Virus voice alert?

[reneb54]

Last night I turned in my MacBook Air, and when it was opened, a voice said, “Your MAC is infected with a virus. You need to take immediate action to prevent permanent damage to your system.” This isn’t verbatim, but it is what the message said. I have never, ever heard a message like that on my computer. It was a man’s voice. I decided to install the updated Catalina software and then after I rebooted, no more strange voice. Has anybody else experienced something like this? I have read through the forums and have seen people get pop-up messages, but this was an actual person’s voice giving me that virus message. (I do not own an Alexa-type device.) Needless to say, it was rather disturbing. Has anyone ever had this happen?

 

[Weaselboy]

Your Mac would not natively do that. It sounds like you were on some web site that did that. Try quitting Safari then hold the shift key when you relaunch it and it will stop it from being redirected to that web site.

As long as you did not enter your password allowing the installing of anything, you will be fine.

 

[reneb54]

Your Mac would not natively do that. It sounds like you were on some web site that did that. Try quitting Safari then hold the shift key when you relaunch it and it will stop it from being redirected to that web site.

As long as you did not enter your password allowing the installing of anything, you will be fine.

I was using Chrome.

 

[Weaselboy]

I was using Chrome.

I believe Chrome works the same... quit Chrome then hold shift and launch.

 

[reneb54]

The weird thing is, that this happened as soon as I open the Mac and wasn’t running any programs. I have never, ever in my life experienced a voice warning me about a virus and I’ve been using Apple computers for well over 20 years. It was very strange. I was relieved when it didn’t come back after I installed the new software, but I’m still baffled as to why it happened in the first place. I do believe whatever it is, is a scam and I’m not concerned about it I am just still confused how it was able to do that in the first place when I had just turned it on. This isn’t the first time strange things have happened with my electronics, i.e. voices and sounds that shouldn’t have been there. It’s kind of spooky. Lol

 

[IowaLynn]

Adware malware. Likely sleeping for days. They don’t want it to be obvious how or where and when. Another reason to block ads. And to avoid Chrome.

for peace of mind Malwarebytes is reputable program. Catalina has broken support for antivirus and firewall products (Avast, Intigo, maybe others). Usually AV is more a source of trouble and of little use. But I would not be without AdGuard. As for Chrome, beware of extensions.