I have just been made aware of a variant version of the MacDefender scam. Technically this is not a virus but rather a malware program operating a classic phishing scam. “Malware” just means that it is a bad program doing something you don’t want it to do and “phishing” just means that what they are trying to do is harvest your personal information like your credit card number, email address, social security number, etc.

In this scam you are directed to a website in your Safari web browser that is designed to look like a Finder window. In front of that fake Finder window they present you with a pop-up window saying:

Apple security alert
To help protect your computer, Apple Web Security
have detected Trojans and ready to remove them.

Spyware is a type of malware that can be installed
on computers, and which collects small pieces of
information about users without their knowledge.

There are two buttons “Cancel” and “Remove all”. Below the pop-up window in large type it says:

Apple security center.

Of course this is not a real Finder window on your computer and of course there is no such thing as the “Apple security center” and you do not have any Trojans on your computer. This is just a graphic made to look like it is doing a virus scan of your Mac but in truth is doing nothing except generating the pop up window and asking you to download their malicious program (malware).

If this comes up on your screen do not click the “Remove all” button because you will be prompted to install software on your computer claiming to “fix” the problem but which will actually ask you for your credit card information so they can run up their own purchases on your card. The program will also act like a virus (but isn’t) and automatically open pornographic websites on your computer screen.

Remember, do not click the “Remove all” button, simply force quit Safari. You can do this by going to the Apple menu, clicking on Force Quit, then clicking on Safari and clicking the Force Quit button. You can then reopen Safari and just be mindful to not click on any links talking about viruses, trojans, malware or spyware in the future.

If you did install the software you can follow the instructions here to remove it: http://geeksofgotham.com/2011/05/10/macdefender-scam/