Fake Mac Software Update - How to remove

Fake Software Update for Mac is a scam propagated by a few malicious websites. Ads, redirects, and pop-ups open a page where a fake Mac OS system window is telling you to download System updates. The pop-up looks realistic, but is really just an element on the malicious website. Interacting with the fake Software Update site downloads a malicious file that can infect your Mac with adware and other malware.

Fake Software Update pop-ups are malicious and should be ignored:

Type of threat	Scam, trojan, adware.
Dangers of installing Fake Software Update	Malware and adware is installed, your computer has more problems going forward, for example, spyware is downloaded.
Distribution of the malicious page	Ads on online streaming sites, ads by browser hijackers, redirects by malicious sites.
How to remove the malware	Delete malicious files, scan your Mac with anti-malware tools (like Combo Cleaner).

What is Fake Software Update

Fake software updates are common

Often after getting their Mac infected, people wonder how they downloaded malware. Sometimes they claim that they didn’t download or install anything at all…except for updating their software. With all the fake software updates that scammers are pushing nowadays, it’s not surprising that some users download malware without realizing it.

It’s routine for many of us to just agree to download an update. After all, it’s important for security to install and use the latest software available. And scammers know this, which is why they create software update prompts as fronts for malware.

Fake Software Update is a scam, similar to the multitude of fake Flash Player updates, and fake Chrome and Firefox updates.

What Fake Mac Software Update looks like

When you end up on Fake Software Update’s page, you see a Mac OS pop-up window with this text:

New updates are available
Downloading new updates…

Updating takes a few seconds and no restart is needed after the installation.

You’re shown a small window that looks like a Mac OS system pop-up. It’s titled “Software update” and has the System Preferences logo, gears. It looks quite similar to the official one, seen on this Apple Support page. You can drag this window around just like you could a real one.

However, it is fake. It’s cerated using web tools and is just an element on the malicious site. If you minimize your browser, the pop-up disappears. Do not trust software updates like this. Many of them are well-crafted and look realistic, but just the fact that these warnings appear unprompted in your browser is suspicious. Normally, operating system updates are found using your system settings and not on some random website.

How it spreads

The Fake Software Update sites are opened in your browser by malware (like FocusProvide and similar hijackers), advertised on free streaming and similar sites, and redirected to by infected websites.

This particular Fake Software Update is present on theworldofcontents.info, thespaceofpages.info, thebestpreparedossites.info, thebestfreesiteforcontents.info, and some other addresses. These aren’t the only ones, and new addresses will probably be created in the future.

Fake Software Update is meant to distribute malicious files and this (VirusTotal link) is the one that I got. As you can see, it’s detected as adware that bundles malware. It’s called FPlayer.zip, probably for Flash Player, even though a Mac OS system update was being faked in this case.

How to deal with Fake Software Update for Mac

To deal with the Fake Software Update trojan, you’ll need to do a few things:

• Delete or quarantine the file that infected your Mac in the first place. Make sure you don’t run it again.
• Use an anti-malware program (such as Combo Cleaner) to find and remove malware. Alternatively, remove malicious files manually by finding and deleting them.
• Consider blocking malicious sites (you can do that with an antivirus program or an ad-blocker) or quitting dangerous websites (ones with lots of redirects and pop-up ads).
• Review the extensions installed in your browser and remove the ones that are suspicious. Extensions can mess with your browser, for example, change your search engine (often to Yahoo.com), add ads to all webpages, and even read your passwords.

There’s no guaranteed way to avoid these Fake Software Update pop-ups. They can appear regardless of whether you have the latest Mac OS or Flash Player updates installed. Even if you don’t have Flash Player at all, you can still see the scam sites using its name just because it’s familiar. The best thing to do with these sites is to just ignore these sites. Close the browser tab and forget it.

Although Fake Software Update may be fake, real updates are important and useful. They can help you avoid malware, as developers of mainstream operating systems work had to squash bugs and to tighten security.

Automatic Malware removal tools

How to remove Fake Mac Software Update from Safari:Top

Remove malicious extensions

• Click on Safari menu on the top left corner of the screen. Select Preferences.
  
• Select Extensions and uninstall Fake Mac Software Update and other suspicious extensions.
  
• If your homepage was changed, click on Safari menu on the top left corner of the screen. Select Preferences and choose General tab. Enter preferable URL to the homepage field.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings(older versions) If you are still experiencing any issues related to System Spot, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on Safari menu on the top left corner of the screen. Select Reset Safari…
  
• Select which options you want to reset (usually all of them come preselected) and click on the Reset button.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

TopHow to remove Fake Mac Software Update from Google Chrome on Mac:

• Open Chrome browser.
• Enter in the url field “chrome://extensions” address and hit Enter.
• Find Fake Mac Software Update on the extensions list and click on the recycle bin icon next to it.
• Click on 'Chrome' button at the top left corner. Select 'Preferences' on a drop-down menu box.
• Find 'Search' options on Settings tab. If your search engine is changed, click 'Manage Search Engines' and set your preferred search engine.
• On the same page find 'Show home button' checkbox and change your homepage.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to System Spot, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• On the 'Preferences' menu window, scroll down to the bottom and find 'Reset settings' button. Click it.
• Confirm your selection and click 'Reset' on the following window.

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program. Top

How To remove Fake Mac Software Update from Firefox on Mac OS:

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla window and select the “Add-ons” icon (Or press cmd+Shift+A on your keyboard).
• Go through Extensions list, remove everything Fake Mac Software Update related and items you do not recognise. If you do not know the extension and it is not made by Mozilla, Google, Microsoft, Oracle or Adobe then you probably do not need it.
• Enter “about:preferences” in URL bar and hit enter.
• Open Search settings tab.
• If your search engine is changed, click 'Default Search Engines' and set your preferred search engine.
• If your homepage was changed, click on the Firefox menu in the top right corner, select Preferences-> General. Enter a preferable URL to the home page field.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to Fake Mac Software Update, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla Firefox window. Click on the Help button.
• Choose Troubleshooting Information on the Help menu.
• Click on the Refresh Firefox button.
• Click on the Refresh Firefox button on the confirmation box. Mozilla Firefox will close and change the settings to default.

If the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program to identify malicious entries.