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Hotmail HiJack while on my Mac

P

purgpow

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 23, 2009
10
0
I had a problem tonight my Hotmail account got HiJacked while the Hotmail Account was open but the computer was at idle (i stepped away for a few hours). What happens is my hotmail account start Sending messages to people in my contact list, like 8 contacts at a time and seems like once a minute. When i come back to computer there are a bunch of returned message in my Inbox from old dead contacts, and my Sent folder shows all the sent activity. Once i sit back down and start working again. the spamming stops. I have had this happen to me a few month back, same thing I Let the computer go to idle with account open. It has never happened to me when i have been off line or on another machine. So i'm wondering if anyone else has had this problem and does my Mac have a Bug or Melware, and if so how do i get rid of it.

I have a Mac Pro 2009 running Snow leopard, Browser used was Safari

Thanks
 
Why don't you start by changing your hotmail and computer passwords into something stronger? And do that offline too. Check the activity monitor and user login items for suspicious software running. And invest in a firewall like Hands Off or Little Snitch.

There are some free antivirus software for the mac that you can download and have them do a check before deleting them if you no longer have use for them.
 
Last edited:
miles01110 said:
Little Snitch isn't helpful if they're using the Hotmail web interface, or if they don't know how to distinguish between a valid outgoing connection and an fishy one.
Click to expand...

That's to eliminate if the computer is hacked or if there is virus that is connecting. It might not be the case here, but it doesn't hurt being careful anyway.
 
lighthouse_man said:
Why don't you start by changing your hotmail and computer passwords into something stronger? And do that offline too. Check the activity monitor and user login items for suspicious software running. And invest in a firewall like Hands Off or Little Snitch.

There are some free antivirus software for the mac that you can download and have them do a check before deleting them if you no longer have use for them.
Click to expand...

i Have already switch the hotmail password and deleted all the Ghost contacts in the contact list.

Where do i find this activity monitor and user login items?

i'm just worried its something on my system .. all my other email account don't seem to have to problem Gmail accounts and event my other hotmail account.
 
purgpow said:
i Have already switch the hotmail password and deleted all the Ghost contacts in the contact list.

Where do i find this activity monitor and user login items?

i'm just worried its something on my system .. all my other email account don't seem to have to problem Gmail accounts and event my other hotmail account.
Click to expand...

Activity monitor is under the Utilities folder in the Applications folder. Just close all the programs because there are a lot of processes there to go through. Google a process if you don't know what it does, you'll encounter many. Most are essential for the system and have unfriendly names.

The login items is found int he System Preferences under the Accounts pane in your account.


And you're not alone it seems, check what other people say:
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=hotmail+spam+virus+mac&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
 
Thanks for the .. i'll start checking into the info you gave me.
 
purgpow said:
So i'm wondering if anyone else has had this problem and does my Mac have a Bug or Melware, and if so how do i get rid of it.
Click to expand...
No, your Mac doesn't have malware or a bug. You don't need to check Activity Monitor or Little Snitch or anything else on your Mac. Your email account was hacked, which has nothing to do with your computer at all. Change your passwords to make them complex, using upper and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters. No malware exists in the wild that would cause the symptoms you're having.

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 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 with some basic education, common sense and care in what software you install. Also, Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Lion have anti-malware protection built in, further reducing the need for 3rd party antivirus apps.

lighthouse_man said:
That's to eliminate if the computer is hacked or if there is virus that is connecting. It might not be the case here, but it doesn't hurt being careful anyway.
Click to expand...
There are no Mac OS X viruses in the wild. See above.
 
GGJstudios said:
There are no Mac OS X viruses in the wild. See above.
Click to expand...

I know, yet, there were a couple of security breaches last year, he could have one of the self installing malware we came across recently or something new that came off this week for all I know. People in general call them viruses too no matter how inexact it is.
 
lighthouse_man said:
I know, yet, there were a couple of security breaches last year, he could have one of the self installing malware we came across recently or something new that came off this week for all I know. People in general call them viruses too no matter how inexact it is.
Click to expand...
The most recent trojan is already blocked by the anti-malware detection in Snow Leopard, which the OP is running. As for other malware, there is no self-installing malware in the wild that runs on Mac OS X.
 
GGJstudios said:
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 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 with some basic education, common sense and care in what software you install. Also, Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Lion have anti-malware protection built in, further reducing the need for 3rd party antivirus apps.


There are no Mac OS X viruses in the wild. See above.
Click to expand...

i just worried about maybe i installed it by accident too.

So far it only happened when i had the account open on my Mac, it has never happened when i have been logged of my account and computer turned off. If it would happen when everything was shout down i would be on board 100% that it was a hacked account from out side my machine, but that hasn't happened yet.
the Account in Question is real old made back in 1996 and still had the same password ( i know stupid, i should have changed it years ago) so its changed now and i'm just going to hope that it. Maybe it was just dumb luck that i was on at the same time it happened both time.

But if i did install something through an app it there a way to check that stuff on a mac .. a Scanner?

Thanks for all the info and help full tips.
 
I was using free hotmail for years and I never had a problem with it until someone hijacked my account as well. I couldn't figure out how or why but I was getting complaints and I saw my outbox just flooding my address book with crap emails to everyone. Usually you just change the password and everything is OK.

Well not so in my case I changed my password and it happened again and again, so I contacted Microsoft and was promptly locked out of my hotmail account. I tried to get back into my hotmail account and followed all the steps on their help pages to have to call them on the phone.

When calling Microsoft I was directed to the tech desk, and when I didnt have a valid product key or anything saying I was a paying customer I was immediately transferred to some department that always asked me for my credit card number. Before we could proceed I was notified that I would be charged $100.00 for the session. So I said ,"No," and asked to be transferred to free tech support, so they just hung up on me each time.

Each time called and I told them hey its free hotmail and I just want to access my account, I was asked again and again,"How will you be paying for this?" Since then I've learned not to use hotmail for anything important.
 
+1 on being Hijacked. Gmail solved the problem. I kept my Hotmail account, but emptied my CONTACTS list. I never send mail through Hotmail.

Haven't had problems since. Oh, and I heartily agree on having a complex letter/numeral password.
 
Back Again

Ok its happened again and this time i left it long enough that Hotmail blocked my site and now i cant get in.

Yes i Have changed my password to something new and stronger. and it happened again. I did a test on both when running Windows from boot camp and when running from OSX. ANd this only happens on the mac OSX side not windows. So it's pointing that something nasty is on the Mac side.

This only happens when the Mac goes idle for 30mins or more, then it starts Spam from Hotmail account only. There was no Effect on my Gmail account.

Again this only happens when Hotmail account is open in safari, and the computer goes idle. THis doesn't happen when account is Closed and Computer goes to idle. And this doesn't happen on the Windows Side. Its not being Hacked off Site i'm sure its coming from this machine. Anyone Heard of this or a solution for this.

ANyone know of a way to get my account unblocked so i can get my stuff out, a good Hotmail contact number?

Help if you can please.

Thanks
 
My HM account was hijacked. My fault for responding to a phony email claiming to be from Hotmail. Requests for emergency money were mailed out to most people in my Contact list.

Hotmail is not very secure. Migrate over to Gmail and this won't happen to you again. You can see how Gmail aggressively pursues suspicious mail by the way it flags oddball senders. I can't believe how much junk mail I received daily on Hotmail.
 
garycurtis said:
My HM account was hijacked. My fault for responding to a phony email claiming to be from Hotmail. Requests for emergency money were mailed out to most people in my Contact list.

Hotmail is not very secure. Migrate over to Gmail and this won't happen to you again. You can see how Gmail aggressively pursues suspicious mail by the way it flags oddball senders. I can't believe how much junk mail I received daily on Hotmail.
Click to expand...

But my worry is there something on my mac causing this. Because it only happens on my mac and its only happens when i have hotmail account open and the computer goes idle. If i'm logged off the hotmail account none of this Spamming happens.

So it starting to point at the Mac having a bug / melware doing this.

If i was getting spamming problems from my account when i wasn't log into it then i would agree with most people that it got hiJacked. But it only happens on this mac and when the hotmail account is logged into using safari.
 
purgpow said:
But my worry is there something on my mac causing this. Because it only happens on my mac and its only happens when i have hotmail account open and the computer goes idle. If i'm logged off the hotmail account none of this Spamming happens.

So it starting to point at the Mac having a bug / melware doing this.

If i was getting spamming problems from my account when i wasn't log into it then i would agree with most people that it got hiJacked. But it only happens on this mac and when the hotmail account is logged into using safari.
Click to expand...

It's not your Mac. Stop using crappy e-mail services and this won't happen.
 
miles01110 said:
It's not your Mac. Stop using crappy e-mail services and this won't happen.
Click to expand...

i'm not saying its the mac out right just something i probably installed on it, i just want to track it down and remove it.

----------

I'm Starting to Suspect Aduim ... its has the account login info as well and every time this has happened it was running.

Anyone know of an Aduim problem with hotmailSpamming?
 
have had my hijacked once but changed password and all was fine after that

not sure if this will help, just a thought on it

load it up as you normally would
when you go away from computer disable WiFi so you have no network
after 30 mins check console, see if any errors reported for something trying to access out to network

also have you deleted all cache/cookies (including flash ones which are separate)
 
New Update about hot mail Spaming

Ok..

today i switched over to Gmail like a few have suggested i do. I used the Importer in Gmail to move my Contacts and emails over to gmail.

So i have being going through and cleaning out hotmail to limit any info for hackers and this happened....

I started Deleting Contacts and once i hit the confirm button Half went away but like 10 new contacts i don't know popped up some with half naked icons some with out. I selected like 30 contacts and hit delete they went away and like 10 more came back, But this time it was a mix of one i knew and ones i didn't. about after 5 times of selecting all the contacts and deleting them just to have some come back they are all gone now.

So now for the real Questions is this Melware / Virus thing on my mac or is it on the Hotmail server (maybe in one my contacts)?
And did i just import the Melware / virus to my new Gmail account?

Thanks for the Help.
 
purgpow said:
So now for the real Questions is this Melware / Virus thing on my mac or is it on the Hotmail server (maybe in one my contacts)?
And did i just import the Melware / virus to my new Gmail account?
Click to expand...
Please read the Mac Virus/Malware Info link I posted earlier. There has never been a Mac OS X virus, so you can't have one. There are only a few Mac OS X trojans in existence, all of which require you to actively install them. None of them produce the issues you are having. Malware is not the source of your issues. It is strictly related to your Hotmail account.
 
Hi,

im sure its a mac problem, i had Exactly the same hack on my mac, my hotmail was open, and it sends emails to all my hotmail contacts. And my password is very strong !

mails like this !


Oh! I can’t believe! It has never been so interesting to visit internet pages!... http://wwww.

Hello! These pills will bring you back to life! I promise you! ....

I have an idea, maybe its :

Logmein or Teamviewer exploit.

Do you have these software installed ?

thanks to anwser me, im looking for the origin of the spam like you...

But it s sure its a problem on mac, (friend of mine have the same problem, on mac!)
 
stephanemac said:
im sure its a mac problem, i had Exactly the same hack on my mac, my hotmail was open, and it sends emails to all my hotmail contacts. And my password is very strong !
Click to expand...
It's not in any way related to the computer. Your email account can be hacked even if you don't own a computer. Hotmail is well known for many years as a paradise for hackers and spammers. It's the last choice I'd make in selecting an email domain.
stephanemac said:
I have an idea, maybe its :
Logmein or Teamviewer exploit.
Click to expand...
No such exploits exist. I use TeamViewer daily, and it's extremely secure.
 
 
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