Mac|Life

Strange alert from a website

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When I was visiting a website, a peculiar transparen­t alert appeared over Safari’s window, warning that a “System Scan is recommende­d.” I quickly moved off that page, but wonder if macOS might ever show warnings like this? No. If you ever encounter this type of popup, you can be certain it’s bogus, nothing to do with macOS, and an attempt by a malicious website to trap you into doing something that you and your Mac will deeply regret.

The best immediate action you can take is to close all browser windows and quit the app as soon as possible; closing the windows first ensures they won’t reopen next time. So long as you don’t click on any buttons or controls in those pop-ups, your Mac should not have downloaded anything malicious.

To be on the safe side, though, run a thorough check using a malware scanner Whenever you think your Mac has been at risk of exposure to malware, check it using Sqwarq’s DetectX, Malwarebyt­es, or similar. such as Malwarebyt­es ( malwarebyt­es.com) or DetectX ( sqwarq.com). Ensure that you’re running the latest version, and that it has downloaded its latest data before scanning.

When your mind is at ease again, and you’re confident that your Mac has emerged unscathed, make a note of the website(s) you were visiting at the time the popup appeared. If they’re recognized major sites, you could send an email to the webmaster to inform them of your experience — they might have come under attack recently, and what you saw might have been the result.

If it was a site that you didn’t know before, perhaps one that was linked from another place or one that came up in a search, it would be wise to ensure you never visit that website again.

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