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dadders6

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 15, 2019
57
3
Dallas
Just a warning to all. I'm on Catalina, I was looking up FM radio antennas. I went to a supposedly 'review' site, something like "The 9 best FM antennas". Once on that site, I clicked on 'check on Amazon' and immediately started getting numerous Popups about "Warning" Infected, etc". I freaked out and did a restart, but it came back again. I then did full power off / on, that seemed to do it. Been using Mac for years, this is the first time ever, so very unsettling. Before the attack started, I took a quick partial screen shot, because "Bingfu" sounds funny. Be careful if looking for FM antennas! I'm afraid to even type in those search words, so I can't tell you the exact site name. I decided to purchase malware protection, even though most forums say Mac doesn't need it.
 

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chabig

macrumors G4
Sep 6, 2002
11,282
8,985
You were not attacked. Some code just put up a window to scare you into either 1) falling for a scam, or 2) rushing to buy “protection”, which you did. So in the end, you fell for the scam because you were induced to take unnecessary action. In the future, just ignore those silly windows and laugh at them for not fooling you. 😊
 

Alpha Centauri

macrumors 65816
Oct 13, 2020
1,252
987
Not a Virus, just Scareware at best. By powering off it likely flushed the Browsers cache and the code with it.
 
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mkelly

Cancelled
Nov 29, 2007
207
218
Yup, you were duped. You did not experience a virus or malware. You experienced a web page that was configured to pop open many windows quickly, each of which designed to make you think that your computer was "infected". Many times they try to then sell you either malware protection software or "virus cleaning services" - each of which can be an additional scam. Unfortunately this is a common practice and is quite lucrative for the scammers as it's easy to prey on people's fears.

You mention that you purchased "malware protection" - from where? Hopefully you didn't buy it by following any of the links on the pop-up windows you encountered.
 
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Princess Cake

macrumors 6502
Jan 15, 2010
327
256
Cheboygan, MI
I went to the same site you did (Searched for your "The 9 best FM antennas" page on Google) and I was taken to a site called Radio Fidelity. I clicked on the "Check Amazon" link and I got no issues. I'm running the uBlock Origin pop-up blocker on Firefox so you might wanna start looking into getting a good one for whatever browser you use.
 

Alpha Centauri

macrumors 65816
Oct 13, 2020
1,252
987
I went to the same site you did (Searched for your "The 9 best FM antennas" page on Google) and I was taken to a site called Radio Fidelity. I clicked on the "Check Amazon" link and I got no issues. I'm running the uBlock Origin pop-up blocker on Firefox so you might wanna start looking into getting a good one for whatever browser you use.
I'm struggling too. FF with U Block, Privacy Badger, other stuff too. Perhaps it's been removed?
 
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dadders6

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 15, 2019
57
3
Dallas
Yup, you were duped. You did not experience a virus or malware. You experienced a web page that was configured to pop open many windows quickly, each of which designed to make you think that your computer was "infected". Many times they try to then sell you either malware protection software or "virus cleaning services" - each of which can be an additional scam. Unfortunately this is a common practice and is quite lucrative for the scammers as it's easy to prey on people's fears.

You mention that you purchased "malware protection" - from where? Hopefully you didn't buy it by following any of the links on the pop-up windows you encountered.
No. I've been using the free Malwarebytes for years, on various computers, Windows and Mac, so I decided to throw em a bone, don't mind paying a small fee. When it expires in a year, I won't re-up.
 
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