Spyware & Viruses on Macs - Firefox popups, strange stuff

[drake]

I clicked on a link in Digg yesterday, and the next thing I had pages full of popups (I use Firefox). Lots of the popups were warnings "you might be infected". I cleared all the private data on Firefox, but this morning when I tried to send an email through Thunderbird, I got a warning that my mail was being redirected and it refused to send.

Any ideas of what is going on, and any solutions? Honestly, I've been a PC user for ten years and only once had this happen, and thought I was pretty much immune on a Mac, I guess not.

 

[flopticalcube]

Don't know about Thunderbird but you can set Firefox to block popups. Those ones that tell you your PC is infected are just adverts.

 

[yagran]

I clicked on a link in Digg yesterday, and the next thing I had pages full of popups (I use Firefox). Lots of the popups were warnings "you might be infected". I cleared all the private data on Firefox, but this morning when I tried to send an email through Thunderbird, I got a warning that my mail was being redirected and it refused to send.

Any ideas of what is going on, and any solutions? Honestly, I've been a PC user for ten years and only once had this happen, and thought I was pretty much immune on a Mac, I guess not.

the chances are they are unrelated events. mac os x isnt immune to popups. but popups shouldnt affect ur mail settings, my guess is that youve changed a setting byaccident, or something is wrong with the mail server you use, gmail or whatever and tunderbird dont like it, have you tried using a decent mail app? 😛

 

[wyatt23]

have you recently changed locations or service providers since sending your last email?

pop-ups are liars by nature. they are predetermined. if you were running linux, it would still say, "you are infected" while in reality you aren't.

i ask about the server changes because when i come home from school, i forget to change my smtp server, and i don't usually send an email for about 2 weeks from when i'm home initially. so when i finally do, i worry instantly.... then reason sets in 🙂

 

[drake]

No, same server I've used for the last six months. Here is the message I'm getting:

Alert

An error occurred while sending mail. The mail server responded: Service unavailable; (24.68.24*.***)RB: blocked, reason:
http://www.spamhaus.org/query/bl?ip=24.68.24*.*** Please verify that your email address is correct in Mail preferences and try again.

That "www.spamhaus.org" definately has me concerned, and I did check my email address in preferences and it is correct.

BTW, the *** are my own, in case this is sensitive information.

 

[plinden]

It's likely that your current IP address has been blacklisted due to a previous user's PC being infected and sending out spam (the IP address you're assigned by the ISP will change unless you pay for a static IP address).

What does the link http://www.spamhaus.org/query/bl?ip=24.68.24*.*** show? (replacing that with your current IP address, of course)

Your Mac will not be a spambot. Edit: it's likely the mail server is configured to check the originating IP address with spamhaus, not anything to do directly with your Mac.

All I can think of is for you to contact your ISP.

 

[drake]

Still not sure why I was getting a message from Spamhause, but problem solved. Not sure how it happened,but my old ISP server was being used instead of my new one (if six months is new). Somehow the default must have changed back when Thunderbird updated this morning.

 

[drake]

Still have a problem. Now I'm getting popups that looks like a Firefox warning message but says its from error something.com and asks if I want it to correct errors. If I click cancel, its still tries to take me to its website.