Virus in MAIL or Addressbook?

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Hi,

I have a Macbookair Yosemite 10.10.5. For a long time I have noticed that when I write an email to John Smith (could be any name) it will be to him but it will come up as someoneelse in my addressbook.
In the beginning I thought it was only visible to me. Until a client said who is that you have cc'd. It is of course on my iphone ipad and idem my daughters..
It has definately accelerated. It used to happen occasionally it now happens nearly everytime.
I would like to get rid of it. How please. I installed Bitdefender for Macs...hoping it would do something but it has been unsuccessful.
Any ideas please? I would like to upgrade my ipad but am loathed to do for this reason. This problem was on my old Macbook and followed me to this one...
many thanks

PS I did search for other questions on same issue but didn't see any..
 
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Hi Phoebe83 and Welcome to the forum!

First off - uninstall Bitdefender. It will slow your system and is not necessary as what it will tend to find are windows viruses. If you are concerned about malware download and run Malwarebytes for Mac - which is free and does not run continuously. I would also suggest downloading and running Onyx and run the automatic option. This is a free maintenance utility that will help clear out any junk on your macs.

Now as to your issue. Originally I thought you might have a problem with the .plist for your mail app. But the fact you have this issue on so many devices is very puzzling. I guess I need a little more information. Are you sharing the same contacts (address book) with all the devices? How are you sharing your contacts (address book) with your other devices? How are you sending email - in other words, who is your email provider?

Also, I am not sure what you mean when you say if you send an email to - your example - John Smith - it shows up as someone else in your contacts (address book) but goes to John Smith? Is it showing someone else's name or email? And where is that showing up?

I do know that in mail -> preferences -> composing, you can check the option to CC or Bcc a copy back to yourself and I originally thought that feature had been corrupted in your mail .plist file. But with so many devices involved I am leaning toward an issue with your contacts (address book) file. The fact this followed you from an older macbook further indicates to me it might a contacts (address book) issue.

More information would be helpful. ;)

Lisa
 
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Virus mail or address book

Thankyou very much for your reply.
Uninstall Bitdefender that's why it's slowed down! Yes I will do!!
So I compose a mail, I try writing to John Smith then nonchalently carry on with my mail. I look back at address before sending, instead of saying John Smith it will say somethingelse - ANY NAME in address book. But when I put the cursor on it in brackets it will still say John Smith and will indeed go to John Smith. But the other name will appear for me and to John Smith. As I use my Mac for work it was pretty easy to verify this.
Is that clear? I write to you Lisa, you receive it but it says Sophie.
Where it got really awkward was when teen daughter listed me as beautiful maman in address book! When I realised my clients were receiving emails from me, addressed from beautiful maman it became the time to find a solution.
All my devices are affected. And my teen daughter who was using my itunes account and computer. Now she has her own account and Mac but sadly her iphone gave it to her Mac?! This has been going on for probably 9 years. But has now got to the point of being very tedious.
I did call Apple helpline where they assured me a virus was not possible. Kind of tedious too when you are looking at it.
My email provider? The operator is SFR. Though I think back over 9 years I would have had Orange for a couple of years in between.
Yes contacts is shared between all devices. And never found a way of seperating daughters contacts from mine either so contacts in common there too.
Thanks very much

Hi Phoebe83 and Welcome to the forum!

First off - uninstall Bitdefender. It will slow your system and is not necessary as what it will tend to find are windows viruses. If you are concerned about malware download and run Malwarebytes for Mac - which is free and does not run continuously. I would also suggest downloading and running Onyx and run the automatic option. This is a free maintenance utility that will help clear out any junk on your macs.

Now as to your issue. Originally I thought you might have a problem with the .plist for your mail app. But the fact you have this issue on so many devices is very puzzling. I guess I need a little more information. Are you sharing the same contacts (address book) with all the devices? How are you sharing your contacts (address book) with your other devices? How are you sending email - in other words, who is your email provider?

Also, I am not sure what you mean when you say if you send an email to - your example - John Smith - it shows up as someone else in your contacts (address book) but goes to John Smith? Is it showing someone else's name or email? And where is that showing up?

I do know that in mail -> preferences -> composing, you can check the option to CC or Bcc a copy back to yourself and I originally thought that feature had been corrupted in your mail .plist file. But with so many devices involved I am leaning toward an issue with your contacts (address book) file. The fact this followed you from an older macbook further indicates to me it might a contacts (address book) issue.

More information would be helpful. ;)

Lisa
 
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Just a thought

When you start a new email the To box uses smart search so, for example, if I start entering "Sa" Mail will start to list NAMES starting with "Sa" and email address starting with "Sa". The result is that the list will show Sarah as a name and also any email address starting with sarah. If I happen to click on the email address starting with sarah the name shown on the email will be whatever is in the name box in my contacts - and it may not be the sarah I want. Indeed it may not be a Sarah at all.

Lets say for example, that I accidentally or through some data corruption had my wife's email address of [email protected] with the NAME field shown as Mary in Contacts. In my mail program when I start typing sarah one of the suggestions on the list would be [email protected] but if I clicked on that the To box would show the name associated with the address, i.e. Mary. The email would however correctly go to Sarah's email address. This could be a problem if a "personal" friend called Mary had her email corrupted as [email protected] in my Contacts. Starting to type either sar or mar in the To box would show BOTH Mary and [email protected]. Clicking Mar would send to sarah but mary would show in the To box. Let's just hope the resulting message was not too personal.!!!

This problem may be a case of going through all your contacts and ensuring that every First and Last name field in each contact is associated with the correct email address.

Re sharing contact information with other family members our solution is to have a second Apple ID. We have one called SurnameFamily@iCloud and my wife has her own and I have my own iCloud IDs. The Family address is ONLY used for things we share such as our diary and contacts we have in common. That way, if my wife notes a hospital appointment on the share it updates all our Macs and iPhones but if she changes an email address on her personal contacts it does not change anything on mine.
 
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Virus Mail Addressbook/contacts

Thankyou for your reply.
So I tried writing an email.
I get what you mean.
I tapped my dads email address and the name of a restaurant came up. Even though there is no connection in spelling at all John / Restaurant le Cabanon???
Very weird.
I have checked in my contacts, it's not a question of an error of addresses in contacts.
There do appear to be a group of favourite names in my contacts that are chosen, so it can't be totally arbitary.
So if I address an email to John Smith of the 300 contacts only 15 seem to be chosen? And it will probably be either Ferdinand or Restaurant le Cabanon.
Another email to Rupert Smith will have the same name attached? Ie John Smith will be assigned Ferdinand. Rupert Smith too.
And me I virtually never come up as me? I will also be Ferdinand?
My dad did got to the restaurant in question. There was an email connecting the two.
Me as I am the sender to millions of emails there are millions of connections.
My boss would be connected to Ferdinand, he was a client, there would originally have been a connecting email?? But like 9 years ago? The client in question has now died and gone to dead prospect heaven?! He is not someone I have been exchanging email with for 9 years.

Lastly it doesn't happen if I go on Gmail or Yahoo?

Sorry.

Thankyou very much anyway.



Just a thought

When you start a new email the To box uses smart search so, for example, if I start entering "Sa" Mail will start to list NAMES starting with "Sa" and email address starting with "Sa". The result is that the list will show Sarah as a name and also any email address starting with sarah. If I happen to click on the email address starting with sarah the name shown on the email will be whatever is in the name box in my contacts - and it may not be the sarah I want. Indeed it may not be a Sarah at all.

Lets say for example, that I accidentally or through some data corruption had my wife's email address of [email protected] with the NAME field shown as Mary in Contacts. In my mail program when I start typing sarah one of the suggestions on the list would be [email protected] but if I clicked on that the To box would show the name associated with the address, i.e. Mary. The email would however correctly go to Sarah's email address. This could be a problem if a "personal" friend called Mary had her email corrupted as [email protected] in my Contacts. Starting to type either sar or mar in the To box would show BOTH Mary and [email protected]. Clicking Mar would send to sarah but mary would show in the To box. Let's just hope the resulting message was not too personal.!!!

This problem may be a case of going through all your contacts and ensuring that every First and Last name field in each contact is associated with the correct email address.

Re sharing contact information with other family members our solution is to have a second Apple ID. We have one called SurnameFamily@iCloud and my wife has her own and I have my own iCloud IDs. The Family address is ONLY used for things we share such as our diary and contacts we have in common. That way, if my wife notes a hospital appointment on the share it updates all our Macs and iPhones but if she changes an email address on her personal contacts it does not change anything on mine.
 
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I agree with Andy, it sounds to me like Mail is offering suggestions as you type a contact's name or address. You may be accidentally hitting return before the correct name comes up. It's hard to tell without seeing what's going on. Any way you can post a photo of the To field as you are typing the address?
 
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mail/contact SOLVED!!

Thankyou for your reply. It is now sorted. I think when I synced iphone mine or my daughters it said 'do you want to sync contacts?' I probably said yes. And some got mixed up. My name /tel/ email got put into their peoples details. Sometimes other people too. So now if I tap in John Smith and Arnold Brown comes up, I automatically check both names in my contacts and sort it!
So it is solved!! Thankyou all for your help!

Hi,

I have a Macbookair Yosemite 10.10.5. For a long time I have noticed that when I write an email to John Smith (could be any name) it will be to him but it will come up as someoneelse in my addressbook.
In the beginning I thought it was only visible to me. Until a client said who is that you have cc'd. It is of course on my iphone ipad and idem my daughters..
It has definately accelerated. It used to happen occasionally it now happens nearly everytime.
I would like to get rid of it. How please. I installed Bitdefender for Macs...hoping it would do something but it has been unsuccessful.
Any ideas please? I would like to upgrade my ipad but am loathed to do for this reason. This problem was on my old Macbook and followed me to this one...
many thanks

PS I did search for other questions on same issue but didn't see any..
 
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Similar issue!

Hi folks,

your messages to Phoebe were very helpful in this thread and I could not find any other reference to a similar issue my wife experienced. I wonder if you can help.

Something very odd happened, she wrote a message to "Robin" in Apple Mail, sent it, and then in the sent folder it shows as going to "Isla". In the sent folder, it is listed as sent to "Isla" but in the preview pane on the right, it shows "Robin" in the To list.

I could send a screen shot if helpful.

I have never seen this type of issue... could it be a virus or malware?

Thanks
Goggles
 
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MacInWin

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Goggles, welcome to the forum.

It's NOT a virus, and probably not malware. There are NO viruses for Macs. None. And the malware I have heard about doesn't play games with email. It's more likely something in your Contacts, where Mail gets the names to put to the addresses.
 

chscag

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I agree with Jake. Check your "contacts.app" preferences and see how the names of listed contacts are formed. In other words, by "First Name" or "Last Name" or "Business", and so on. Also, look for different lists under the contacts app. You can have a private list and another list under your email account.
 
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Thanks so much!

Goggles, welcome to the forum.

It's NOT a virus, and probably not malware. There are NO viruses for Macs. None. And the malware I have heard about doesn't play games with email. It's more likely something in your Contacts, where Mail gets the names to put to the addresses.

Lisa, Jake, and Chscag - you are legends - thank you for your help. I will take your advice and let you know what I come up with.
Best
G
 

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