“Your Mac Might Be Infected” Scam Message Removal

George Herman

IT Security Expert

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What is “Your Mac Might Be Infected”

The “Your Mac Might Be Infected” pop-up is not a message you can trust. This fake alert will try to make you believe that your mac might be infected, so it can trick you into installing unreliable software like Advanced Mac Cleaner. Once installed, this rogue application will display other fake messages, so you can purchase its full version and expose your personal data. That being said, you should not trust the “Your Mac Might Be Infected”, as it is a scam pop-up, designed to make users install various junk apps, which can harm their Mac and jeopardize their private information.

How it is distributed

The thing is, this message has appeared on your screen for a reason. You’ve either visited a shady website, or have unwanted software installed on your PC without your knowledge. If it’s the latter, chances are you’ve unknowingly installed an additional program, which was ‘bundled’ with the software you actually wanted to install on your computer. To make sure such thing doesn’t happen, you need to always choose the Custom / Advanced option in the installer, and opt out of any applications marked as ‘optional‘ or ‘additional‘. If you don’t do that, any bonus content you failed to notice will just get installed by default.

How it operates

As we already explained, the “Your Mac Might Be Infected” message aims to make you install harmful software on your Mac, such as Advanced Mac Cleaner. But, the unwanted application which brought you the scam message may take other malicious actions. For example, it may monitor your online activity and change your browser settings, so it can display the pop-up uninterrupted. If you’ve fallen into its trap, you’ve probably been prompted to scan your computer with the rogue program Advanced Mac Cleaner. It will show you that various threats have been detected on your Mac, and that you need to buy the full version of the software, in order to get rid of them. The end goal is to obtain your personal details like credit card numbers, bank account credentials, name, GPS coordinates, etc. The program itself is useless and can only harm your computer, so you should remove it entirely from your PC, along with the PUA (Potentially Unwanted Application) which brought the scam message in the first place. Continue reading this article to find out how to thoroughly get rid of the malicious software that has been pestering your Mac.

Staying safe from “Your Mac Might Be Infected”

Apart from having a reliable AV software installed on your Mac, there are other things you can do to ensure your device’s safety. We highly recommend you to:

• Pay close attention when you install third-party software, especially torrent files, so you don’t install shady additional applications that you don’t want. In most cases, that’s how malicious parasites are able to infect your computer;
• Read any Terms and Conditions you see, so you know exactly what you agree to. The last thing you want is to unknowingly give permission to a nasty virus to infiltrate your Mac;
• Follow links that lead to trustworthy sites only;
• It is best to visit only reliable and official websites. You never know what dangers might lurk behind an unfamiliar site;
• No matter how attractive an ad is, if you are not familiar with the website it redirects to, it might be best to steer clear of it and not click;
• Always check the sender’s email address before opening a message. If it states that it’s from an official company, compare the email with the one given in their official page. If there is no match, delete the message, since it most likely is fake and has malicious aims;
• Don’t open email attachments from unknown senders. More often than not, such files carry infections that can seriously damage your computer.

How to manually remove “Your Mac Might Be Infected” from Mac

If you’ve had the misfortune of getting your Mac infected with the “Your Mac Might Be Infected” scam message, the instructions below can help you to remove it manually. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Go to Utilities. You can do that by using the ⇧+⌘+U key combination, or by going to Finder and choosing Utilities from the Go main menu at the top.

2. Find Activity Monitor and double-click it.

3. A list will be displayed. Find any processes that seem suspicious to you and use the ‘Force Quit‘ option to quit them completely.

4. Open Finder. Click on the Go button from the main menu at the top, and choose Applications. An alternative way is to use the ⇧+⌘+A key combination.

5. Look for any suspicious applications, especially ones with a name similar to “Your Mac Might Be Infected”. If any are found, right-click on them and select the ‘Move to Trash‘ option.

6. Remove any related left-over files by going to Finder‘s search bar and typing the name of the app you want to remove. Make sure to modify the two drop down menus above to ‘System Files‘ and ‘Are Included‘, so that any hidden files are visible for you to remove. Once you find the files you want to remove, simply drag them to Trash.

7. All that’s left for you to do is remove any related extensions to “Your Mac Might Be Infected” from your Mac browsers.

For Mozilla Firefox extensions:

• Open the Firefox browser and from the ‘burger’ menu in the top right corner of the window select ‘Add-ons’.
• Select any suspicious extensions that may be related to the virus and click ‘Remove’.

For Google Chrome extensions:

• Open the Chrome browser and select Tools > Extensions from the menu (the three dots in the top right corner of the browser window).
• Locate any suspicious extensions that may be related to the virus and remove them.

For Safari extensions:

• Open the Safari browser. From the Safari menu choose Preferences. Select Extensions from the options at the top.
• Find any extensions you think are related to the virus, select them and click ‘Uninstall’. A new window will show up asking for confirmation. Click Uninstall again, for the extension to get deleted permanently from your browser.