Annoying pop-up on safari..

Spuddy · 17 Aug 2015 at 17:56

Obviously some sort of phishing spam, could not get it off the screen for ages. Had to keep quitting, then reloading safari until I was fast enough to click the X before it greyed out once the website loaded, it locked me out of all controls. Was not browsing any dodgy websites and it just randomly popped up so I took a screenshot and uploaded it, then I noticed my download connection was going crazy (not upload) at 850Kb's. So thinking this whatever it was has downloaded something to my Mac, anyway to check. Any recommended security software to use?

William-Mathew · 17 Aug 2015 at 17:58

I just run AVG, but there is proberly better software out there

Spuddy · 17 Aug 2015 at 18:19

Ta, I'll have a look. Never actually had security software on my Mac before foolishly.

beachBOYken · 17 Aug 2015 at 22:13

I'm about to get an imac this week and still can't decide if I should install an AV like sophos or malwarebytes for mac.
Seeing this sort of thing makes me think it will be better if I do.

RJC · 17 Aug 2015 at 22:24

I had a macbook for 4 years and never used permanent anti virus, only did Avast once in a while and nothing come up.

Scythe · 17 Aug 2015 at 22:31

All this does is relies on Safari's default setting of returning to your old page after a force quit due to the dialog box. The dialog box is oversized so you can't hit OK or close it using the graphical interface.

After quitting, relaunch Safari whilst pressing alt (I think) which makes it start from your set homepage instead

Websites like these usually throw an installer file into your downloads, just delete it and make sure you don't launch it

Feek · 18 Aug 2015 at 07:01

Make sure that you've unticked the box which tells Safari to run 'safe' downloads automatically. I really don't understand why that's ticked by default.

Spuddy · 18 Aug 2015 at 11:59

Downloaded malware bytes and ran a scan but everything was fine, could not find any install file in my downloads either. Weird, because my Mac was definitely downloading something, I was static on a webpage already loaded and like I say my download connection was going crazy!

Thanks Feek, I'll make sure that's unchecked next time I go on the Mac.

hartgeh3 · 20 Aug 2015 at 20:38

run ClamXav

Spuddy · 20 Aug 2015 at 21:53

Never heard of it, but I'll give it a whirl. Thanks.

Broken Hope · 20 Aug 2015 at 23:41

beachBOYken said:
I'm about to get an imac this week and still can't decide if I should install an AV like sophos or malwarebytes for mac.
Seeing this sort of thing makes me think it will be better if I do.

As long as you don't do anything stupid like disable Gatekeeper and as long as you keep Flash off your machine, or at least update it as soon as there is an update, you're pretty safe from malware on a Mac.