Virus hijacked my address book

[PNGento]

I am new to Macs...just bought a MacBook Pro 13 and loved it, so replaced my home Windows computer with a 27" iMac. Partly, this was because Macs are supposed to be resistant to viruses. However, something (virus, worm or ??) has apparently hijacked my address book. People in my address book are getting email showing it came from me, but obviously, I didn't send anything. I don't see anything sent from my sent folders, nor would I expect that to be the case.

Can anyone advise a best way to get whatever is doing this off my computer...i.e. is a virus program the answer? Or, was whatever grabbed my address book, likely gone now that it got what it was after.

If Macs aren't supposed to suffer from this type of thing, what might I have done to let it in. I try to be cautious when surfing and won't open any attachment if I am not sure of the source. Any help would be appreciated.

TIA,

 

[GGJstudios]

I am new to Macs...just bought a MacBook Pro 13 and loved it, so replaced my home Windows computer with a 27" iMac. Partly, this was because Macs are supposed to be resistant to viruses. However, something (virus, worm or ??) has apparently hijacked my address book. People in my address book are getting email showing it came from me, but obviously, I didn't send anything. ,

It's not a virus or malware of any kind. Your email account was hacked, which has nothing to do with your computer at all. Change your email account passwords and make them complex, with upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters.

No 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 handful of trojans that exist 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.

Mac Virus/Malware Info​

 

[Tumbleweed666]

It's not a virus or malware of any kind. Your email account was hacked, which has nothing to do with your computer at all. Change your email account passwords and make them complex, with upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters.

The OP's email account wasn't necessarily hacked, though its not a bad idea to have a complex password.

Especially if he sees nothing in his sent mail, though its by no means a sure sign, it may be as simple as his email address is being used as a reply-to address by a spam network sending out email from other peoples compromised computers, and nothing whatsoever to do with his mac or his email account. If the OP got hold of one of those emails his friends are receiving, with all headers, that could probably be determined.

All you need for this to happen is for your email address to get out to the spammers, which is pretty much inevitable