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While visiting a site a page popped up in another tab purporting to be from Mozilla warning me of possible viruses, etc, asking me to download a file to protect my computer- I did not- it was a .exe file and I use a Mac- legit or likely a scam?

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  • Nuɖoɖo mlɔetɔ TonyE

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I've never seen this before. At first I thought it was a page warning of site security- it was the same dark red background. Then it did a "scan" and came up with several viruses and trojans and suggested that I download a file to clean the browser. Since the file was .exe I became suspicious and canceled as I use a Mac and, as far as I know, we don't use .exe files. The information on the page showed it to be from Mozilla. Looked convincing but I'm awfully suspicious and I closed the tab as fast as I could. What do others think?

I've never seen this before. At first I thought it was a page warning of site security- it was the same dark red background. Then it did a "scan" and came up with several viruses and trojans and suggested that I download a file to clean the browser. Since the file was .exe I became suspicious and canceled as I use a Mac and, as far as I know, we don't use .exe files. The information on the page showed it to be from Mozilla. Looked convincing but I'm awfully suspicious and I closed the tab as fast as I could. What do others think?

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It will not be legit.

There is a Firefox security alert that warns you if you are visiting a site that has been identified as a web forgery or hosting malicious software. The genuine security alert does not perform a scan and you will also not be asked to download any software by the genuine Firefox alert.

The bogus alert that you came across is intended to dupe people into installing malicious software.