Hijacked web browser

Wow, had a different experience today. I clicked on a story on a Safari page …… something I normally would never do. It hijacked my web browser saying Apple has frozen my computer, bells were ringing, text boxes were flashing, a voice was telling me not to turn off my computer or risk losing data . . . very un-nerving really. I turned off the computer. When I turned the computer back on it was all still there saying to call a phone number.

Thankfully I had printed out this note a couple years ago and had it in drawer.

To unlocked hijacked web browser:

Select Force Quit at the Apple icon

Then select Safari and Force Quit Safari

When you re-launch Safari hold down the “shift key” on your keyboard

That’s it..... everything should be back to normal

It worked!

Afterwards I did a virus scan and found two files infected with virus/HTML/FakeAlert.WR

 

Woah, that is scary. Glad you got it sorted though.

 

I will not use Safari. Just me.

 

I've been using it for 12 years. No issues. The ad that caught my eye:a large ad showing a baren mountain island with just one house. It read, why only one house and no one living in it?

 

What site were you on when you got the ad malware?

 

It appears to have been mlive.com reading about the Red Wings

not really sure

 

I thought macs didn't get viruses?

 

Looking at my history ‘security code 0x268d3 services’ shows up after I was on m.live, our Michigan news source.

That’s a link that has been going around for years with fake warnings for various things like Microsoft, etc. to get $. It followed something called firstfeedlive.com/worlds

Jerry, no internet-connected device is completely immune to virus. Macs used to have a wonderful track record in part because there was fewer purchased compared to Windows. I'm not happy that my Intego protection did not catch it until after the fact.

 

The difference is the a Mac can recover where a Windows machine becomes a brick!