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How Do I Find Out If My Mac Has Been Compromised By Malware? What Diagnostic Software Can I Use To Clean My System?

I recently received two emails (5-6 weeks apart) ostensibly from people in my address book each containing a link to an article. Something about the verbage alert me. I replied to one, asking if he had sent it. He never received my reply. I wrote a new email to the other, asking if she had written and she said no. How do I find out if my system has been compromised and how to fix it?
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Greg Brodsky

Comments: 3 Responses to “How Do I Find Out If My Mac Has Been Compromised By Malware? What Diagnostic Software Can I Use To Clean My System?”

    8 years ago

    There's nothing about your story that you need to be worried about. You just got some spam, that's all. We all do. Email can be addressed "from" anyone, so ignore the sender.
    It could be that the other person's email account was compromised and the spammer sent email from and to a variety of addresses in their contacts list. To make sure that never happens to you, make sure you are using a strong password with your email account.
    You don't need to do anything to check your Mac. OS X includes systems in place that do this. Unless you have a specific obvious problem, then you are fine. You don't need to use anything to "clean" your system. In fact, I recommend that you don't use any third-party software claiming to "clean" your Mac. It is not needed.
    See http://macmost.com/virus-and-malware for some information in this.

    Anne
    8 years ago

    When I get a suspicious message, I hover my mouse over the address of the person who sent it. You can tell immediately if it is spam because the address that appears in a text box may have that person's name but the end will be from a different server. Or it may have a completely different name, but it will be very obvious that it is not from the person you know.

    8 years ago

    Anne: That's true, if the address isn't your friend then you know it is not from them. But it is also possible, and quite common, to get email from exactly the right email address. Email servers don't care what the "from" field reads -- it doesn't have to be real. Just like if you sent a physical letter and wrote whatever you wanted in the return address space. So be aware of that too.

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