Screen with warning of Virus and malicious applications pop up screen

Thank you. This adware has taken control of my iMac. I may not be able to download MalwareBytes. It blocked access to Apple Support. Have shut down iMac and using my MacBook. Will make an appointment with the Genius Bar to get this resolved. Lesson learned the hard way.

Restart the Mac in Safe Mode (restart and hold down the Shift key). This will prevent all but the most basic OS functions from loading. From there, you'll be able to download and run MalwareBytes.

The screen may flicker or draw with strange looking horizontal strips as Safe Mode boots. That's normal since the OS is using a very generic video driver instead of the one meant for your graphics hardware.

Thank you sooooo much. You are my new hero! Was able to download MalwareBytes, which found 4 adware files on first scan and 3 more on second scan. So far, everything appears to be working again. I downloaded the free file but will upgrade to paid subscription in 30 days.

Kurt,

I downloaded the Malwarebytes and now the free version is done. I click on UPGRADE NOW, but I can't find how to download the Premium anywhere. Can you send me a link? I have MacOS High Sierra 10.13.5.

Lou

Hello Lou,

I don’t know how that works. I’ve tested MBAM many times just to see how it works (it’s evolved over the years from its humble beginnings as a script). But I’ve never purchased the premium version.

The upgrade page is here:

Products and pricing | Malwarebytes

$40 per year subscription fee to run MBAM for one device, $60 per year for a 3 device license. The main features are listed here:

Antivirus Replacement for Mac - Scan and Remove Malware | Malwarebytes

These features run out after 30 days for the free version. It really depends on how risky your computer usage is if you feel you need MBAM watching your system live at all times. I prefer to just keep current backups and stay away from sites that are a virtual guarantee to get you in trouble. Such as P2P file sharing, torrents, etc. Basically, any site offering commerical/copyrighted movies/music/software for “free”. There’s no such thing as free from these places. They almost always come with malware attached.

Hi ~Bee! So glad to hear from you. 😍

I'd like to see you around here more. You always treat people so well, and have lots of good advice. But, I kind of know why you don't participate here much anymore.

I got this message today and called. I was asked for my iPad serial number. I was foolish enough to give it to them before regaining my senses and hanging up. Can the hackers/phishers do anything nefarious with my iPad now that they have my serial number?

i got this too and i closed it out, but then it downloaded something into my download folder but i put it in the trash and emptied it and then i ran my malware and it did not find anything. was there anything downloaded or is it all good?

Can the hackers/phishers do anything nefarious with my iPad now that they have my serial number?

Not a whole lot.

They can possibly use it to sell a stolen, activation locked device by using your serial number. The buyer will try to look up information on that unit and find nothing wrong since it's your device and not the one the crook is selling. But even so, trying to even just find a history of info for a given serial number isn't easy.

Or, they could try to convince Apple the device is theirs and was stolen, hoping Apple will blacklist its IMEI or get the unit locked. If they succeed in that (and Apple shouldn't comply without real proof the device belongs to them), they then may try to contact you to extort a ransom to release the device. Something they can't do no matter how much money you fork over. On the very unlikely chance this would even happen, just bring the device in to an Apple Store with your official sales receipt to get it unlocked.

I had been through the same problem since six months, for my luck I've found an app called Malwarebytes (malwarebytes.com) and scanning with that detected lots of unwanted malwares in my applications, including MacKeeper. You will be asked to restart after deleting all those... Happy computing....

I got the same screen, and at the same time files were downloading on my desktop. It started when I used Safari to search for a recipe, and clicked on one. The files downloading were titled "unknown" and probably had a suffix of .download. I had to force quit safari in order to stop them downloading, then I went into finder to move all the files (thousands of them) to trash. Then I emptied the trash. That got rid of the files, and I shut down for a while. When I booted up again, everything was ok until I opened Safari again. Then it started all over again. So the problem has to be in, or triggered in, Safari. How do I get rid of it?

You visited, or were redirected to a site that pushed the same download over and over to your Mac. These are generally associated with a scam page saying your Mac is infected.

You did the correct thing by shutting down Safari and simply deleting everything in the Downloads folder. You don't need to do anything else - other than not visiting that particular link again.

I had this problem all week with my MacBook Air, specifically on my most frequently visited (very legitimate) site. Several seconds after I open the site, a popup window with scam ads appear, and whenever I interact, I get redirected to the window saying "your Mac has been infected with 3 viruses".

I tried everything described here, including wiping my hard drive clean and re-installing my OS.

Eventually I took my Mac the doctor and the moment I connected to their wifi network, the problem disappeared. It gave me the clue that the issue is with my wifi network, not my Mac. I googled "malware in router" and changed DNS servers according to the information I found.

Problem is now solved. I connect to "openDNS" without any further annoying popups or virus threats.

Hey, I had a similar screen pop up. I use a streaming site thats a little sketchy for sports, when you click play it redirects to another page. It is the fake apple website that says you have a virus. I know its fake and always close the tab and then you can actually play the stream. Yesterday I missed the x to close the tab and clicked the page. A bar came down saying I had viruses attacking and my Mac started a continuous beep. It also started to download 113 document titled unknown. A legitimate tab came up and I paused the download, then restarted the MacBook. I then cleared downloads, safari cache, and history. Nothing else has happened and I ran Bitmedic from the App Store, it only found 1 malware in a very old email. Is my Mac ok then? is it safe to do online banking and stuff?

Hey, I had a similar screen pop up. I use a streaming site thats a little sketchy for sports, when you click play it redirects to another page. It is the fake apple website that says you have a virus. I know its fake and always close the tab and then you can actually play the stream. Yesterday I missed the x to close the tab and clicked the page. A bar came down saying I had viruses attacking and my Mac started a continuous beep. It also started to download 113 document titled unknown. A legitimate tab came up and I paused the download, then restarted the MacBook. I then cleared downloads, safari cache, and history. Nothing else has happened and I ran Bitmedic from the App Store, it only found 1 malware in a very old email. Is my Mac ok then? is it safe to do online banking and stuff?