Safari blocked

[Chippygeoff]

I had a really wierd experience yesterday. I was on my iMac and had safari up looking for carpet tiles. It was about the sixth site that I clicked on when all of a sudden the screen changed and it was filled with a police web site, and then a box came up stating that I had been caught and all my files had been encrypted. It then accused me of downloading illegal content such as music, films and more unpleasant things. I could not get rid of it. I tried everything I knew. I e-mailed a very good friend and he came up with the solution and once again I can use safari.

I feel this was a scam as it was headed metropolitan police serious crime unit and then below that it said, issued by Cheshire police. I don't know if anyone else has experienced this but it was quite scary at first. I was under the impression that iMacs were immune to viruses and scams but my friend said not any more.

 

[Hivenhoe]

Not immune but less of a target. Get some av s/w asap

 

[SteveF]

Hope u not got cryptolocker

i didn't think it could attack a mac

can u access your files still?

Steve

 

[petermillard]

Haven't come across anything like this personally, though my son occasionally gets onto sites (looking for live football streams usually) that throw up all kinds of additional windows behind the main one, that are hard to get rid of; more likely to be a 'phishing' type scam than a virus, I think.

...I e-mailed a very good friend and he came up with the solution and once again I can use safari.

And were you planning to share the solution, or just keep it to yourself

Cheers, Pete

 

[SteveF]

if it was cryptolocker..u was very lucky

it sounds like it

We had to wipe a customer server and start again..they wouldn't pay the ransom, and it was due a cleanup tbh

luckily we had a full back up

Steve

 

[wizard]

Yes i have just had that one this week. Just pay the £100.00 pounds and it will be ok, or restart your computer and it will go away.

 

[Preston]

It's happened to me quite a few times, I didn’t think it was anything to worry about.
All I do when this happens is press Ctrl- Alt- Del all together (three finger salute} click task manager click on the running up, in your case Safari and click end task. Job done

 

[SammyQ]

Blokes, this is a scam wot's been round the park a few times. Basically, it's aggressive marketing, aggressive as in Genghis Kahn aggressive. I am led to believe by techie friends that it (strictly speaking) isn't point-blank illegal or is so close to legal that it would be difficult to prosecute!

Whatever, it's extortion. Pay up or else. Kray Brothers hospitality. So Wizard? What in pluperfect Hell are you saying? "Pay £100"? Not on your nelly.

It also does not just "go away" , you have to excise the software from your machine. Malaware Bytes on a USB pen and Safe Mode is the first line of defence.

These coniving, duplicitous, underhand, criminally-inclined, steal-your-eye-out, come-back-to-spit-in-the-socket, pieces of bipedal pondlife need ratted out, identified and (if there was a proper justice system) a truely meaningful physical punishment applied. Unfortunately, the anti-Darwinists are still in power.

Sam

 

[wizard]

Its someone having a laugh! Nobody is daft enough to pay the £100.00

 

[Chippygeoff]

Thanks guys for all your replies. Yes, I could still access all my other programs without any problems and even use the e-mail. There was a link on the page where I could have paid a fee to unblock safari which was one of the things that led me to believe it was a scam. I shut down the iMac and when I re-booted I held down the shift key. When everything appeared on screen I went to safari and clicked on restart safari and bobs your uncle, everything back to normal and no sign of the previous scam.

Is there any free anti virus software out there suitable for an iMac. Thanks again guys.

 

[AES]

@SammyQ:

QUOTE: These coniving, duplicitous, underhand, criminally-inclined, steal-your-eye-out, come-back-to-spit-in-the-socket, pieces of bipedal pondlife need ratted out, identified and (if there was a proper justice system) a truely meaningful physical punishment applied. Unfortunately, the anti-Darwinists are still in power. UNQUOTE:

If you don't like these people Sammy you really should say it clearly, as if you mean it - :lol:

Happy New Year

AES

 

[wizard]

Chippygeoff keep away from the porn sites and you will be ok :lol:

 

[SteveF]

If u had important files

would you then pay the £100 ?

read last paragraph

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/secur ... c/?olo=rss

 

[RogerP]

If u had important files
would you then pay the £100 ?

Even the real "ransomware" is defeated by having a proper backup schedule.

Worrying to see the crooks are now targeting Apple more, wonder how long it will be before they have a go at the OS I use, Linux? It is supposed to be very robust against attacks - but who knows for sure.

 

[RogerS]

Here we go again.

1) That website page is a scam. It has done nothing to your Mac or its files.

2) Sometimes it is clever enough to lock up your browser. But on a Mac a simple Force Quit kills the browser and you can simply restart it ....but don't ask it to Restore pages if prompted.

3) So maybe a tad less of the paranoia guys....maybe..Macs have very very very very very very few viruses and those have long been patched out with Apple OS security updates.

And before Bugbear starts jumping up and down, yes, I do happen to run Sophos. It has never thrown up so much as a wobbler.

 

[SammyQ]

AES?

I was unlucky enough to encounter one of these on our PC. That'll teach me for trying out RAR files of (allegedly) a rather nice woodie mag I wanted, unobtainable from the publisher. The blankety blank thing was very stubborn to get around - Gates' powered machines are much more susceptible than Jobs' powered ones. What REALLY got to me though was my son had also months of problems with his laptop as he tried to complete his Chemistry degree. He had innocently (gormlessly?) clicked on a link to software he thought could help with 3D molecular depictions and this Kray-ware promptly disabled his laptop.

All his work for his course had was on that hard drive.

I cannot fathom, nor appreciate, nor empathise with, the inbred, psychologically impaired, sadistic turdweevils who spawn these programs 'because they can'. If this is the only way they can aspire to what they mistakenly view as social credit, I repeat: the Anti-Darwinists are running the show.

Sam

 

[Jonzjob]

Geof, I have sent you a PM..

 

[AES]

@SammyQ:

Sorry if my attempt at "humour" didn't come off.

Having had experience of one bad virus once on my own (business) machine (it was my own fault because I opened an attach file "from" FedEx - though in my own defence it did look exactly like a FedEx E-mail and at the time I WAS expecting a FedEx shipment - but I digress), having had a very bad experience I agree with you 110% about the "people" who generate all this upset with our computers - it seems sometimes they do it "just for fun", not "even" for financial gain.

Anyway ....

It was just that the long list of the "personal attributes" of these people that you posted back there actually struck me as being amusing as well as eminently justified. So my response was an attempt at a bit of tongue in cheek humour. Sorry if it was not clear - it was in no way meant as a criticsm of you or anyone else complaining of viruses, Mac or PC user.

Krgds
AES

 

[Robbo3]

I had a really wierd experience yesterday. I was on my iMac and had safari up looking for carpet tiles. It was about the sixth site that I clicked on when all of a sudden the screen changed and it was filled with a police web site, and then a box came up stating that I had been caught and all my files had been encrypted. It then accused me of downloading illegal content such as music, films and more unpleasant things. I could not get rid of it. I tried everything I knew. I e-mailed a very good friend and he came up with the solution and once again I can use safari.

I feel this was a scam as it was headed metropolitan police serious crime unit and then below that it said, issued by Cheshire police. I don't know if anyone else has experienced this but it was quite scary at first. I was under the impression that iMacs were immune to viruses and scams but my friend said not any more.

Sounds very much like the Windows Ukash virus,
- http://malwaretips.com/blogs/remove-police-virus/

Don't know anything about Macs but I reckon you had a lucky escape.
I've cleaned this nasty from three youngsters laptops . Seems to be picked up by clicking on links or sharing the infected file in chat rooms.

 

[RogerS]

I had a really wierd experience yesterday. I was on my iMac and had safari up looking for carpet tiles. It was about the sixth site that I clicked on when all of a sudden the screen changed and it was filled with a police web site, and then a box came up stating that I had been caught and all my files had been encrypted. It then accused me of downloading illegal content such as music, films and more unpleasant things. I could not get rid of it. I tried everything I knew. I e-mailed a very good friend and he came up with the solution and once again I can use safari.

I feel this was a scam as it was headed metropolitan police serious crime unit and then below that it said, issued by Cheshire police. I don't know if anyone else has experienced this but it was quite scary at first. I was under the impression that iMacs were immune to viruses and scams but my friend said not any more.

Sounds very much like the Windows Ukash virus,
- http://malwaretips.com/blogs/remove-police-virus/

Don't know anything about Macs but I reckon you had a lucky escape.
I've cleaned this nasty from three youngsters laptops . Seems to be picked up by clicking on links or sharing the infected file in chat rooms.

The only lucky escape he had was that he wasn't running a PC.