Trojan on Macbook Air?

My wife has a early 2015 MacBook Air: OSX 10.10.5; 1.6 GHz Intel Core i5; 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3; Intel Graphics 6000 1536 MB; serial number C02P84YGGFWM.

She was trying to sign in to a site (arttutor.com) and got a message that said: "technical error........??". She clicked on the error message and an Apple Care warning popped up saying that her computer was infected with 3 trojans (it gave specific numbers for one, but we didn't write it down). The site that came up looked like an authentic Apple site?
It offered to fix the problem for her, and also said if she didn't fix it soon the damage would be permanent. She closed the page, exited the internet and shut down the computer. Does this sound right?? My first inclination would be to run Malware Bytes for Mac to see what it had to say. However, will wait for advice from the forum.
Thank you in advance
Dan

Dan

This is a scam. Apple never writes to people this way. If Apple ever sends an email, it is addressed to Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms Blogs and never tells you to do this or that.

And Apple never intrudes a message such as yours.

If an email purports to come from Apple, or indeed from any apparently genuine source, click on the header and you'll see something like: [email protected] or [email protected] which you immediately know is false.

This message you got is scam and all they want is for you to go to their site, sign away your username and Password (PW) and then you are in trouble.

Boot up the Mac, run Malwarebytes as you said. It will eradicate any falsehoods. Then to open Safari, hold down the Shift Key and whilst doing so, click on Safari. That bypasses any trouble there.

You might want to click on History and holding down the Option Key, choose Clear History and Keep Website Data.

Ian

In addition to the excellent advice Ian provided you might also add a couple of extensions to Safari to help prevent future problems. Most on the forum recommend Ghostery. In addition I also run uBlock Origin which is a good compliment to Ghostery. Make sure with Ghostery you go through the setup. It allows you to customize how much you want blocked and how much you care to see about what it blocked. I usually block everything and set it up to "run silent." Ublock Origin will already be setup.

Lisa

That's called ransomware Dan. Usually not a problem as long as you don't call whatever phone number that is given...where they try to scare you into paying whatever they charge to repair things (which is probably a non-existant issue). But do the scans as advised just in case.

- Nick

I had that problem in the past...the site looks like an authentic Apple Site... but if you call that number it is not an authentic Apple Site number but the other person on the end of the line will claim it is an Apple Customer Help site number and will ask to get into your computer..Do Not let them do that...call the Apple Help Desk.... they helped me take out that ransom program in my MBP...took us almost 2 hours......

call the Apple Help Desk.... they helped me take out that ransom program in my MBP...took us almost 2 hours......

Click to expand...

Two hours…??? Yikes. I sure hope they got some more recent and better training if they're still working for Apple Help department.


PS: I've noticed a nasty malware Abobe Flash installer has been cropping up again lately claiming your Flash is out of date and just click to install.

It looks very genuine and legit as well — it ISN'T!!! Beware!!





- Patrick
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Thanks for all the advice. Ran Malware Bytes and it found nothing.
Thanks
Dan

Yes, i fall into that trap... right now it keeps on popping up every 15 min in my MBP I just patiently ignore and close the pop up... any advise how to rid my MBP of that issue? I fall into that trap last year and did not know it was legitimate until lately when I visited this site...

pm-r said:

Two hours…??? Yikes. I sure hope they got some more recent and better training if they're still working for Apple Help department.


PS: I've noticed a nasty malware Abobe Flash installer has been cropping up again lately claiming your Flash is out of date and just click to install.


It looks very genuine and legit as well — it ISN'T!!! Beware!!





- Patrick
======

Click to expand...

I was grateful with the help...it's all that matters... time spent for a 70 yr old retiree, semi literate on computers was really appreciated...

pm-r said:

Two hours…??? Yikes. I sure hope they got some more recent and better training if they're still working for Apple Help department.


PS: I've noticed a nasty malware Abobe Flash installer has been cropping up again lately claiming your Flash is out of date and just click to install.

It looks very genuine and legit as well — it ISN'T!!! Beware!!





- Patrick
======

Click to expand...

Yes, i fall into that trap... right now it keeps on popping up every 15 min in my MBP I just patiently ignore and close the pop up... any advise how to rid my MBP of that issue? I fall into that trap last year and did not know it was legitimate until lately when I visited this site...

Click to expand...

I don't know if the popup you're getting is legit or not but it's easy to check:
Just go to your System Preferences and open "Flash Player" and then click the "Check Now" button. Proceed as needed or close the window if you're all OK.




- Patrick
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