Macassists.co Fake Apple Support - How to remove

Macassists.co is a fake Apple Support site and it uses the +1-855-231-4555 phone number. You may see this site after a pop-up on your Mac tells you that your computer is infected. Macassists.co is no connected with Apple and is made by scammers to force people to pay them money.

Macassists.co is a scam site, be careful of it:

Type of threat	Scam.
Dangers of Macassists.co	Malware installed, money paid for fake support, personal detailed exposed to criminals.
Causes of the pop-ups	Ads on unsafe websites, ads posted by an adware infection.
Deal with Macassists.co	Remove all malware from your computer (you can use an antivirus program – Combo Cleaner, others), block malicious URLs, if you contacted the Macassists.co scammers, remove their software and block them from accessing your credit card.

Macassists.co is part of a scam

Macassists.co is presented as the real Apple Support. There’s no doubt about that. The title of the page is “Official Apple Support” and the page layout looks exactly like Support.apple.com – from 2017. However, at the very bottom of Macassists.co, there is a disclaimer that reveals it as just a third-party website:

…Apples Support is an independent software technical support service provider for a large variety of third party products, brands and services.

It’s worth noting that +1-855-231-4555, the phone number used by Macassists.co, was also used for a fake Kaspersky support site (now taken down). So it’s not just Apple Support being impersonated by scammers.

If you fall for Macassists.co’s lies, if you use the chat or the phone number provided there, you’ll be connected to a person who will try to:

• convince you that Macassists.co represents the real Apple Support,
• get you to install remote access software on your Mac and give them access to it,
• get you to buy Mac optimizers and other worthless software,
• get your online payment details and sign you up for recurring payments for “technical support”.

Macassists.co is very much like Aplecomsupport.com, Applesupportofficial.com, and the “Call Apple Support” site: fake support there to rob as many people as possible before their site is taken down.

Causes of Macassists.co redirects

People who have dealt with Macassists.co say that they were redirected there by a pop-up. This pop-up says that your Mac is infected by viruses and that if you ignore it, your files will be gone, your data – stolen. These pop-ups can be caused by an adware infection or just by some bad ads on shady websites.

So, is your Mac actually infected with adware? This can be revealed by your symptoms. If adware is the cause, then:

• pop-ups to Macassists.co are frequent and recurring,
• the pop-ups appear on any website and even on your desktop,
• something may be wrong with your web search or your browser’s new tab page – it may be changed or reload at random,
• you may see more ads than normal online.

Adware is annoying and causes security issues, so if you have it, make sure to get rid of it.

But Macassists.co may also appear after just clicking on bad ads or visiting infected websites. If so, your computer might be totally clean. But if you encounter dangerous websites, consider using an ad-blocker or, better, an anti-malware product with real-time web security (since some advertising companies can get around ad-blockers).

How to deal with Macassists.co

To avoid Macassists.co and similar sites, it’s advisable to use an anti-malware web-protection feature. Even if a site isn’t yet blacklisted, those programs let you easily add a URL to block.

If you have adware causing Macassists.co pop-ups, it could be caused by a bad browser extension or a malicious application. The easiest way to find the problem is by scanning your device with an antivirus tool, such as Combo Cleaner.

If you contacted the scammers and gave them access to your Mac, uninstall whatever they got you to install. Worst case, you may need to restore your Mac from a Time Machine Backup.

If you gave your credit card number to the people behind Macassists.co, watch your account. You could contact them to ask them to take you out of whatever they signed you up for, but that might be dangerous (they could get even more of your personal data) and fruitless. Consider telling your bank about what happened – be honest with them. Don’t let the scammers take your money.

Finally, don’t listen to online alerts and pop-ups that say that your Mac has a bunch of viruses. Apple Support (the real one) says it pretty well when they advise that if, while browsing, you see an alert about your Mac being infected, you ignore it – close the browser tab and forget about it.

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