I was just using Safari, clicked on a link to the sports section while reading the online NYTimes. On clicking the link to the sports section, a small window appeared with the Safari logo asking if I wanted to have my PC checked for viruses. I hit "cancel" but a full sized window appeared, and started to scan my disks. I couldn't close it out. Within about 20 seconds, it finished the scan, indicating that I had about 80 trojans on my C: and D: disk (note that I realize this is too fast to have those kinds of results, and I don't have a D: disk. Nonetheless, I was asked if I wanted to remove the Trojans, and again, I tried closing the window by quitting Safari. It wouldn't close, and I finally closed the window by force quitting Safari. Has anyone experienced this before? I am assuming this is a scam, or an attempt to enter my hard drive. Should I be using a virus protection program with my software (I use Snow Leopard). Can trojans operate within the Snow Leopard operating system? Thanks for any feedback on this.
Uncloseable window intrusion in Safari
- Thread starter zachtfcr
- Start date
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- May 31, 2005
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- Mac Pro, 8 core 2.8GHz 14GB RAM, Geforce 8800GT, Dell 3008WFP
It sounds like a typical scam to try to get you to buy their anti-malware program.
You also don't have a C: drive under Mac OS, it's a little annoying that it seems to be able to control Safari windows like that but I don't think you have anything to worry about.
You also don't have a C: drive under Mac OS, it's a little annoying that it seems to be able to control Safari windows like that but I don't think you have anything to worry about.
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- 15" MBP '06 2.33 C2D 4GB 10.7; 13" MBA '14 1.8 i7 8GB 10.11; 21" iMac '13 2.9 i5 8GB 10.11; 6S
Yes, these same scammers that infect Windows machines by the boatload - it seems that particular little nasty is on half the Win machines brought to me - can prevent you from closing it's window in the normal way.
This is just one of the reasons for keeping Activity Monitor in your dock. Next time you run across it, open activity monitor and quit/force quit Safari / Firefox / etc from there.
As aj-uk pointed out - you do not have a C: drive either - and even on Windows machines, it is not really scanning your drive - you're just watching a video.
At this time there are no viruses and no malware that can run in OS X. There are a couple of Trojans out there. To avoid them, don't download pirated software or video codecs from porn sites and you'll be fine.
This is just one of the reasons for keeping Activity Monitor in your dock. Next time you run across it, open activity monitor and quit/force quit Safari / Firefox / etc from there.
As aj-uk pointed out - you do not have a C: drive either - and even on Windows machines, it is not really scanning your drive - you're just watching a video.
At this time there are no viruses and no malware that can run in OS X. There are a couple of Trojans out there. To avoid them, don't download pirated software or video codecs from porn sites and you'll be fine.
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