Virus emails??

[woodbine]

I have not heard of this anywhere, but my sister received a strange email on her iPhone, it was like a delivery failed message. Subsequently, she noticed that her Mail app had sent out some weird email to everyone on her contacts list. Then to cap it all, she has no more emails or contacts on her iPhone, laptop or even in iCloud.

Unfortunately I am not there with her equipment so its impossible to investigate, but I wondered if anyone on the communities had any thoughts. It sounds like she has a virus, but to erase all her contacts across several platforms seems unheard of...

 

[DeltaMac]

Might be helpful to know what the text is in that "weird email"
You should be able to retrieve the emails and contacts on a backup of your sister's Mac, particularly if she uses a full-time backup, like Time Machine.

 

[woodbine]

No luck getting back emails, all have been erased. Anyway, now it seems her iCloud was hacked because she has an email from Apple saying her account was compromised and closed. She has to contact Apple now to get it restored. Part of the scam was the hacker sent out a money request email to all her contacts. Then deleted her phone and one of her laptops. Hopefully, another Mac which would have been turned off at this time, is not compromised, so she could get back emails, contacts and maybe photos. I am assuming Apple support will guide her through the best process to restore everything. She does have TM on the main home Mac.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

She should enable two factor authentication and get a proper password in the first place.

 

[woodbine]

I agree, I think she has learned a valuable lesson here and will take online security more seriously.