Fake Warnings - Apple Security Alert - How to remove

“Apple Security Alert” are warnings about your Mac being infected with viruses and trojans. These warnings are fake. They seek to scare you into buying expensive bogus tech support and letting scammers access your Mac.

The “Apple Security Alert” pages are designed to look just like Support.apple.com, but don’t worry – the sites are unrelated to Apple.

The fake alerts say that errors and viruses were found on your Mac, that your data is being stolen, that access to your Mac is blocked. They say that the only way to solve this is to call a phone number given by “Apple Security Alert”.

However, the phone number leads to scammers. Do not call it. Just close the “Apple Security Alert” page and forget about it.

The fake alert may be stubborn and difficult to close. Luckily, there are a few ways to close persistent web pages.

About “Apple Security Alert” pop-ups:

Threat type	Scam, phishing.
How the scam works	It’s a webpage displayed as a pop-up a, it is designed to look like a security warning from Apple, it offers a fake support phone number that leads to a scam call center.
Dangers posed by “Apple Security Alert”	Stolen money and personal information, malware installed on the the computer.
How to avoid “Apple Security Alert” and other scams	Block ads and malicious websites, use anti-malware apps (such as Spyhunter for Mac, Combo Cleaner, Malwarebytes, others) to protect your Mac, configure your security and other settings to avoid notification hijackers, unknown software, etc.

How the “Apple Security Alert” scam works

“Apple Security Alert” tries to scare people

Fake alerts on fake Apple sites

The fake warning “Apple Security Alert” is shown by malicious sites. These sites are designed to resemble Support.apple.com, as you can see in the illustration below. The sites also show boxes with titles like “Apple Platform Security” and “macOS Security” in the foreground.

According to “Apple Security Alert”, access to your computer has been blocked, it has “Trojan Spyware” on it, your information (such as passwords) was stolen, and to fix all this you must call a phone number that supposedly belongs to Apple Support. (It does not – the phone number leads to scammers, fake tech support staff who try to convince every caller to give access to their computer.)

In addition, the “Apple Security Alert” page shows a fake antivirus scan. It supposedly discovered something called “Trojan Spyware” or “Ads.financetrack(1).exe” on your Mac (Exe viruses on Macs, suuure).

Not the first fake alerts

There’s a very similar tech support scam that targets Windows users. Looks like the scammers just made “Apple Security Alert” without bothering to change some details.

And there’s another scam that targets Mac users that looks like a diet version of “Apple Security Alert”. It seems like scammers keep adding details to make the fake alerts more and more overwhelming.

“Apple Security Alert” can be overwhelming

The point of the “Apple Security Alert” scam is to terrify people. To scare them so much that they feel like they have to follow the instructions of the fake alert.

For this reason, “Apple Security Alert” impersonates Apple and hijacks your screen:

• It steals Apple’s name, logo, the appearance of macOS windows to make itself look credible.
• It expands to full screen and hijacks the mouse cursor. This makes it harder to close the “Apple Security Alert” window.
• It also plays an audio track of a voice reading out the same warning. This makes the whole event extra distressing.

Overall, being confronted with “Apple Security Alert” is a very uncomfortable, overwhelming experience.

“Apple Security Alert” wants your money

The “Apple Security Alert” scam threatens that your information is being stolen and that your personal computer is blocked. It says that the only way to fix it is by calling the phone number that it provides.

And who answers the phone? Scam tech support staff. They then ask the caller to give them remote access to their Mac to “solve” the problem.

If you let the scammers access your Mac, they show some fake error messages and logs. Then they pretend to remove infections. Afterward, they ask to be paid for their “services”. Sometimes, the price is more than two hundred dollars.

If you refuse to pay, the scammers might install spyware or do something worse.

It’s not just your money that’s in danger, but also your personal information. The scammers are dangerous.

How to avoid tech support scams like “Apple Security Alert”

Avoid malicious ads

“Apple Security Alert” spreads via malicious ads. These show up on controversial websites, such as torrenting sites and free movie streaming sites. In addition, “Apple Security Alert” pop-ups might appear on small forums and old blogs. Malicious actors infect vulnerable websites with malicious code that causes malicious redirects. The administrators of infected sites don’t even know that the visitors of their site are being shown malicious ads.

You can use an ad blocker to remove ads. Malicious site blockers help, too. Some anti-malware programs can block suspicious websites for you.

And when you encounter “Apple Security Alert” or another fake warning, it’s important to know how to close it so that you’re not stuck with this pop-up hijacking your screen.

How to remove malware

Check your Mac for infections with anti-malware apps like Spyhunter for Mac, Combo Cleaner, Malwarebytes, and others. Manually review your apps and see what was installed recently.

If there’s an adware infection that’s causing malicious ads to open, then anti-malware apps can tell you.

If the scammers behind “Apple Security Alert” got you to install remote access software or other apps, then anti-malware tools might flag them, too.

If you contacted the scammers responsible for the “Apple Security Alert” ads, if you paid them, then you might need to contact your bank, tell them what happened and ask them to stop the transaction. You might also want to report the scam (How to Spot, Avoid and Report Tech Support Scams).

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