Weird things happening

[CyberGranny]

I click on a link in an email and my browser often takes me to an ad for How to Repair my Mac and asks if I want to download a Mac OS X repair tool. McAfee has their logo on the page. I downloaded an app called Adware Medic because of all the other ads. That didn't help. I guess I've been hijacked by some sort of malware. What do I do now? TIA

 

[pigoo3]

The first thing to do is practice "safe-computing"...which means don't click on links in emails that you are not familiar with.

As far as a solution try clearing the browser cache (assuming you are using Safari):

- Safari drop down menu
- Preferences
- Advanced tab
- click the box at the bottom of the window marked "Show Develop menu in menu bar"
- go to the menu bar & click on "Develop"
- select "Empty Caches"

Hope this helps,

- Nick

 

[gsahli]

I guess I've been hijacked by some sort of malware. What do I do now? TIA

Get this:
AdwareMedic

 

[Slydude]

CyberGranny has already done that (see the initial post)

@CyberGranny How are Nick and I going to be seen as knights in shining armor if damsels in distress keep rescuing themselves?

 

[pigoo3]

...How are Nick and I going to be seen as knights in shining armor if damsels in distress keep rescuing themselves?

I think that my armor is getting a little rusty. I think that I need to shine it up a bit!

- Nick

 

[MacInWin]

CyberGranny, you can also look at AdBlock+ and Ghostery to block unwanted ads and trackers.

 

[CyberGranny]

Thanks

Adware Medic didn't solve all of the problems so I will try the other recommendations. As for preventative recommendations, I've been using Macs since 1984, probably before some of you were even born. I know how to be safe but might be getting a little careless in my old age.

 

[MacInWin]

Adware Medic didn't solve all of the problems so I will try the other recommendations. As for preventative recommendations, I've been using Macs since 1984, probably before some of you were even born. I know how to be safe but might be getting a little careless in my old age.

A throw down! Wrong thing, CyberGranny! I built my first computer in the 1970's from components. The first "store bought" was a TRS-80 Model I in 1979, which I then modded to add upper and lower case letters, a board to let it boot CP/M and an expansion interface to crank the memory from 16K to 64K (48K in CP/M). I'm relatively new to Macs, just 8 years, but I've been around the block a couple of times. I've run DOS, PC-DOS, CP/M, Fedora, RedHat, SUSE, Ubuntu, and a couple of other variants of Unix/Linux, now OS X. I was in networking with BitNet (before the Internet), ran a bulletin board (8 telephone lines in--the police thought I was a bookie, seriously!). Programmed in Assembler, Fortran, COBOL, Basic, Pascal and Ada. And I'm not the oldest here, I'm only 69.

 

[MacInWin]

On the continuing problem, have you looked to see if any unwanted or unknown add-ins have been jacked into your browser? If it's Safari, then Preferences, Extensions, look for anything you don't recognize.