I think my MacBook Air has a virus — what to do?

[ryubyss]

for the last week or so, a couple of things have happened.

• at least 200% more spam (possibly 500% more) spam in my spam folder than I remember ever getting before.
• strange spammy alerts in my notification center that I doubt come from Apple. (I forgot to get screenshots but I can do so later.) about three appear whenever I restart the computer after shutting it off.

I have two apps (CleanMyMac and MacKeeper, the latter of which I got specifically to deal with this nonsense). both of these apps can detect and remove malware. the latter can remove viruses. I have removed the viruses, supposedly, but the nonsense messages continue to appear. by a coincidence, I happened to DL the latest beta of Ventura. still getting the notifications, though.

could the Genius Bar help?

 

[Slix]

For the notifications, check System Settings for Notifications and see if there are any weird apps you don't recognize in there. Also be sure to check Safari preferences to see if there are any websites you accidentally subscribed to notifications for.

 

[macsound1]

I’m not sure spam email has anything to do with your Mac. Are you using mail.app? Who’s your email provider?

Clean my Mac and Mac keeper are themselves Malware. And they’re nearly impossible to uninstall.

I’d recommend making a new user account and try using it for a few days. If everything is ok, copy your files over and nuke the old user directory.

 

[chabig]

Clean my Mac and Mac keeper are themselves Malware.

I agree with this. I wouldn't run either of them alone, and he's running them both. Yikes!

 

[Honza1]

Genius Bar could help, depends on how much time they have...
E-mail spam has nothing to do with virus. The only thing which helps is change e-mail address (tough) or spam filter (efficiency varies). If you rely on Mail.app junk filter, it is not very good (very politely said).
As said above: "Clean my Mac and Mac keeper are themselves Malware." Agree, they are generally not very useful (politely said).
For notifications, check system and Safari notifications, what is allowed and what you subscribed to. It is easy to subscribe to page without really realizing that. And easy to unsubscribe - in Safari, Preferences, Websites, in Notifications.
If you find this confusing, go to Genius Bar and ask for help. It cannot hurt.

 

[ryubyss]

I’m not sure spam email has anything to do with your Mac. Are you using mail.app? Who’s your email provider?

I do use Mail, yes. I use Yahoomail and GMail.

Clean my Mac and Mac keeper are themselves Malware. And they’re nearly impossible to uninstall.

oh, I've used CleanMyMac for years. lovely app, as far as I can tell. I've had no problems with it, ever. MacKeeper, though, I hate. I only DLed it recently to stop this notifications problem.

I’d recommend making a new user account and try using it for a few days. If everything is ok, copy your files over and nuke the old user directory..

thank you for the advice!

 

[ryubyss]

I agree with this. I wouldn't run either of them alone, and he's running them both. Yikes!

"she", actually. I forgive you, though..most humans can't tell the difference between male and female iguanas.

I only started using MacKeeper once I started to have the problem. at any rate, as I've said, I have never had a problem with CleanMyMac in all the years I've had it, perhaps another, bad, app has a confusingly similar name>

 

[ryubyss]

I went to the Notifications preferences and got this screenshot. excellent advice, all! thank you

 

[HDFan]

Clean my Mac and Mac keeper are themselves Malware.

Clean my Mac is not malware.

"Malware, or malicious software, is a blanket term for any kind of computer software with malicious intent."

Don't know about Mac Keeper.

CleanMyMac X review

An excellent means of clearing gigabytes of unused system gunk off your Mac, but the Malware Removal and Updater features need to be improved.

www.macworld.com

 

[Ruggy]

There are at least 2 free malware/virus checkers you can try to see if they find anything- which you can uninstall afterwards. Both of these are safe and highly recommended.
Malwarebytes (keep the download because you will need the uninstall program)
Avast for mac
No malware program finds everything so it's worth trying something else.
Avast isn't used a lot on the Mac but has always been a light and very reliable tool for Windows.
I can't remember now if you need an uninstall program for that one but keep everything till you've finished.

Also find out what the DNS servers for your IP provider are. They should give this information on their website probably somewhere in help setting up. Once you've found what they should be, go into network connections and check that they are correct.
One thing malware can do is send all your network traffic to their DNS servers and that can be the origin of a lot of junk and problems and so it's worth checking. You can clear out the malware but that won't necessarily put the correct DNS settings back.

 

[Skyuser]

I went to the Notifications preferences and got this screenshot. excellent advice, all! thank you

There’s definitely at least one malware running on your machine, which, deducing from the screenshot of the notifications settings, is named ”ask you”. You may want to try to locate it and delete it.

 

[ryubyss]

There’s definitely at least one malware running on your machine, which, deducing from the screenshot of the notifications settings, is named ”ask you”. You may want to try to locate it and delete it.

thank you! yes, I deleted it and I haven't had the problem after that. I really wouldn't have thought to do that without the good advice I've gotten on this thread. thanks to you all!

 

[ryubyss]

Clean my Mac is not malware.

"Malware, or malicious software, is a blanket term for any kind of computer software with malicious intent."

Don't know about Mac Keeper.

CleanMyMac X review

An excellent means of clearing gigabytes of unused system gunk off your Mac, but the Malware Removal and Updater features need to be improved.

www.macworld.com

MacKeeper just plain sucks, in my experience. I couldn't find a way in settings to stop it from starting up the app every time I restarted the computer. also distracting interface. I didn't like it all.

 

[ryubyss]

There are at least 2 free malware/virus checkers you can try to see if they find anything- which you can uninstall afterwards. Both of these are safe and highly recommended.
Malwarebytes (keep the download because you will need the uninstall program)
Avast for mac

thank you. I will look into these. CleanMyMac has a malware detection feature. as you said, though, no one app can detect/delete everything. again, thank you!

 

[HDFan]

I couldn't find a way in settings to stop it from starting up the app every time I restarted the computer.

Did you disable it in login items/allow in background (Ventura)?

 

[ryubyss]

I don't remember, sorry.