Safari permanently disabled by macekrrz.com pop-up windows

Question

Level 1

4 points

Safari permanently disabled by macekrrz.com pop-up windows

Running OSX 10.9.5 on a late 2012 Mac Mini 2.6GHz Intel Core i7.

While completing research in Safari I got hijacked by a pop-up claiming my computer was infected and I should call a toll-free number to fix it (see attached image). It's a crafty pop-up though: it's a pop-up on top of a pop-up. The one on top is specifically designed in a window that doesn't fit the screen size, which is why you can't scroll down to the bottom to close it.

No other windows behind the pop-up are accessible, including the Safari "Preferences" and other menus...:(

Someone posted some possible solutions on an earlier thread. I've tried all these but none of them fixed the issue. I'm posting them here anyway so that the brainy dudes out there know these have already been tried.

Holding down "shift" while rebooting Safari doesn't work.
Pressing APPLE "W" (close Safari window) doesn't work.
Eventually, once you've used force quit several times on Safari, it'll actually ask you if you want to reopen it without opening any of the previous windows. Then, when you reopen Safari having asked NOT to reopen the windows from last time, it just opens them all anyway, along with the macekrzz.com pop-up.
Safari cannot be downloaded and reinstalled because it isn't available from the Apple website, so that doesn't work either.
Rewriting the page URL in the pop-up window to divert it to a safe website (having disabled WiFi) doesn't work either, because another pop-up window on top of the first one prevents you from accessing the URL bar.
I have also tried using APPLE + and APPLE - to increase/decrease the screen/window size. This is because the reason why you cannot close the pop-up on top of all other pop-ups is because it is specifically designed NOT to fit the screen size. It is impossible to scroll down to the bottom of the pop-up where the "close" button probably is, because it's somewhere off the bottom of the page.

Does anyone have any additional ideas, bearing in mind that none of the above solve the problem? I cannot use Safari AT ALL until I resolve this, and cannot re-install it either.

Mac mini, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), null

Posted on Aug 4, 2015 6:27 PM

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Answer 1

John Galt

Level 10

141,264 points

Aug 4, 2015 7:03 PM in response to TheGlynja

Please read Phony "tech support" / "ransomware" popups and web pages.

I just verified those instructions for that website and they worked. It was necessary to force-quit Safari.

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Answer 2

TheGlynja Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 4, 2015 7:13 PM in response to John Galt

How did you actually fix the problem? I've attempted all the options in your linked document and NONE of them worked...

I did actually list all the things I'd already tried in my original posting...

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Answer 3

TheGlynja Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 4, 2015 7:08 PM in response to TheGlynja

...

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Answer 4

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Aug 4, 2015 7:15 PM in response to TheGlynja

It's a Web scam that only affects your browser, and only temporarily. There are several ways to recover.

1. If you're running Safari 8.0.7 or later and you see a dialog with the message “Don’t show more alerts from this webpage,” check the box and click OK.

2. If no other tabs or windows are open, or if you don't mind losing those tabs or windows, force quit Safari. Relaunch it by holding down the shift key and clicking its icon in the Dock.

The following steps may enable you to keep the state of other open tabs and windows.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. From the Safari menu bar, select

Safari ▹ Preferences... ▹ Security

and uncheck the box marked Enable JavaScript. If the Preferences menu item is grayed out, go to Step 2.

After closing the malicious page, select from the menu bar

Safari ▹ Preferences... ▹ Privacy ▹ 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.

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Answer 5

John Galt

Level 10

141,264 points

Aug 4, 2015 7:18 PM in response to TheGlynja

I force-quit Safari, then I launched Safari again with a Shift key held down. Top Sites appeared. It was not necessary to disconnect from the Internet.

From Automatically re-open windows, apps, and documents on your Mac - Apple Support:

"To temporarily prevent an app from re-opening its documents and windows, hold the Shift key while you open the app."

That is working for me for that particular site, so if it is not working for you I have no explanation. I'd like to duplicate the problem, but unless I am able to do that I am reluctant to provide additional suggestions.

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Answer 6

TheGlynja Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 4, 2015 7:19 PM in response to Linc Davis

Again, in my original posting I explain that none of the Safari menus are accessible. Also, holding "SHIFT" just opens Safari with all the same windows again. Switching off WiFi doesn't work. Command W doesn't work. There is no "Don’t show more alerts from this webpage,” dialogue anywhere...

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Answer 7

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Aug 4, 2015 7:33 PM in response to TheGlynja

Please read this whole message before doing anything.

This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.

The purpose of the test is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party software that loads automatically at startup or login, by a peripheral device, by a font conflict, or by corruption of the file system or of certain system caches.

Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards, if applicable. Start up in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem.

Note: If FileVault is enabled in OS X 10.9 or earlier, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.

Safe mode is much slower to start up and run than normal, with limited graphics performance, and some things won’t work at all, including sound output and Wi-Fi on certain models. The next normal startup may also be somewhat slow.

The login screen appears even if you usually login automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.

Test while in safe mode. Same problem?

After testing, restart as usual (not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.

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Answer 8

TheGlynja Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 4, 2015 7:38 PM in response to John Galt

OK, it's fixed but it seems to have been blind luck rather than anything else.

In order to get out of the loop I had to take these steps, in THIS SPECIFIC ORDER:

Force quit Safari;
Close all other applications accessing the web, including iTunes and browsers;
Switch off WiFi;
Restart the entire computer;
(After restart) while WiFi was still switched off, open Safari while holding shift;
Safari reopens, but WITH all the previous windows/tabs still open (that whole "hold shift down" thing really doesn't do what it's supposed to), but the pop-up that WAS on top didn't load as quickly as before;
In those couple of seconds I clicked the red X on the background pop-up window and managed to close it before the second pop-up reappeared.
Unfortunately, despite all the tabs still being open, Safari seems to have forgotten which URLs about 50% of those tabs were on...so I now have to re-do half the research anyway. Bummer.

I'd already tried all these steps individually, and had restarted several times AND force quit Safari several times. It seems to be only a particular combination of 'all the above' actually fixed it.

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Answer 9

Antirofa

Level 1

8 points

Aug 5, 2015 11:35 AM in response to John Galt

HI,

I got hijacked yesterday. Good thing I read these postings before falling for the scam. I followed the 'force quit Safari, and re-launched while holding down the Shift key". It worked on first try. Thanks,

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Answer 10

Aug 5, 2015 12:53 PM in response to TheGlynja

I Just had the same issue and did a hybrid of some of the suggestions I read. What worked for me was simply turning off wifi, restarting computer, holding the shift ket and opening safari, go to history and delete all history, re-open wifi. Ta-dah!

Thanks to all that helped brainstorming ideas.

Hope this helps!!

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Answer 11

rjchap20

Level 1

0 points

Aug 5, 2015 8:07 PM in response to TheGlynja

A simple Force Quit, then Shift and Click Safari to reopen opened page without the popup

Followed Linc Davis suggestions on going into Safari preferences and clearing the cookies at the last sites where it happened (i was fortunate enough to realize exactly when it happened) for me it was trying to go to cbs.com and in error I had typed in cbsi.com

Disabled Javascript,

then under privacy deleted the cookies from that site, and the cookies from macekrrz.com

Closed safari again

Reopened normally.

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Answer 12

Rajnps

Level 1

0 points

Aug 8, 2015 6:56 PM in response to TheGlynja

Thank you!!!!! This worked for me perfectly!

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Answer 13

Aug 11, 2015 7:06 PM in response to TheGlynja

I was on video 2 mp3 website when that annoying website popped up and disabled my Safari. All of your posts inspired me and finally here is what worked for me:

1- turned wifi off

2- force quit safari

3- reopened safari with shift + click (not sure if shift + click really helped; I did it anyway)

4- macekrrz . com website opened but with a "no internet connection" message of course since wifi was off. With wifi off the popup screen didn't open this time

5- I opened Safari preferences and cleared all history.

6- Turned wifi on and no more macekrrz

I hope I won't see it again.

Thank you all for your posts!

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Answer 14

Aug 12, 2015 8:05 PM in response to serge19355

Thank you!!

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Answer 15

silvia33

Level 1

5 points

Aug 14, 2015 3:09 PM in response to TheGlynja

Just happened to me, panicked and contacted my guru (son) who told me to ignore it and directed me to this forum. Tried deleting history files, restarting safari (after force quit since it didn't normally), etc. Nothing. Was able to get rid of "error" window in chrome. In desperation, to get back Safari to work, I kept hitting the return key and all went back to normal! I immediately delete history and web data from the history pop down window. Hope it does not happen again!

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