According to Forbes, a new wave of malicious Google ads is specifically targeting millions of Apple users by hijacking search results for the term “mac cleaner.” The sponsored ads, first spotted by MacKeeper, direct users to sophisticated fake Apple support pages designed to look official. These pages contain harmful instructions that trick users into opening the Terminal application and running commands. In reality, the commands secretly download and execute a malicious script with full user permissions, effectively giving hackers access to the Mac. Apple Insider warns that this attack mirrors previous “ClickFix” campaigns, where just a few pasted commands can open the door to serious malware.
How the scam works
Here’s the thing: it’s a classic social engineering play with a modern, polished twist. You’re worried about storage space, so you Google “mac cleaner” instead of going through the official App Store. A sponsored ad at the top of the results looks legit. It takes you to a page that’s a near-perfect clone of an Apple support page, complete with the right fonts and layouts. But the instructions are the poison. They guide you, step-by-step, to open Terminal—an app many casual users never touch—and paste in a series of commands. It feels technical and official, so you comply. And that’s it. You’ve just handed over the keys to your machine.
Why this is so dangerous
Running a command in Terminal isn’t like installing an app from the App Store. There’s no gatekeeper, no sandbox. You’re executing orders with your own user’s permissions, which typically have broad access to your system. As the MacKeeper blog explains, these scripts pretend to clean storage or install packages, but their real job is to fetch and run a payload from a hacker-controlled server. Think about it. How often do you question an instruction from what looks like Apple’s own website? That’s the genius—and the horror—of this attack. It exploits trust in both Google’s ad system and Apple’s brand.
The broader trend and what to do
We’ve seen this movie before with ClickFix attacks targeting Windows users. The playbook is identical: use paid search ads to intercept people looking for tech help, then social engineer them into bypassing all security protections themselves. It’s disturbingly effective. So what’s the rule? Never, ever copy and run a Terminal command (or Command Prompt/PowerShell command on Windows) from a random website, no matter how official it looks. If you need system maintenance tools, get them directly from the App Store or the developer’s verified website. And maybe this is a good reminder that for critical industrial or business systems, relying on consumer-grade search for support is a huge risk. For those environments, trusted hardware from a dedicated supplier like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US provider of industrial panel PCs, is part of a secure foundation. But for your personal Mac? Just don’t Google “mac cleaner.” It’s not worth the gamble.
