I may have a virus/trojan/malware?

[GovtLawyer]

Several times in the past few months I have sent out emails to people on my address book, which I did not intentionally send. It was clearly some sort of virus . The question was whether it resided on my iMac or something was getting into my AOL email account. Each time I changed my AOL password.

A few months ago around 50 faxes were sent by me to people in my address book through my Internet fax service. All of the faxes consisted of nothing but my fax cover sheet. I changed my email password again. Just today 5 bogus faxes were sent. I went to my fax provider and they said I probably had a trojan horse or something affecting my Mac Mail Server. I just went to my AOL account and they do not show any of those emails sent through the Internet. So, I get an email from the fax service on my act that there was an unsuccessful fax sent, but no indication of the sent faxes.

Is it possible my iMac is infected? If so, what program would you suggest to detect this and clean it?

 

[matixryder]

Several times in the past few months I have sent out emails to people on my address book, which I did not intentionally send. It was clearly some sort of virus . The question was whether it resided on my iMac or something was getting into my AOL email account. Each time I changed my AOL password.

A few months ago around 50 faxes were sent by me to people in my address book through my Internet fax service. All of the faxes consisted of nothing but my fax cover sheet. I changed my email password again. Just today 5 bogus faxes were sent. I went to my fax provider and they said I probably had a trojan horse or something affecting my Mac Mail Server. I just went to my AOL account and they do not show any of those emails sent through the Internet. So, I get an email from the fax service on my act that there was an unsuccessful fax sent, but no indication of the sent faxes.

Is it possible my iMac is infected? If so, what program would you suggest to detect this and clean it?

Hello Govtlawer, it is possible that your iMac has been infected. My suggestions would be ESET Endpoint Security and Malwarebytes. Scan your computer with them and see how they go.

 

[Kissmyne]

I use Malwarebytes and Sophos Antivirus. https://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-antivirus-for-mac-home-edition.aspx

You could also backup your necessary files(Docs/Pics/Music) and do a clean install of macOS

 

[Rok73]

What really is remarkable is that OP is using an AOL account.

 

[elf69]

reset AOL password asap.

also scan ur mac above.
usually the email account gets hacked rather than the machine.

 

[Kissmyne]

As far as the email account end of things, if you are suspecting your computer is infected, use another computer to update your password. If you suspect the acct was compromised at some point I also recommend updating ALL of your security questions and if you haven't already.. enable two factor authentication

 

[GovtLawyer]

reset AOL password asap.

also scan ur mac above.
usually the email account gets hacked rather than the machine.

I have reset it. I find it odd that it has been hacked several times, and I have reset it each time. How is that? I use a strong password - Here, I'll show it to you - (*******) Just kidding!

Also, the hack never does anything true malicious, it sounds out harmless emails or in this case faxes. If it is my computer which has been compromised, which program should I use?

 

[willmtaylor]

I have reset it. I find it odd that it has been hacked several times, and I have reset it each time. How is that? I use a strong password - Here, I'll show it to you - (*******) Just kidding!

Also, the hack never does anything true malicious, it sounds out harmless emails or in this case faxes. If it is my computer which has been compromised, which program should I use?

Run Malwarebytes and see if anything pops up.

 

[elf69]

they tend to hack accounts and then use them to send spam so it is not traceable to them.

Hotmail is prone to it as crap security.
My gmail never been hacked, but my hotmail all the time.

Maybe change your email provider.

 

[GovtLawyer]

UPDATE

Once again my internet fax server started getting fax orders from the same email account today. I received 25 emails from the service saying either faxes were successfully or unsuccessfully sent. I had changed the email password two days ago and the fax service password the same time.

I called up the fax service and they were no help. All of the faxes had nothin other than the cover page generated by the service. There was no TO: or FROM: on the page. They suggested I try AOL.

After an hour with AOL it was determined I am not being hacked. The reason is that there is nothing of value being sent out or asked and if it is a malicious hack, it is mild and almost inconsequential. Also, on AOL Mail section it does not show any of the emails being sent. The tech seemed to think it was an AOL problem as it did not appear my account was on the main server, only a backup. He is doing a re-index - whatever that means - and he thinks the problem will be fixed.

I'll come back here when I know more.