Scary

[Ferretfancy]

Like most people I'm plagued from time to time by silent phone calls or ladies with Indian accents trying to convince me that they represent HSBC or whatever. It's easy enough to put the phone down.

However, on two occasions recently I've had a very scary experience while on line with my iMac. I was idly surfing the internet with a few searches when a deafening voice cut in in a penetrating American accent. I was warned that I was being damaged by a virus and literally commanded to call what they said was an Apple number to be given a code which would put things right.
So far so ignorable, but my desktop was frozen. I normally keep the machine in sleep mode when it's not in use, but I was unable to make that work,I simply got an error message to the effect that Safari would not permit it.The same thing happened using shut down. It worked alright but when I switched back on the frozen page was still there.

In the end I shut down by removing the mains plug, this did the trick and I was able to reboot without any more problems.

I have very few personal details on my iMac, no online banking or anything of that sort,and I cannot detect any problems.

I suppose I don't expect viruses on Mac, they are supposed to be more dodgy on PCs, but this was a nasty experience, horror stories from others on these boards would be interesting.

[french frank]

Not an explanation, but was it similar to this?

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7216289?start=0&tstart=0

[Serial_Apologist]

Precisely what Ferret describes happened to me a year or so ago on the computer I had preceding this one - which was not an iMac. The experience left me shaking and feeling not a little nauseous. I phoned my computer techie; he advised me to do as Ferret did, and paid me a visit a couple of days later. The two comprehensive system scans he did revealed no virus, fortunately, though he added one or two new firewall devices, and no further problems ensued.

Slightly off-topic, two days ago I was trawling through responses to a friend's Facebook correspondings, one of which presented a link as a response which, when clicked on, sent my computer into a sort of brainstorm, with the picture going haywire and leaving me no alternative but to unplug as the shut down was not operative. Luckily it switched back on normally, and I was able to click away the page in question, located at the far right hand end of the top bar on the screen, without any difficulty. Phew!!!

[Ferretfancy]

Not an explanation, but was it similar to this?

https://discussions.apple.com/thread...art=0&tstart=0

Yes, indeed it was! The text was a bit different but the message was nearly identical. Obviously if I had made the call they would have got me somehow.

All is well, thanks for the link.

[Petrushka]

Anyone experienced Ransomware? I had a very nasty experience on my previous laptop a few years ago when browsing the internet (on here I think), the screen suddenly froze and up popped the Cheshire Police Ransomware message (aka the UKASH scam) saying I'd been found looking at child pornography and a payment of £100 would unlock my computer and the matter would go no further.

It was obviously fake as I'd done nothing of the kind and knew that no UK police force would approach you in this way but, believe me, this was very, very scary. It could have been even scarier because with laptops that have cameras (mine didn't) you get to see your own room behind you on screen as the virus takes over your computer. I managed to remove it eventually but my laptop was toast and I had to get rid of it as it never worked properly again. You think this sort of thing can only happen when looking at dodgy websites but apparently not.

My own 'computer doctor' recommended Bullguard for security and while it doesn't come cheap I've never had a problem of any kind (frantically touches wood) in the three years since.