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Safari locked with Mac security alert

May have a virus but Safari is locked with multiple windows open and displaying a Mac Security alert below...

System Alert.

Suspicious activity of intrusions detected which is trying to redirect you to an attack site.

This may happen due to obsolete virus protections.

To fix, please call system support at 1-647-360-4454 immediately. Please ensure you do not restart your computer to prevent data loss.


Anyone know how to get rid of this?


Thanks

Mac Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on May 14, 2015 4:50 AM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on May 14, 2015 4:52 AM

You need to use Adwaremedic. It is a tiny tool, which will remove the adware within several seconds. You can download Adwaremedic from this website: http://www.adwaremedic.com/index.php

You can also remove the adware manually using the steps provided by Apple: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203987

I'd also suggest this:

Go to Safari menu (At the very top right side of your screen next to Apple icon), choose "Quit Safari"

press "Shift" button and while holding this button on your keyboard single click on the Safari icon on your Dock.

Open Safari - Preferences - Privacy - Remove All Website Data.

Go menu with Option (Alt) key pressed - Library - locate Safari folder and move it to your desktop.

Also, you may try this:

- Shut down your Mac

- Wait until your computer turns off and after that press the Power button

- Right after you hear the startup tone, press and hold the Shift key

- Release the Shift key when you see a grey Apple sign and the progress bar below this sign

- Once you see Desktop, start a Disk Utility scan to detect and repair file system errors (don't forget to choose your main hard drive)

- Click on Verify Disc and then, if asked to fix problems, on Repair Disk

- After this, click on Verify Disk Permissions and then on Repair Disk Permissions

- After the process is finished, shut down your Mac and turn it back on after about 30 seconds

Hope this helps!

34 replies
Question marked as Best reply

May 14, 2015 4:52 AM in response to ptb9896

You need to use Adwaremedic. It is a tiny tool, which will remove the adware within several seconds. You can download Adwaremedic from this website: http://www.adwaremedic.com/index.php

You can also remove the adware manually using the steps provided by Apple: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203987

I'd also suggest this:

Go to Safari menu (At the very top right side of your screen next to Apple icon), choose "Quit Safari"

press "Shift" button and while holding this button on your keyboard single click on the Safari icon on your Dock.

Open Safari - Preferences - Privacy - Remove All Website Data.

Go menu with Option (Alt) key pressed - Library - locate Safari folder and move it to your desktop.

Also, you may try this:

- Shut down your Mac

- Wait until your computer turns off and after that press the Power button

- Right after you hear the startup tone, press and hold the Shift key

- Release the Shift key when you see a grey Apple sign and the progress bar below this sign

- Once you see Desktop, start a Disk Utility scan to detect and repair file system errors (don't forget to choose your main hard drive)

- Click on Verify Disc and then, if asked to fix problems, on Repair Disk

- After this, click on Verify Disk Permissions and then on Repair Disk Permissions

- After the process is finished, shut down your Mac and turn it back on after about 30 seconds

Hope this helps!

May 14, 2015 1:32 PM in response to D.Cohen

Just happened to me. A friend sent a YouTube link which he had typed, but placed an "r" instead of the "t" as in yourube.


I force closed and open re launch of Safari I was able to close the rapidly popping browser windows.


I went to Disk Utilities. Disk verification failed.


I restarted the computer holding down the "Option" key, then went to Disk Utilities from that screen and 1) verified disk; and 2) repaired permissions


Then logged back into the Mac.


All appears ok for now, as I am running a Sophos scan. It appears to take more than 12 hours to complete 😟


This appears to be a hoax for you to call and pay to get things fixed, but made to look very much like an Apple service. The failed to load screen that is triggered looks just like a standard Safari unable to load screen, with the added info to call the number in the original post above. Very, very deceptive.

May 14, 2015 2:17 PM in response to ptb9896

There is no reason to download anything to solve this problem. It's a Web scam that only affects your browser, and only temporarily. 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.

May 16, 2015 5:56 PM in response to wellssup

wellssup wrote:


Item 4 helped - did a force quit - then opened holding down the shift key. Then I deleted all website data and odd downloads. Phew. I thought MACs weren't supposed to get viruses. This one was nasty - think I picked it up from YouTube? Hope Apple is working on this one.

It isn't a virus.

Despite Apple's wealth, they do not control the Internet.

May 17, 2015 8:13 PM in response to D.Cohen

Done the verfiy Disk three times, no change. I can't access the Safari menu because whatever this is has it locked up. There are about 8 windows open with this, even tried it with the internet turned off and it keeps doing the same thing. I am totally frustrated and lost with this. Thanks for taking time.

Safari locked with Mac security alert

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