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How do I stop McAfee pop ups and how do I stop the "take over" of my mouse while hearing a warning my computer has been compromised?

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Anonymous
2023-06-20T15:16:04+00:00

I'm using Windows 11 and whether I'm in a document or reading a news article, the McAfee popup keeps appearing - sometimes within seconds of clicking on it and then using the X. Then I get "security warnings" that tell me to not turn off my computer, but to call a toll free number. It all appears to be a hoax. McAfee said the one purporting to be from them is a hoax. They took control of my computer and said they deleted the offending popup. It still pops up.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Security and privacy

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  1. Rob Koch 25,875 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2023-06-22T04:09:06+00:00

    Patti,

    As you can see from the popup you've received and the response you've gotten, determining whether a message displayed in a popup is truly from McAfee (or any other security app like Microsoft's own Windows Defender for example) is often quite difficult.

    However, there are often subtle clues that most people miss and in fact McAfee themselves have tried to aid in making this clear via the following page on their own Customer Service Knowledge Base site.

    McAfee KB - Your browser displays fake McAfee notifications (TS102999)

    In your case, the popup you've received provides nothing specific to a portion of McAfee and instead simply appears to be a generic malvertisement, probably driven from whatever website you happened to be browsing, typically pushed through a redirection from one of the ads displayed along the bottom of the page (note the 'ad' tag visible at the very bottom of the one in the middle).

    Since there's not only no specific instruction related to a McAfee component, but also no copyright notice, there's nothing claiming it's truly from McAfee, just the easily abused graphic that appears to be the McAfee logo, which anyone could easily copy and paste into their own advertisement.

    So in this case, I suspect the popup is fake and thus the best option to try first is to simply close the popup itself by either pressing Alt-F4 or if that doesn't work, try opening Task Manager (right-click the taskbar or press Ctrl-Alt-Del keys together), then in the first 'Processes' tab, select the Microsoft Edge or other browser you're using and click the End task button (or right-click menu selection).

    Rob

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-06-22T02:37:15+00:00

    Hello Patti Fisher

    This appears to be an advertisement being pushed to you by McAfee, assuming you have tried the tool in my first reply to uninstall McAfee and ensure that the PC is free of this software.

    It is likely that McAfee has hijacked your PC by unknown means and is constantly pushing ads, and you should try to sue the software as they are likely to have been embedded in your PC and are difficult to find and remove.

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-09-18T01:13:15+00:00

    It's a fake ad. Don't respond and close and delete it

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-06-21T15:02:26+00:00

    Hold down Windows+R > type control.exe > find Programs and Features > check this list to see if McAfee is still present on your computer.

    If you don't have this program, please share the popup you see. One possibility is that it's not necessarily McAfee, it could be an ad for website browsing, or a Trojan horse or virus hijacking the device.

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