Malware on my Mac?

[mbell75]

This is the second time this has happened now in the last few weeks and I am not too happy. While browsing with Safari with pop blocker and Firewall on, I get a popup box that says my computer may be affected by Malware and it wants to run a test. When I hit no, it redirects me to a Malware test site that acts like its scanning my computer and I have to close out of Safari. I also had a popup window for a fake Macy's that loaded itself everytime I went into my Myspace mail. Had to reset Safari to get rid of that.

Is this happening to anyone else? I thought Macs werent affected by these kinds of things.

 

[Father Jack]

Never heard of anyone experiencing that ..

 

[Eidorian]

Pop-ups and redirects will happen when web browsing.

 

[Mal]

All you're seeing is popup advertisments, not any sort of malware or anything. You're right, there is no such thing on the Mac, but websites don't know and don't care. Turn on your popup blocker in Safari, if it's not already, and if it is on, you can try looking into either a different popup blocker or using Firefox. You can safely ignore the warnings claiming you have malware on your computer though.

jW

 

[mbell75]

My concern is that its the same exact ad and redirects to the same site. This occured while I was browsing totally different sites weeks apart. That indictaed to me it may be on my computer and not on the net.

 

[Blogger]

This is the same as those annoying "your computer is running slow" pop up ads. My brother in law, new to computers, kept telling me his new Mac Mini was too slow. All he was doing was web browsing. I walked him through everything I could think of and was pulling my hair out when it suddenly occurred to me that he might be seeing these ads. Turned out that that was it. He believed them. I gave him a quick lecture on not believing everything he sees in pop up ads, and now all is well and he's happy (and magically, his computer is snappy again). There should be a law against these things AND unrequested redirects.

 

[haugstve]

Solution

Had the same problem found the solution at

http://macosx.com/forums/mac-os-x-s...2-malware-headache-version-os-x-10-3-9-a.html

Post quoted below

#5
November 10th, 2007, 03:21 PM
cieran84
Registered User

Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 1

Thanks for the both links, they helped me with my exact problem. I had installed Leopard, and recently had a pop-up to download the latest Flip4Mac plug-in in order to view a video (no lectures, the porn industry isn't a multi billion $ one for no reason ). Well turns out it wasn't really a plug-in for Flip4Mac, it was running occasional popups in Safari to buy some malware removal software (just more proof the Anti-virus industry is creating much of the security problems).

I followed the advice in the Macworld article and solved the problem. Although one clarification on Macworld, they say to look in /Library/Internet Plug-ins but that may confuse some people. Check in /Users/yourname/Library/Internet Plug-ins too, that's where my problem plug-in was (best way to tell which plugin is the offending one is by date modified sorting).

So, lesson learned. Always go to the official site for a video plug-in if some website tells you that you need a new version.

 

[Trinity33]

malware removal for mac leopard

[QUOTE (just more proof the Anti-virus industry is creating much of the security problems).
[/QUOTE]

Very true, I see it too.... I guess you need a villain for the hero to come to the rescure... (for good money) in this case.
I'm looking for help to remove the virus from a download via limewire.
I pay for a legit application, but NOT to the creator of it.

any good suggestions?

 

[klat2em]

myspace malware?

I get a popup box that says my computer may be affected by Malware and it wants to run a test. When I hit no, it redirects me to a Malware test site that acts like its scanning my computer and I have to close out of Safari.

I have had this happen to me twice. I have now been online for hours looking to find out why this is happening and to see I need to be concerned. This is the only mention I have heard of it. It happened while browsing myspace but it happened while looking a page. I didn't actually click on anything right before it happened. Then once the pop up window is there it does not matter what you click on, even outside the box or on the desk top it automatically takes you to a website that looks like a windows style screen inside a browser window and "acts" like it is scanning your files. I was so alarmed i immediately shut down my computer and disconnected my cable line. I am sure that if I had stayed on there and looked at the files it was scanning I would have been able to tell it wasn't scanning my computer.

However, it freaked me out. I have been on mac for 2 years now but the pc fears are still there. Has apple put out any software that can scan your computer to make sure it is in proper order? I am not interested in anything offered by a 3rd party (conflicts of interest make it to hard to trust them).

I am most concerned about identity theft. The protection of my passwords, usernames, but mostly the banking and other personal info that is stored on my computer.

 

[Jethryn Freyman]

This is the second time this has happened now in the last few weeks and I am not too happy. While browsing with Safari with pop blocker and Firewall on, I get a popup box that says my computer may be affected by Malware and it wants to run a test. When I hit no, it redirects me to a Malware test site that acts like its scanning my computer and I have to close out of Safari. I also had a popup window for a fake Macy's that loaded itself everytime I went into my Myspace mail. Had to reset Safari to get rid of that.

Is this happening to anyone else? I thought Macs werent affected by these kinds of things.

It's a scam to scare Windows users into download antivirus software which is actually malware itself.

 

[bourbonjockey]

I am having the same issue with incoming emails.

In addition, I am finding on Apple Mail that there appear to be more emails going out then I am sending and am concerned about malware.

Is anyone else experiencing this or can anyone recommend steps to protect my data?

Thanks.

 

[dmz]

I'm looking for help to remove the virus from a download via limewire.
I pay for a legit application, but NOT to the creator of it.

Then you will get what you paid for - nothing.

If you downloaded an app thinking you were getting something for nothing, and instead you downloaded a virus, then you got what you deserved.

As to the OP, educate yourself a little about Mac viruses - should only take a few minutes as there just aren't that many. ClamX AV is a good place to start, it's the only free AV software for Mac you can trust. And stay away from downloading free versions of commercial software - it is usually much more expensive in the long run.

dmz