Being a professional IT person, my clients run into all sorts of problems, including hacking attempts and phishing scams. But one recurring and frequent complaint I get is due to phishing popup messages when using Apple’s Safari browser. The messages often claim to be from Apple and typically warn of dire things about to unfold unless the client calls the provided phone number. Neither Apple, nor any software company, will ever ask for you to call them. Nor will they ever call you out-of-the-blue to warn about your machine being hacked. It doesn’t surprise me that bad actors have exploited Safari’s Notification feature that was meant to be useful by allowing responsible websites to issue notification messages, such as new mail waiting when using webmail. Unfortuntely, this Safari feature is enabled by default, at this time. So beware. If you are unsure how to use this feature safely, it’s best to disable it and delete any websites in the list that have already been granted or denyed permission to issue notifications. The following screenshot of Safari’s Preferences>Websites shows what needs to be done to prevent Safari unwittingly allowing phishing messages. Safe browsing!