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virus message

I opened a website that I have used in the past, and this error message popped up stating that my Mac Book Pro has a virus..


VIRUS FOUND


The last website you visited has infected your Mac with a virus.


Press OK to begin the repair process.


Is this a legitimate error message. How can I find out if my computer now has a virus?


Thank you


Duanne

Posted on Mar 26, 2015 9:41 AM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Mar 26, 2015 9:43 AM

It's a scam. You don't have a "virus." Any website that tells you otherwise is a scam.

11 replies

Mar 26, 2015 10:17 AM in response to duannewiley

SCAM.


About the only thing anyone can tell from Outside your Mac is what Browser you claim to be running.


Keep in mind they ARE out to get your banking data and take over your Mac, and will do anything to get you to surrender that, including telling you convoluted lies and pretending to "help" you.


Do you also get the phone calls from the guys with thick Indian accents telling you that your Windows computer is infected with Viruses? SCAM.


Do you also get the calls to "lower your credit card Interest rate"? SCAM.

Mar 26, 2015 10:19 AM in response to duannewiley

If this is scam, how do I get rid of it. It has locked out the use of Safari and I had to do a forced quit to close Safari. Reopened it and the error message reappeared and locked out Safari again. After attempting a computer restart, the tab opens and again locks out Safari. I cannot open Safari preferences or any other menu items.


Thanks for your reply


Duanne

Mar 26, 2015 10:21 AM in response to duannewiley

There are several ways to recover.

1. Some of those scam pages can be dismissed very easily. Press the key combination command-W to close the tab or window. A huge box will pop up. Press the return key and both the box and the page will close. If that doesn't happen, continue.

2. Press and hold command-W. You may hear repeating alert sounds. While holding the keys, click the OK button in the popup. A different popup may appear, which you can cancel out of as usual.

3. From the Safari menu bar, select

Safari â–¹ Preferences... â–¹ Security

and uncheck the box marked Enable JavaScript. Leave the preferences dialog open.

Close the malicious window or tab.

Re-enable JavaScript and close the preferences dialog.

4. If the Preferences menu item is grayed out, quit Safari. Force quit if necessary. Relaunch it by holding down the shift key and clicking its icon in the Dock. None of the windows and tabs will reopen.

After closing the malicious page, from the menu bar, select

Safari â–¹ Preferences... â–¹ Privacy â–¹ Remove All Website Data

to get rid of any cookies or other data left by the server. Open your Downloads folder and delete anything you don't recognize.

Mar 26, 2015 10:25 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I am not getting any calls as we do not accept any calls from phone numbers we don't know. I understand what you are trying to say. however Safari is useless to me at the time. This occurred when I clicked on a link in my email from a site I use all the time. Could it be that someone has hacked into that email and sending out scam emails to people?

Mar 26, 2015 1:01 PM in response to duannewiley

Did you follow Linc Davis above suggestions?


You also said "This occurred when I clicked on a link in my email from a site I use all the time. Could it be that someone has hacked into that email and sending out scam emails to people?"


What makes you believe that happend, that is the hacking.


The messages discussed in your initial post is common for an infected site, not an infected computer.

Mar 26, 2015 1:10 PM in response to duannewiley

Basically what they are trying to say is, don't trust any site that claims your machine is infected with a virus. It's just a scam to get you to go visit their site or to download software. These scams come via phone calls, emails, website pop-ups, et al. They are just hoping you are gullible enough to believe them and click on their links. By doing so you may inadvertently install something without knowing it.

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