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Mac Started Downloading--Virus???

Christine1234

Christine1234

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 2, 2011
161
10
Snowflake, AZ
I was just looking at a news site when my iMac (mid 2009, running El Capitan) suddenly started behaving strangely. Everywhere I clicked a large gray Safari emblem appeared on the page, and I got a message saying my Mac is infected, and to call 888-342-4947. It also said that if I left the page the Mac would be permanently damaged. I figured it was a spoof, but the Mac was downloading files. It wouldn't shut it down, so I hit the on/off button and powered down. When I rebooted, the Mac was still downloading files, so I tried to force quit Safari, and got a message saying it has 11 more files to download. I had it force quit anyway.

Now, how do I get rid of and files it already downloaded, and make sure they don't open? I'm worried

Thanks.
 
Edited to say: OK, I figured out how to do a screenshot. It's in the next post.
[doublepost=1556224313][/doublepost]Here it is.
 

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I'm looking for users and downloads in Finder but not seeing it.

OK, I found them. Now how do I delete them? There's a huge number of them!
 
I see downloads, and when I click on the little gear at the top, the option to delete them is not there. A lot of them are grayed out.
 
This is what it looks like.
[doublepost=1556225925][/doublepost]OK, I'm moving them to the trash folder one at a time.
 

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Just do Command+A to select them all (unless you have legit downloads in there, in which case hold down Shift while clicking the first and last of the files) then Command+Delete to trash them, or right click>move to trash or File>Move to Trash.
 
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Will do. there are hundreds of them in there.
[doublepost=1556226361][/doublepost]OK, I accidentally deleted files I needed. There were over 1200 in there. Guess I can take the ones I need out of the trash.
 
Or just drag into the trash.
[doublepost=1556226463][/doublepost]
Christine1234 said:
Will do. there are hundreds of them in there.
[doublepost=1556226361][/doublepost]OK, I accidentally deleted files I needed. There were over 1200 in there.
Click to expand...

Have already emptied the trash? If not, open it and move the stuff you want to keep back.
 
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One other thing besides Malwarebytes that you may need to do: Sometimes malware infected browsers end up with extensions or plugins that need to be manually removed.

If Safari still misbehaves after the Malwarebytes scan, check for these in Safari Preferences.
 
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There aren't that many, and over 1200 of the malware files. I'll just manually pull out what I need. Should I run that malwarebytes program once I'm done?
 
The trash is empty. I'll go to that web site next.
[doublepost=1556228172][/doublepost]The scan came up clean! Yes!!! Many thanks to Mr. Brightside and the others!

In case anyone's interested, I followed a link to The Geller Report news site, and that's when my Mac started acting strange and everything downloaded. (And I didn't even get to see the article that was linked!) But...not going back there!
 
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Christine1234 said:
The trash is empty. I'll go to that web site next.
[doublepost=1556228172][/doublepost]The scan came up clean! Yes!!! Many thanks to Mr. Brightside and the others!

In case anyone's interested, I followed a link to The Geller Report news site, and that's when my Mac started acting strange and everything downloaded. (And I didn't even get to see the article that was linked!) But...not going back there!
Click to expand...

Mr_Brightside_@ said:
Based on your initial screenshot, it could be an errant ad. I recommend downloading Adblock:
https://getadblock.com
Click to expand...
I would concur that it was most likely an ill-behaving ad designed to scare you and not a “virus.”
 
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As mentioned above, what you were getting was probably "adware" and/or crapware/malware -- NOT "a virus". There has NEVER been a virus for OS X discovered "in the wild". Not one, not ever.

Something you should do:
Download MalwareBytes and run it:
https://www.malwarebytes.com

IMPORTANT:
Select the "home" option.
It's a FREE download

IMPORTANT:
You DO NOT NEED TO BUY A SUBSCRIPTION to run MalwareBytes.
It will run FOREVER IN FREE MODE.
When you open it, IGNORE the button to "Upgrade Now".
Just click "Scan Now".
Again, you DO NOT have to buy the pay-for version!
 
If it was designed to scare me, the designer definitely succeeded. After deleting over 100 files one at a time, I deleted 1264 more malware files all at once. I've never known adware to download that much that fast before, and I interrupted the downloads by doing a force quit. That was a lot of files!

I got Malwarebytes and ran a scan, which came up clear. It looks like I'll need Adblock, too.
 
I have been using the shareware ClamXAV, it does all for me. Not very expensive, and has been with Mac computers for several years already (used to be a free app). A friend of mine uses BitDefender, which may be one of the best for Mac, and is not too expensive (around $38.00), and it also blocks and removes viruses and other stuff before quarantining.
 
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AlaskaMoose said:
I have been using the shareware ClamXAV, it does all for me. Not very expensive, and has been with Mac computers for several years already (used to be a free app). A friend of mine uses BitDefender, which may be one of the best for Mac, and is not too expensive (around $38.00), and it also blocks and removes viruses and other stuff before quarantining.
Click to expand...

ClamX has been around a very long time. Hard to beat the price. Historically (I have not used it many years) it was slow to scan, and users had to clean up any infection/unwanted stuff manually.

For paid tools, there are tons to choose from.

One other free commercial tool that is good overall...but can't say how well it does on adware, is Sophos Home. The free version is pretty good. Their paid premium home tool lets you install it on multiple devices...so a great value at $30 per year, if you have several machines.
 
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