access my computer. I do not have anything important on it because its for personal use. Yet I'm worried they could still have access to it. What can i do in this situation?

How can I avoid this form happening again? Does my computer has a virus?

Melz1004 wrote:

I had a similar issue except i did allow them to access my computer.

In that case, you should consider your computer to have been compromised. The people who had control are scammers, and they may have done all manner of things, including installing keyloggers or leaving back doors into your system. The only possible way to fix this is to erase the hard drive and reinstall everything from scratch. See:

How to reinstall Mac OS X from scratch

If you gave them a credit card number as well, you should report this to your credit card company.

(Fair disclosure: I may receive compensation from links to my sites, TheSafeMac.com and AdwareMedic.com, in the form of buttons allowing for donations. Donations are not required to use my site or software.)

ismaly wrote:

How can I avoid this form happening again? Does my computer has a virus?

If you called the scammers and gave them control of your computer, then see my response to Melz1004.

If not, there is no malware involved. To avoid this problem in the future, don't go back to the site that caused this message to pop up.

I did call the number recognizing that its probably a scam. THEY ARE GOOD !!! They walk you through some simple console error checks and then ask to take control of your computer because they have been hired by Apple. You can hear that its a boiler room with all the phones going on in the background. I obviously did NOT do that- told them I would bring my computer to the apple store to double check. Then I did more research and came up with this thread.
They really are very good and I feel bad for the many people they are probably getting to do this. Really too bad.The force quit is always a good approach.

BEWARE !!!!!!!

Same thing happened to me and I called the number and allowed them to access my computer. And I actually paid the $199.99 (I know. Bad move...) But I realized it was really suspicious and I asked them to stop the process and that I'd just take my computer to the apple store to let them see if there actually is something wrong with my computer. I asked for a refund and they said they'd give me a full refund. My problem is I'm afraid they might still have access to my computer. Is there a way to find out for sure?

francepance wrote:

My problem is I'm afraid they might still have access to my computer. Is there a way to find out for sure?

No. As has been said previously, you will need to erase your hard drive and reinstall everything from scratch, or restore the whole system from a backup made prior to giving them remote access. Also, don't rely on them giving you a refund... they are scammers, report it to your credit card company as fraud and make sure they understand that your card has been compromised so they can issue a new one.

I have no backups... ): How do I erase and reinstall everything without losing files and data?

See the link I gave to Melz1004 above.