What is the “Your Account Has Been Locked” scam? How does “Your Account Has Been Locked” scam work? How to remove “Your Account Has Been Locked” scam from your Mac?
A new scam message likely caused by a virus on your mac has been reported by many users. The scam’s primary purpose. The main idea of this scam is to get you to type in your login credentials for your Apple account, which is basically a phishing attack. Usually phishing pages can appear on your computer due to several different reasons, one of them being either adware ot other forms of malware that may have corrupted your Mac.
Threat Summary
| Name | |
| Type | Virus for Mac OS |
| Short Description | A phishing page likely caused by a browser redirect due to adware or a Trojan on your computer. |
| Symptoms | Aims to display a fake Mac virus message. The primary idea of this message is to convince victims to enter their username and password. |
| Distribution Method | Via various different types of viruses or adware. |
| Detection Tool | See If Your System Has Been Affected by malware Download Combo Cleaner | User Experience | Join Our Forum to Discuss . |
Mac Virus – How Did I Get It and What Does It Do?
The primary idea of the Mac Virus is to convince victims to enter their information. To do this, it causes a browser redirection, whose main goal is to show the following message:
Text from image:
You account has been locked
It look like your account is outdate and request to update account
ownership information, so we can protect your account and im prove our
service to maintenance your privacy. To countinue using your account
again, we advice you to update the information before 24 hours or your
account will be permanently locked.
Account Venfication
Please verify your account as soon as possible follow intruction to
confirm your identity. Our team will disable your account in 24 hours.
Information Expired Account
Dear.
Your account has expired and we temporarily blocked your account.
To reopen your account and use it, renew identity to update your account,
click the https: app e d apple.co:r and follow the instruction.
We wait 3 days, if you do not respond, we will lock your account for the
next 2 years, renew your account. For Apple ID to be update to make your
account more Secure
Apple Support
This web page may have come to either one of the web browsers on your Mac and its main goal is to get you to click the “Account Verification” button. It may ask you to type in not only your username and password, but also other personal information as well, like your credit card details, for example.
Seeing this page, likely means that you may have an unwanted program installed on your Mac. Such unwanted software often finds its way on your computer by either being added to the installers of other programs or by being advertised as a legitimate program open for free download.
Once you download such unwanted program on your computer, the “Your Account Has Been Locked” redirects may not be your only program. The app may also show other ads such as:
- Pop-ups.
- Browser redirections.
- Banners.
- Highlighted text ads.
If you see redirects coming from “Your Account Has Been Locked” it I imperative that you know that this program is unwanted on your computer. It may not only show phishing pages, like “Your Account Has Been Locked”, but may also lead you via redirects to sites that are malicious and may infect your computer with malware.
Remove Your Account Has Been Locked Mac Virus
To remove Your Account Has Been Locked scam, you should eliminate the software that is causing it to appear. This way you will be able to get rid of the redirects on your browser without them coming back. There are two solutions to this – manual and automatic. If you know how to remove Your Account Has Been Locked manually and you have identified the program by yourself, then you can use the step by step manual underneath. However, If you want to remove Your Account Has Been Locked automatically and you feel unsure that you have fully removed it, we strongly advise you to download and run a scan using an advanced malware removal software. It will make sure to detect and remove all files created by Your Account Has Been Locked virus and stop such redirects in the future as well.
Ventsislav Krastev
Ventsislav is a cybersecurity expert at SensorsTechForum since 2015. He has been researching, covering, helping victims with the latest malware infections plus testing and reviewing software and the newest tech developments. Having graduated Marketing as well, Ventsislav also has passion for learning new shifts and innovations in cybersecurity that become game changers. After studying Value Chain Management, Network Administration and Computer Administration of System Applications, he found his true calling within the cybersecrurity industry and is a strong believer in the education of every user towards online safety and security.
Follow Me:
Preparation Phase:
Before starting to follow the steps below, be advised that you should first do the following preparations:
- Backup your files in case the worst happens.
- Make sure to have a device with these instructions on standy.
- Arm yourself with patience.
Step 1: Uninstall and remove related files and objects
1. Hit the ⇧+⌘+U keys to open Utilities. Another way is to click on “Go” and then click “Utilities”, like the image below shows:
- Go to Finder.
- In the search bar type the name of the app that you want to remove.
- Above the search bar change the two drop down menus to “System Files” and “Are Included” so that you can see all of the files associated with the application you want to remove. Bear in mind that some of the files may not be related to the app so be very careful which files you delete.
- If all of the files are related, hold the ⌘+A buttons to select them and then drive them to “Trash”.
In case you cannot remove via Step 1 above:
In case you cannot find the virus files and objects in your Applications or other places we have shown above, you can manually look for them in the Libraries of your Mac. But before doing this, please read the disclaimer below:
You can repeat the same procedure with the following other Library directories:
→ ~/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchDaemons
Tip: ~ is there on purpose, because it leads to more LaunchAgents.
Step 2: Remove – related extensions from Safari / Chrome / Firefox
Remove an extension from Safari and reset it.
Remove a toolbar from Google Chrome
Remove a toolbar from Mozilla Firefox
Step 3: Scan for and remove files from your Mac
When you are facing problems on your Mac as a result of unwanted scripts and programs such as , the recommended way of eliminating the threat is by using an anti-malware program. SpyHunter for Mac offers advanced security features along with other modules that will improve your Mac’s security and protect it in the future.
