01-21-2009, 03:35 PM

I just bought my first Mac, a MacBook Pro. I love it.

Today I just started getting pop-up windows that give warning saying:


"Warning!!! Your computer contains various signs of viruses and malware programs presence. Your system requires immediate anti viruses check! Spyware Guard 2008 will perform a quick and free scanning of your PC for viruses and malicious programs."

I click "OK" and it brings me to some website to get virus protection. Is this just some bogus popup or something to worry about??

BTW- I have no virus protection and thought none was needed on macs...

I do surf the net a lot, but I'm not on any scandalous websites (porn).

The only thing that I can think that may be a hazard to my Mac is the "Limewire" application that I downloaded and use to download a lot of music. On XP, Limewire is known to give some viruses... but I thought it was safe to use on Macs????

Please help.

Thanks,
Steve

01-21-2009, 03:44 PM

Your good bro. Just a pop up.
Try frostwire instead of limewire it's a bit faster and same interface.
I don't know if its kosher to talk about P2P networks here... so thats all I have to say about that.

01-21-2009, 03:50 PM

that's all I needed to know... Thank you sir.

01-21-2009, 03:51 PM

Its an advertisment to scare you into a purchase ,you have to go out of your way to install a virus on a Mac currently.

01-21-2009, 06:59 PM

Spyware Guard 2008 and the latest 2009 is malware.

It is a play on the legitimate company SpywareGuard.

01-24-2009, 01:26 PM

crazy i just had this pop up happen to my wife last night as well. Any idea if it leaves behind some kind of spy ware? My computer seems to be slowing down everyday. It used to be blazing fast. Thanks for your help in advance

01-24-2009, 01:51 PM

Originally Posted by amayhem

crazy i just had this pop up happen to my wife last night as well. Any idea if it leaves behind some kind of spy ware? My computer seems to be slowing down everyday. It used to be blazing fast. Thanks for your help in advance

A. That site is peddling windows malware - you may notice that the fake scan is scanning dll files

B. Nothing can install on your mac without first needing your admin user name and password, so even if it were OS X malware, you would have to allow it to install. Drive by downloads are not possible under OS X

01-30-2009, 09:07 PM

^ good to know!

09-15-2009, 08:34 AM

my mbp did this tonight as well except the warning message was slightly different. i was concerned as well, i closed all windows and disconected the net. should i be worried as well or would this most likely be the same thing that has happened to the user above?

^^ oh and it also came up with a pop up window that looked as though it was performing a fake scan on a hard drive, however the hard drive was for a pc ??

09-15-2009, 08:40 AM

Originally Posted by ILoveChanel

^^ oh and it also came up with a pop up window that looked as though it was performing a fake scan on a hard drive, however the hard drive was for a pc ??

What you were looking at is an animated advertisement. It is not possible to perform a scan of any sort simply by browsing a web page.

So to answer your question, no, there is nothing to worry about. Even if you had retained your Internet connection and just gone to another webpage, you would have been fine (and continue to be so).

02-04-2010, 11:53 PM

I feel for anyone who gets this.
This is the virus/spyware that convinced me to switch TO a Mac. I had been infected FOUR times with this crappy fake virus software on my pc. Everytime it took hours to take off my pc, it would not allow you to close browsers, infected the registry, disable task manager, everything.

My parents just had this pop up on their new imac. I don't know how or if it would even be able to execute or plant spyware on a Mac? My mom is worried that something may still have gotten hidden somewhere in the operating system. I honestly don't know enough about osx yet to know if that is possible, or how to advise her. I tend to think it's purely pc based but didn't know if it could be written for both platforms? Does windows / mac share any common file extensions for this to happen?

What you all are saying makes sense, but it is scareware- and it sure does scare you.

02-05-2010, 01:01 AM

Well first off I would recommend turning on the pop-up blocker on your web browser. It doesn't block them all but it does block most of them. If you do get a pop up then try pressing Command W to close the window without actually needing to click on the pop up. These malware and virus creators are getting real sneaky.

While Mac users can't get infected from Windows viruses it is a good idea to practice safe habits. Anytime you get these unusual dialog windows just stop and think about what you are about to do. Most of these pop up windows want you to click on them...so don't no matter what tricky they use. Just close the window like how I described above or if you are really paranoid then just quit your whole web browser instead.

You should also empty your cookies ever so often. If you have Firefox you can set it to empty every time you quit Firefox and unless you really need to then make sure to only accept cookies from the original website and not third party cookies. These are only precautionary steps and good habits. Also never type in your administrative computer password unless you fully trust the application you are installing. Those are the few simple things you can do on a Mac. You don't have to worry as much and take as many precautions as Windows users do but it's a good idea to not fully let your guard down.

02-05-2010, 05:21 AM

Originally Posted by iheartapples

I feel for anyone who gets this.
This is the virus/spyware that convinced me to switch TO a Mac. I had been infected FOUR times with this crappy fake virus software on my pc. Everytime it took hours to take off my pc, it would not allow you to close browsers, infected the registry, disable task manager, everything.

My parents just had this pop up on their new imac. I don't know how or if it would even be able to execute or plant spyware on a Mac? My mom is worried that something may still have gotten hidden somewhere in the operating system. I honestly don't know enough about osx yet to know if that is possible, or how to advise her. I tend to think it's purely pc based but didn't know if it could be written for both platforms? Does windows / mac share any common file extensions for this to happen?

What you all are saying makes sense, but it is scareware- and it sure does scare you.

cwa107 covers it pretty well right above your post.

I have run into 2 sites in the last 3 years that were infected with one of the "you have a virus and need our app to fix it" shams that would not close - period...

If you run into one of those you'll need to quit the browser. The two of them I ran into, I had to open up Activity Monitor and quit the browser from there - couldn't even use the file menu on the menu bar while those pop-ups were on screen.

02-05-2010, 06:56 AM

Originally Posted by bobtomay

cwa107 covers it pretty well right above your post.

I have run into 2 sites in the last 3 years that were infected with one of the "you have a virus and need our app to fix it" shams that would not close - period...

If you run into one of those you'll need to quit the browser. The two of them I ran into, I had to open up Activity Monitor and quit the browser from there - couldn't even use the file menu on the menu bar while those pop-ups were on screen.

I've had 2 over the last couple of years... one I could quit the browser, but the other one I had to hold the power button down, as I couldn't get into menu bar, or the dock to do anything.

To the OP, I still see it as nothing to worry about as it is so rare, and has not effected the performance of my Mac

02-05-2010, 03:35 PM

Originally Posted by 6string

I've had 2 over the last couple of years... one I could quit the browser, but the other one I had to hold the power button down, as I couldn't get into menu bar, or the dock to do anything.

You can also try the keyboard shortcut Option Command Esc to try a force quit before doing a harsh shutdown such as using the power button.