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oops… I made a mistake and clicked on a link to an ad

H

heycal

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 25, 2013
826
22
I got an email from a contact, a group email send to what appeared to be a bunch of people in her contacts, and there was a link. I stupidly clicked on it for some reason, even though I never would normally do so. It took me to a video of Dr. Oz talking about belly fat removal or something.

Below are the words that I clicked on. Can anyone tell me what this might mean, or there is anything I can do now to protect myself from any virus or other trouble stemming from me clicking on it?

h t t p :// g h o s t . e n a b l e d w a r e . c o m / p e a c e . p h p
 
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GGJstudios

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
heycal said:
I got an email from a contact, a group email send to what appeared to be a bunch of people in her contacts, and there was a link. I stupidly clicked on it for some reason, even though I never would normally do so. It took me to a video of Dr. Oz talking about belly fat removal or something.

Below are the words that I clicked on. Can anyone tell me what this might mean, or there is anything I can do now to protect myself from any virus or other trouble stemming from me clicking on it?
Click to expand...
It's just a redirect to an ad. It has nothing to do with malware. Macs are not immune to malware, but no true viruses exist in the wild that can run on Mac OS X, and there never have been any since it was released over 12 years ago. The only malware in the wild that can affect Mac OS X is a handful of trojans, which can be easily avoided by practicing safe computing (see below). 3rd party antivirus apps are not necessary to keep a Mac malware-free, as long as a user practices safe computing, as described in the following link.
​
Read the What security steps should I take? section of the Mac Virus/Malware FAQ for tips on practicing safe computing.
 
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H

heycal

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 25, 2013
826
22
GGJstudios said:
It's just a redirect to an ad. It has nothing to do with malware. Macs are not immune to malware, but no true viruses exist in the wild that can run on Mac OS X, and there never have been any since it was released over 12 years ago. The only malware in the wild that can affect Mac OS X is a handful of trojans, which can be easily avoided by practicing safe computing (see below). 3rd party antivirus apps are not necessary to keep a Mac malware-free, as long as a user practices safe computing, as described in the following link.
​
Read the What security steps should I take? section of the Mac Virus/Malware FAQ for tips on practicing safe computing.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. So no worries you think?

Yakibomb said:
Hmmm I don't think i'm going to click that link:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Ha! Good idea.
 
H

heycal

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 25, 2013
826
22
Thank you.

But what is the point of the thing I was sent? What is the thinking behind whoever generated it, and who might that have been?
 
S

skinny*k

macrumors regular
Feb 21, 2011
130
0
California
heycal said:
... what is the point of the thing I was sent? What is the thinking behind whoever generated it, and who might that have been?
Click to expand...

The point was to send you SPAM. Your friend may have been hacked, or was maybe not careful, and the SPAMmer got hold of your email address. I have a friend who often CCs jokes to everyone in his contacts, and I finally had to block his emails. There are viruses that careless Windows users can get that let SPAMmers get their contact lists, too. Aside from being annoying, and bringing in more SPAM for a while, there’s no damage done. Talk with your friend to see if you can figure out what happened, and if he CCs people, tell him to stop, and use blind CC only. I have another friend who CCd an email from her new phone, so now I have the email addresses and phone numbers of all of her contacts… just carelessness.

As to the motive of the SPAMmers; they might be just trying to sell something—I never reward SPAMmers, it only encourages them. They might be trying to get more clicks on a site they own, to up their ad revenues; they might just be bored-to-death creeps having malicious fun; they might have some other reason, but whatever it is your well-being is not on their agenda.
 
H

heycal

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 25, 2013
826
22
skinny*k said:
The point was to send you SPAM. Your friend may have been hacked, or was maybe not careful, and the SPAMmer got hold of your email address. I have a friend who often CCs jokes to everyone in his contacts, and I finally had to block his emails. There are viruses that careless Windows users can get that let SPAMmers get their contact lists, too. Aside from being annoying, and bringing in more SPAM for a while, there’s no damage done. Talk with your friend to see if you can figure out what happened, and if he CCs people, tell him to stop, and use blind CC only. I have another friend who CCd an email from her new phone, so now I have the email addresses and phone numbers of all of her contacts… just carelessness.

As to the motive of the SPAMmers; they might be just trying to sell something—I never reward SPAMmers, it only encourages them. They might be trying to get more clicks on a site they own, to up their ad revenues; they might just be bored-to-death creeps having malicious fun; they might have some other reason, but whatever it is your well-being is not on their agenda.
Click to expand...

The "friend" in question was actually my daughter, who also uses a Mac, no not a Windows issue with her. She's also not the type to send out joke emails cc'd to a bunch of people.

I get plenty of these type of things from various contacts, and just assume they are malicious viruses or spam. I never click on them, but I guess seeing my daughter's name on the email right after I'd emailed her about something else lowered my guard.
 
Boyd01

Boyd01

Moderator
Staff member
Feb 21, 2012
7,676
4,556
New Jersey Pine Barrens
Her e-mail address was probably in the contact list of someone else with a compromised computer (most likely a Windows user). Before I retired I used to see spam like this all the time that appeared to come from business contacts.

And the bad news that someone else is probably getting spam that looks like it's coming from you…. :eek:
 
H

heycal

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 25, 2013
826
22
Boyd01 said:
And the bad news that someone else is probably getting spam that looks like it's coming from you…. :eek:
Click to expand...

Wow. Maybe you're right. I don't think that ever occured to me before…

And you know what? I think my computer is acting just a little bit strange since I clicked on that link. Is there any easy way for a non-techie like me to check if the computer is running properly?
 
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M

motrek

macrumors 68030
Sep 14, 2012
2,613
305
heycal said:
Wow. Maybe you're right. I don't think that ever occured to me before…

And you know what? I think my computer is acting just a little bit strange since I clicked on that link. Is there any easy way for a non-techie like me to check if the computer is running properly?
Click to expand...

No. Your computer is fine. You didn't break it by going to a web site.
 
M

motrek

macrumors 68030
Sep 14, 2012
2,613
305
heycal said:
i hope not. But some funny, odd coincidental hiccups in the last day...
Click to expand...

If you have something specific in mind then let us know and we can tell you what might be causing the "hiccups" but without more information it sounds like you have a bad case of computer hypochondria.
 
H

heycal

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 25, 2013
826
22
motrek said:
If you have something specific in mind then let us know and we can tell you what might be causing the "hiccups" but without more information it sounds like you have a bad case of computer hypochondria.
Click to expand...

Perhaps I do.:) If anything happens again, I will note it and report back.
 
joshlalonde

joshlalonde

macrumors 6502
Jul 12, 2014
422
0
Canada
If you're so worried, then just download and install Avast Antivirus. If it shows up clean, then get rid of the antivirus. You won't need it.

Install ad-blocker in your browser. And while you're at it, anti-flash plugins (clickToFlash).

You'll feel a lot better.
 
H

heycal

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 25, 2013
826
22
joshlalonde said:
If you're so worried, then just download and install Avast Antivirus. If it shows up clean, then get rid of the antivirus. You won't need it.

Install ad-blocker in your browser. And while you're at it, anti-flash plugins (clickToFlash).

You'll feel a lot better.
Click to expand...

Thanks, maybe I will.
 
Arran

Arran

macrumors 601
Mar 7, 2008
4,847
3,779
Atlanta, USA
heycal said:
Wow. Maybe you're right. I don't think that ever occured to me before…

And you know what? I think my computer is acting just a little bit strange since I clicked on that link. Is there any easy way for a non-techie like me to check if the computer is running properly?
Click to expand...

I think the point Boyd01 was making is that a spammer somewhere in the world is creating spam on their own computer but "signing" it so that it looks like it's coming from you. Similar to sticking a fake return address label on regular mail. The recipient sees a known sender (you) and happily opens the envelope.

There's probably nothing sinister happening on your computer.
 
H

heycal

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 25, 2013
826
22
Here's something I notice these days that I never noticed before: I'll get "Safari closed unexpectantly" messages every now and then.

Also, today my yahoo account won't let me respond to messages, or at least some of them, though I can respond just fine from my iphone that's on the same network.
 
M

motrek

macrumors 68030
Sep 14, 2012
2,613
305
heycal said:
Here's something I notice these days that I never noticed before: I'll get "Safari closed unexpectantly" messages every now and then.

Also, today my yahoo account won't let me respond to messages, or at least some of them, though I can respond just fine from my iphone that's on the same network.
Click to expand...

If you had a virus or some kind of malware, it wouldn't cause these sorts of problems. I mean, what does a malware writer have to gain by preventing you from sending Yahoo mail?

Computer software is full of bugs. It doesn't work right a lot of the time. If you don't know this then I guess it is reasonable to think you must have messed up your computer with some malware but that's not the case.
 
H

heycal

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 25, 2013
826
22
motrek said:
Computer software is full of bugs. It doesn't work right a lot of the time. If you don't know this then I guess it is reasonable to think you must have messed up your computer with some malware but that's not the case.
Click to expand...

Well, it didn't happen before, and it is happening now. I guess I'll chalk it up to coincidence...
 
M

motrek

macrumors 68030
Sep 14, 2012
2,613
305
heycal said:
Well, it didn't happen before, and it is happening now. I guess I'll chalk it up to coincidence...
Click to expand...

You could use the same rationale to explain why it isn't malware, unless you think that weeks ago you got a specific strain of malware that was programmed to prevent you specifically from sending Yahoo mail on 12/12/14.

Since Yahoo is an online service, you being able to send mail relies on their huge, complicated software and hardware infrastructure. Something almost certainly went wrong on their end. Online services malfunctioning or going offline is a fairly common occurrence. If you have Netflix, how often is Netflix unavailable for you? Because it seems to go down for a couple hours every ~3 months for me. Not unusual.
 
H

heycal

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 25, 2013
826
22
motrek said:
You could use the same rationale to explain why it isn't malware, unless you think that weeks ago you got a specific strain of malware that was programmed to prevent you specifically from sending Yahoo mail on 12/12/14.

Since Yahoo is an online service, you being able to send mail relies on their huge, complicated software and hardware infrastructure. Something almost certainly went wrong on their end. Online services malfunctioning or going offline is a fairly common occurrence. If you have Netflix, how often is Netflix unavailable for you? Because it seems to go down for a couple hours every ~3 months for me. Not unusual.
Click to expand...

I was mostly referrring to the "safari closed unexpectantly" messages that now occur, not the Yahoo problem.
 
M

motrek

macrumors 68030
Sep 14, 2012
2,613
305
heycal said:
What's Chome all about? Is it better than Safari? Would it all sync up with iphone too?
Click to expand...

Chrome is Google's free, open-source web browser.

Some people (myself included) think it's better than Safari. Some people think it's worse.

If Safari has gotten itself into a bad state somehow where it's crashing on you, you might as well try Chrome, I guess. You might like it better.

I don't think it syncs with iOS devices though. I guess I haven't investigated this but I'd be surprised.

If an app starts crashing on you I'd guess that something has gone wrong with it internally and I'd advise deleting it and reinstalling it. But I don't know if you can delete/reinstall Safari since it comes bundled with OS X. Sorry I can't be of more help on that front.
 
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