You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Scam - Fake Settings Icon

Hi, can someone please tell me how I remove the Fake settings app under notifications.

It has the settings Icon that Says "Confirm you are a Robot" the only way to stop notifications is to turn them off. It comes from a different scam website each time so its a lot of work to go into the safari website settings. I can't see an application that looks suspicious. I have an antivirus app and it is saying there is no malicious malware on my computer.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 13.4

Posted on Jul 3, 2023 2:10 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 3, 2023 6:54 AM

Hello EmilyCowper,


If you're getting these on Safari, the best way to deal with them is just not allowing websites in Safari to use notifications.


  1. Open Safari
  2. Open Safari's Settings
  3. Click Websites


Either set the options individually per website, as I did with Apple Newsroom (Deny), or toggle off the button at the bottom that says Allow websites to ask for permission to send notifications. If this is not checked, no website will be able to ask to send you notifications (denying by default). Any website above that you have set to Allow or Ask will continue to send you notifications.



As for that annoying fake Settings app, I'm not entirely sure🤔 I'd imagine it's in your Applications folder maybe?


  1. Open Finder
  2. Click Applications in the Sidebar
  3. Anything suspicious / you don't recognize in there?


Additionally:

  1. Open Finder
  2. Click Go in the Menu Bar
  3. Click Go to Folder...
  4. Enter `~`
  5. Click Applications and check here as well.


There are other places we can look as well, but this is where I'd start!


I would also do the following:


  1. Open Settings
  2. Click Privacy & Security


Go through the options here and make sure there is no suspicious/unknown apps requesting access to macOS features you don't know about. I would be worried/concerned with:


  1. Camera
  2. Microphone
  3. Screen Recording
  4. Input Monitoring
  5. Location Services
  6. Files and Folders
  7. Full Disk Access
    1. Nothing should ever have this!!


Just an fyi, your Mac doesn't seen anti-virus software! It is very secure on its own. I would advise staying away from unknown websites and clicking on links/attachments from unknown senders.


If the above doesn't work, please let me know and we can look into other file locations!

4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 3, 2023 6:54 AM in response to EmilyCowper

Hello EmilyCowper,


If you're getting these on Safari, the best way to deal with them is just not allowing websites in Safari to use notifications.


  1. Open Safari
  2. Open Safari's Settings
  3. Click Websites


Either set the options individually per website, as I did with Apple Newsroom (Deny), or toggle off the button at the bottom that says Allow websites to ask for permission to send notifications. If this is not checked, no website will be able to ask to send you notifications (denying by default). Any website above that you have set to Allow or Ask will continue to send you notifications.



As for that annoying fake Settings app, I'm not entirely sure🤔 I'd imagine it's in your Applications folder maybe?


  1. Open Finder
  2. Click Applications in the Sidebar
  3. Anything suspicious / you don't recognize in there?


Additionally:

  1. Open Finder
  2. Click Go in the Menu Bar
  3. Click Go to Folder...
  4. Enter `~`
  5. Click Applications and check here as well.


There are other places we can look as well, but this is where I'd start!


I would also do the following:


  1. Open Settings
  2. Click Privacy & Security


Go through the options here and make sure there is no suspicious/unknown apps requesting access to macOS features you don't know about. I would be worried/concerned with:


  1. Camera
  2. Microphone
  3. Screen Recording
  4. Input Monitoring
  5. Location Services
  6. Files and Folders
  7. Full Disk Access
    1. Nothing should ever have this!!


Just an fyi, your Mac doesn't seen anti-virus software! It is very secure on its own. I would advise staying away from unknown websites and clicking on links/attachments from unknown senders.


If the above doesn't work, please let me know and we can look into other file locations!

Jul 3, 2023 6:54 AM in response to EmilyCowper

Just to clarify, once you remove all websites from Safari's Settings > Websites > Notifications list, that should fix the problem.


Years ago, all Safari notifications displayed with a Safari logo. But at some point recently, Apple made an "improvement" and started displaying notifications with the icon of the website they come from. Obviously, the scam websites then changed their web site icon to be the system "gear" icon to better fool people.


Other than Safari's settings, I don't recommend making any other changes. You probably don't have any malicious software installed. If you make any other changes to System Settings, you are more likely to break something that you need.

Scam - Fake Settings Icon

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.