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Virus Malware Email Spam?

J

Jay Kayess

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 18, 2009
17
0
Oregon Coast
When my email stopped working today I called the provider who said they were having difficulties with their server & were "manually pushing thru emails" .... He said they had about 1/2 Million emails backed up & didn't know when they would get things going.

A couple minutes later he called back & said, actually, the problem with my account is that they had disabled it because someone had been sending spam using my name. I asked him how that could be & he said someone might have a way to get my administrative password for email.

He then told me I should install an antivirus/malware program. I told him I believed I didn't need one because I have a Mac. He said all computers should have them & that I should change my passwords on sensitive accounts just to be sure whoever was using my email didn't have access to my other passwords.

He said there could be keyloggers (sp?) that are able to view what I am typing. Is this so? If I don't have an antivirus installed presently, how am I able to check anything? What action would you suggest I take? I'm a relatively inexperienced user who visits few websites and sends/receives few emails. Am I in jeopardy? :confused:
 
oldhifi

oldhifi

macrumors 65816
Jan 12, 2013
1,494
748
USA
download> Clamxav

it free and works great, but change all your passwords

and always use Safari
 
GGJstudios

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
Jay Kayess said:
He then told me I should install an antivirus/malware program. I told him I believed I didn't need one because I have a Mac. He said all computers should have them
Click to expand...
He was wrong. Your email account can be hacked even if you don't own a computer. Having your email hacked or spoofed has nothing to do with malware. Change your email passwords (and any other critical ones) to something long and complex, using special characters, numbers and upper and lower case letters.

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 10 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.

oldhifi said:
and always use Safari
Click to expand...
You can safely use any web browser you choose. It doesn't have to be Safari.
 
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