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How do I stop unwanted notifications from "update-macos.com" fake site on my MacBook?

I keep receiving pop-up messages from a site called update-macos.com telling me a have certain viruses. Presumably this is a fake site?


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 14.3

Posted on Feb 3, 2024 8:09 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 5, 2024 9:44 AM

Hi VikingOSX,

I think I may have misread yours and others advice. I eventually managed to stop the pop-ups by going into Safari Settings -> Websites -> Notifications (in the LH panel of the dialogue window) and there was 'updates-macos.com' on the list shown as being allowed to show alerts. I highlighted the website and clicked 'Deny' and then later removed it for good measure.

Thank you all for your help. :-)

24 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 5, 2024 9:44 AM in response to chdsl

Hi VikingOSX,

I think I may have misread yours and others advice. I eventually managed to stop the pop-ups by going into Safari Settings -> Websites -> Notifications (in the LH panel of the dialogue window) and there was 'updates-macos.com' on the list shown as being allowed to show alerts. I highlighted the website and clicked 'Deny' and then later removed it for good measure.

Thank you all for your help. :-)

Feb 3, 2024 8:15 AM in response to Ferret51

It is a complete scam. If in Safari, visit the Settings : Advanced panel and select Show features for web developers. That will add a Develop menu bar item. It also allows you to clear Safari cache and cookies via option+cmd+E.


Quit Safari, then holding the shift key, launch Safari again. Press option+cmd+E, and then from the Safari application menu, select Clear History… All History and click Clear History. Quit Safari. All history, cookies, and cache are empty.


Now launch Safari normally and don't visit the web site that popped that scam notice about viruses on your Mac.

Apr 2, 2024 4:07 PM in response to Ferret51

I removed updates-mac.com from my System notifications and I went to Safari and did the same. Every time I open Safari, it returns to the list of notifications. I have run a virus scan with no results. I am not sure where this came from, but something is allowing it to reload to Safari notifications after it gets deleted.

May 26, 2024 8:58 AM in response to Gibbo58

Hi Gibbo58

I'm actually not sure why I said that, but also try VikingOSX's suggestion:


"It is a complete scam. If in Safari, visit the Settings : Advanced panel and select Show features for web developers. That will add a Develop menu bar item. It also allows you to clear Safari cache and cookies via option+cmd+E.


Quit Safari, then holding the shift key, launch Safari again. Press option+cmd+E, and then from the Safari application menu, select Clear History… All History and click Clear History. Quit Safari. All history, cookies, and cache are empty.


Now launch Safari normally and don't visit the web site that popped that scam notice about viruses on your Mac."

Mar 19, 2024 4:24 PM in response to lorruss

lorruss wrote:

how do you highlight and remove it?


Here is how to Stop unwanted Notifications - Apple Community


When you get to the display being discussed, tap on the entry, and disable or remove it.


You might only see an icon on the left end of line, and no text in the middle, and a “deny” control on the right. Tap on that line, and select deny, or remove the entry.


Jul 14, 2024 4:30 PM in response to DennisWalsh

DennisWalsh wrote:

updates from update-macos.com


Hello, and welcome to the thread!


Somewhere along the path you were offered, and accepted notifications. You now no longer wish to receive those notifications.


Here is how to remove those unwanted notifications, and also how to prevent future requests for permission to send those:



Apr 2, 2024 6:13 PM in response to Mactoyz

Please download and run (free) EtreCheck, and share the results to the clipboard. Then open a new reply here, and press the Additional Text button that looks like a printed page, and paste and post the hardware and software configuration report here. From the, we can get a little more detail about what is installed and what is running here.

How do I stop unwanted notifications from "update-macos.com" fake site on my MacBook?

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