e-mail account hijacked

Hi everyone!

I'm new here. Glad to find you.

I've been using a Mac OS X since January. A couple weeks ago my e-mail account was hijacked. I'm now receiving spam from my own e-mail (to my same e-mail). This is my main e-mail account, hosted by my local ISP. I'd rather keep that account because is the one most of my clients / prospects know (I work as a freelancer).

I checked with my ISP. They suggested changing PW. Tried it; doesn't work. They now say I need good spyware.

My two questions are:
1- With my bare Mac, can I check for installed malware?

2- Is there any software beyond Mac's own firewall that will prevent e-mail hijacking?

TIA,

hamaca

hamaca said:

Hi everyone!

I'm new here. Glad to find you.

I've been using a Mac OS X since January. A couple weeks ago my e-mail account was hijacked. I'm now receiving spam from my own e-mail (to my same e-mail). This is my main e-mail account, hosted by my local ISP. I'd rather keep that account because is the one most of my clients / prospects know (I work as a freelancer).

I checked with my ISP. They suggested changing PW. Tried it; doesn't work. They now say I need good spyware.

Click to expand...

They were correct on the first count. The second you may have misunderstood. What they were referring to is "Anti-Spyware". These are products that remove Spyware infestations.

My two questions are:
1- With my bare Mac, can I check for installed malware?

Click to expand...

There is one Mac anti-spyware product, but since there is almost no spyware for Macs, aside from keyloggers, it's probably not worth your time.

2- Is there any software beyond Mac's own firewall that will prevent e-mail hijacking?

TIA,

hamaca

Click to expand...

One thing you have to understand is that anyone, anywhere can send an email and make it appear as though it's coming from your email address. For example, if I wanted to, I could send you an email that makes it appear as though it were coming from "[email protected]". It's simply a matter of manipulating settings in an email program.

So, if someone has decided to start using your email address as the "From:" address, it doesn't mean that you have some kind of malware infection.

Did your ISP tell you that the emails in question were coming from your Mac? They should be able to monitor the traffic coming from your Internet connection and know for sure. Unless you have positive confirmation of this, you probably shouldn't worry about it and just change your email address.

If you do get a new email account I would suggest gmail, way better spam protection then any ISP has.