Virus warning

Apple has this page, most of what it says is covered in TheSafeMac (actual site) and in

what Kappy had posted, about how to identify & remove certain troublesome items...

•Remove unwanted adware that displays pop-up ads and graphics on your Mac - Apple Support

Several people have used this information, and have used methods described

in the Adware Removal Guide at the safe mac site. Many of the adware issues

can be removed by use of the Adware Medic product, it runs free. But you can

also use the other methods to learn to try & then remove such items yourself.

Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

Yes, they told me that you had turned it down and I was second in line.... 😝

@ world44: sorry for the off topic remark....

Choose Go to Folder from the Go menu and provide the paths from the article. The Library isn't a pre-existing option there; it needs to be part of a path supplied to the command.

(122983)

Not upset, just being a bit more forceful as you'd been told more than a couple of times you have no virus and that's it's just a scam, but kept wondering if you needed to take your Mac in to have it looked at. You don't.

Babowa was replying to someone other than you.

What you need to do is go to thesafemac.com's other site here: http://www.adwaremedic.com/AdwareMedic.dmg

This will download AdwareMedic. Run it and follow the prompts.

It sounds like you have some adware installed that is trying to block thesafemac.com. Apple has nothing to do with this. Apple refuses to block adware and only provides minimal instructions on how to remove it. The author of AdwareMedic, a long-time contributed here in the forums, has made adware removal a one-click process, more or less.

Computer security is a complex issue. People try to make end users feel better with antivirus and firewalls. Obviously, neither of those helped you. Adware on the Mac is reaching epidemic proportions. The author of AdwareMedic is one of the few people doing anything about it.

You may have installed one or more of the common types of ad-injection malware. Follow the instructions on this Apple Support page to remove it. It's been reported that some variants of the "VSearch" malware block access to the page. If that happens, start in safe mode by holding down the shift key at the startup chime, then try again.

Back up all data before making any changes.

One of the steps in the article is to remove malicious Safari extensions. Do the equivalent in the Chrome and Firefox browsers, if you use either of those. If Safari crashes on launch, skip that step and come back to it after you've done everything else.

If you don't find any of the files or extensions listed, or if removing them doesn't stop the ad injection, ask for further instructions.

Make sure you don't repeat the mistake that led you to install the malware. It may have come from an Internet cesspit such as "Softonic" or "CNET Download." Never visit either of those sites again. You might also have downloaded it from an ad in a page on some other site. The ad would probably have included a large green button labeled "Download" or "Download Now" in white letters. The button is designed to confuse people who intend to download something else on the same page. If you ever download a file that isn't obviously what you expected, delete it immediately.

Malware is also found on websites that traffic in pirated content such as video. If you, or anyone else who uses the computer, visit such sites and follow prompts to install software, you can expect more of the same, and worse, to follow. Never install any software that you downloaded from a bittorrent, or that was downloaded by someone else from an unknown source.

In the Security & Privacy pane of System Preferences, select the General tab. The radio button marked Anywhere should not be selected. If it is, click the lock icon to unlock the settings, then select one of the other buttons. After that, don't ignore a warning that you are about to run or install an application from an unknown developer.

Still in System Preferences, open the App Store or Software Update pane and check the box marked

Install system data files and security updates (OS X 10.10 or later)

or

Download updates automatically (OS X 10.9 or earlier)

if it's not already checked.

world44 wrote:

I just received a virus warning from a website www.thesafemac.com.

I assure you, whatever virus warning you received did not come from that website! (I can say that definitively, as that is my site.)

I'm not entirely sure what you saw, but what you're describing sounds like a fake tech support scam. If the scammers are now trying to make it look like the pop-up is coming from my site, that's annoying, but I suppose I should take it as a compliment. This isn't the first time that these kinds of loser hackers have targeted my sites, and there is every indication that this is because my work is beginning to have a noticeable preventative impact on their abilities to scam people.

In any case, as has been pointed out by multiple people at this point, this warning 1) is not coming from thesafemac.com, and 2) does not actually mean there is a virus on your computer. It's just a scam.

(Fair disclosure: I may receive compensation from links to my sites, TheSafeMac.com and AdwareMedic.com.)

It's a 100% guarantee if you were to call that number, you would be greeted by someone claiming to be associated with Apple or some security firm. They would then do their darnedest to convince you to install a screen sharing app so they could control your Mac. They'd move the mouse all over the place, opening system and other folders, and all the while over the phone, they'd be telling you that completely normal files are viruses and trashing them. For the wonderful work of breaking the OS or who knows what else, they'd charge you a few hundred dollars. Now they'd also have your credit number so they could make illegal purchases on it, or sell the card number to other crooks.