'Your Mac OS X is infected (4) by viruses' scam - How to remove

‘Your Mac OS X is infected (4) by viruses’ pop-up can appear any time you are browsing online. This scary message opens up after you click on some link and reports that there are 4 viruses on your Mac caused by irresponsible behavior when visiting risky websites, and that you need to start removal processes immediately. If you decide to use the offered virus elimination, soon it becomes obvious that there were no viruses and this ‘Security Recommendations for Macs’ page was actually the dangerous one.

This new ‘Your Mac OS X is infected (4) by viruses’ scam seems to be unlike other Mac system targeting fraudulent pages, for example, Error # FXX000 Mac, ‘MAC OS is infected with Spyware’, “Call Apple Support”, which tend to share similar designs and approaches, therefore, supposedly this fresh one may take more unaware users by surprise and successfully infect their systems with products that pay for their proliferation. This simple, but pretty powerful type of malware is definitely something to look out for on the internet because it can surprise you at any time and the outcome will depend on whether you recognize it or not. This article will help you understand what makes ‘Your Mac OS X is infected (4) by viruses’ a scam, its potential consequences and what to do if you actually fall for it. 

Is ‘Your Mac OS X is infected (4) by viruses’ pop-up a scam

The most important question, that bothers all users who end up seeing ‘Your Mac OS X is infected (4) by viruses’ pop-up, is if these messages are true or are they fraudulent? To make a long story short, yes, they are part of a scam, which aims to make you install some unwanted programs, that way actually infecting your virus-free Mac. Typically these scams not only generate messages about your system being compromised, but they also portray a fake scanning process which looks exactly like some antivirus engine, making it more believable, however, ‘Your Mac OS X is infected (4) by viruses’ flimflam is rather new and has enough socially engineering tricks which fool users. 

Although a more trained eye can tell right away that ‘Your Mac OS X is infected (4) by viruses’ is a scam by the used URL address (which is not part of real apple domain), the fact that the browser seems to know about your system’s condition (search providers don’t have the authorization, nor ability to scan the whole computer) and grammar mistakes, yet the displayed messages and background does seem to be carefully selected to impersonate real Apple’s reports. The first pop-up that ‘Your Mac OS X is infected (4) by viruses’ scam  victim’s end up seeing:

ATTENTION!

Your Mac OS X is infected (4) by viruses and Your system is damaged.
You must clean the system from viruses, as quick as possible!

Do not ignore this warning!

This illiterate message tries to convince users by stealing the Your Mac Is Infected With 3 Viruses! technique and scaring them into following further instructions on how to remove all the reported viruses. Once they click ‘Ok’, this new pop-up on the same page appears, stating:

Security Recommendation for Macs

Consider running a virus scan on your Mac.
Your system may be vulnerable after you visit risky websites.

Make sure that your sensitive data isn’t exposed:

1. Secure your credit card details and banking information.
2. Protect your email password and other account passwords.
3. Safeguard your Facebook, Skype, AIM, and other chat logs.
4. Keep safe your private photos, family photos, and other files.
5. Ensure your webcam can’t be accessed remotely.

We highly recommend using Mac security utility to detect and remove malware, adware, viruses, and suspicious apps.

How to Remove:

Step 1: Click the button below to download and install App.
Step 2: Run App and remove all potential viruses immediately.

Start Now

As nice as it is for this website to take care of you and your safety, these are just false concerns which create the bond of trust, later increasing chances of you downloading the offered third-party software. Our researchers reported that, after clicking the final ‘Start Now’ action button on the ‘Your Mac OS X is infected (4) by viruses’ scam, there were several outcomes, either getting redirected to upd.support domain, which seemed rather empty but still asking to show notifications, then to MacKeepers installation site (which is advertised as a program that helps you get rid of the viruses, but actually is harmful itself) and also to various excessive pop-ups.

This may not sound dangerous for you, yet ‘Your Mac OS X is infected (4) by viruses’ scam can really bring on a lot of negative results that are honestly harmful to your Mac, that is why the only solution you have is to either avoid it or get a reputable antivirus.

Why are you seeing ‘Your Mac OS X is infected (4) by viruses’ scam

As we figured, ‘Your Mac OS X is infected (4) by viruses’ pop-up is just a scam and has nothing to do with real Mac’s security, but then why does it appear out of nowhere? This bogus webpage has several domains that allow it to spread on the World Wide Web. The scam itself stays the same, but the URL address is different, which helps to avoid antivirus detection and distribute traffic and sponsored links better. Our researchers ended up seeing ‘Your Mac OS X is infected (4) by viruses’ pop-up when visiting mac.upd.support link, but there are other subdomains like apple.upd.support, message-center.upd.support, win.upd.support and etc. that may show you the same message.

Later, as Similarweb.com analysis disclosed, users ended up on the above-mentioned ‘Your Mac OS X is infected (4) by viruses’ scam proliferating pages after being redirected from various shady links or ads, that came from MGID, Clickbooth, PopCash advertising networks. While online distribution plays a very important role in increasing ‘Your Mac OS X is infected (4) by viruses’ scam popularity, sometimes such continuous pop-ups can indicate a pre-existing adware infection, which you haven’t been aware of. 

What to do if ‘Your Mac OS X is infected (4) by viruses’ scam pops up

When ‘Your Mac OS X is infected (4) by viruses’ scam shows up on your screen and begins terrorizing you into installing some app, it is very important not to do so, and exit the browser, later avoiding the websites that caused the scam pop-up in the first place. On the other hand, if you did fall for this fake message at the moment you probably are dealing with a variety of computer viruses or unwanted programs, which need to be removed from the system altogether. While manual elimination is possible, if you know what threats are exactly inside your computer, by following their specific removal instructions, we still highly suggest you using Combo Cleaner anti-spyware tool, which will be able to detect and delete all the harmful files that were brought by ‘Your Mac OS X is infected (4) by viruses’ scam.