Macafee malware

[Smudger]

Hi
I recently attempted to download a music video from YouTube using a method I found by a Google search. The steps I followed seemed to correspond to the advice from the search until the 'download' button was clicked and to my horror a page popped up saying I had visited an infected page and needed to do a virus scan.

Long story short: I now have a very annoying random pop-up in the top right of my screen which takes various forms. Regardless of the actual pop-up if I click on the pop-up a purported Macafee web page appears inviting me to do a scan. Other than that, as far as I can ascertain there is no other effect though something could be going on in the background.

So, does anyone know how to rid my iMac running Sonoma 14.0 of this annoyance? Oh, and please don't suggest installing Macafee!!!
Cheers
Chris

 

[Raz0rEdge]

What browser are you using? You'll want to delete any extensions that you didn't install, clear all cache and data. Then definitely install an ad-block if you don't have installed.

 

[Smudger]

What browser are you using? You'll want to delete any extensions that you didn't install, clear all cache and data. Then definitely install an ad-block if you don't have installed.

Hi Ashwin

I'm using Safari 17.0

However I have managed to stop this annoyance by clearing all the entries in Safari Settings -> Websites -> Notifications.

Thanks for responding.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Excellent. And definitely install an ad-block extension if you aren't using one already, this will prevent this kind of thing in the future.

 

[IWT]

Oh, and please don't suggest installing Macafee!!!

Never, ever install that. It's for PCs and will only slow down and generally mess with your Mac.

I'm truly glad that you seem to be at the end of your problems.

Ian

 

[Randy B. Singer]

So, does anyone know how to rid my iMac running Sonoma 14.0 of this annoyance?

You aren't actually "infected" with anything. You are seeing an abusive notification, that you almost certainly (but probably unknowingly) agreed to be sent to you when visiting a Web site. These have become common lately. They are easy to deal with.

You can fix it (and keep it from happening again) simply by turning off notifications in Safari:

In Safari —> Safari menu —> Preferences (or settings) --> Websites tab --> Notifications (in left column) —> deselect “Allow websites to ask for permission to send notifications”

For more info:
https://tidbits.com/2023/06/26/how-to-identify-and-eliminate-abusive-web-notifications/

https://www.macworld.com/article/2110589/block-unwanted-website-notifications-mac.html