Email account worm

Not a worm or virus. There are none that affect or infect OS X and the iPhone runs an optimized version of OS X. Nothing can be installed on an iPhone from a recieved email, from a website, or from an MMS except for a photo and I haven't read any reports about malware being included with a JPEG file.

If you also access these accounts with an email client on your computer and you are syncing contacts with an application on your computer and your computer runs Windoze, the problem lies there with the swiss cheese for security operating system.

The likely problem is this:

Someone that you know, has your e-Mail address in their address book system (what ever that may be.) And their system was either snagged by an mail scavenger, or turned into a mail bot-net. The third common form is for a mailing list that you are on (commercial or not) to have sold ($) that list which ends up in the hands of spammers.

Outside of your control, your e-Mail address is used by this other system to send e-Mail using these addresses (including yours) for spamming purposes. This makes the spam mail look somewhat legitimate because it is using real from & to addresses.

There is little that you can do, except to block your own address (which probably is counter productive) or have your mail filtered through very savvy heuristics. The practical problem is that the way that your e-Mail address is used is a moving target and it becomes a nightmare for a computer to deal with it well.

Now, on the bright side, usually these come and go in waves. Meaning that the issue for you is hot right now, but the problem will subside. Then it may reoccur.

To try to stem this problem in the future, you should have an e-Mail alias (or separate address) for mailing lists, one for on-line shopping and one for personal friends only. This would at least allow you to intelligently understand what avenue was compromised and would also allow you to kill a troubled account with a little less pain.

-Alan

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone might know how I can completely disable the mail app feature AND process on my iphone? I keep having problems with it to the point where it makes it difficult for me to connect to the server to make and receive calls. While on calls the mobile mail process starts up runs in the background (for some unknown reason) and interferes with my reception on calls, I have trouble hearing people and vice versa. I never set up email on my account, I never use my iphone for email. The only solution that I have found is an app that lets me see what processes are running in the background and terminate them. And for months now I have noticed that the mail process ONLY runs when I make or receive calls. I've exchanged the phone and reset it a number of times but I keep having the same problem. I've taken the phone in to Apple and the rote response is "Do you have a cracked phone? No, then there is nothing wrong, you don't have a virus, Apple products are infallible, there is nothing you can do. Would you like to exchange your phone again?" I have called apple and am told by customer service that I would need to speak to someone who is an engineer but no they don't have anyone available and to try a discussion board. I have read through some of these posts and it sounds like there are a lot of phone and mail glitches out there not to mention all the other apps and server issues. I don't have mobile me set up on my phone or any other mail services that I can see, but it seems like that may be what it is? It doesn't sound like other people are having this same issue as me. If so I'd love to read what they did top resolve the problem. I'd really like to know why mobile mail would be running when I am on calls and how and I disable it? Thank you.

The only way for email to run in the background is for you to have set up an email account on your phone and then enabled it to automatically check for mail.

If you've changed your mind about receiving email on your phone go to Settings - Mail and delete your email info.

Wow, that was fast. Yes, that's what I've been told. But no I have not set up email on my account. I only use my email address to log in and purchase apps from app store, that's the only place where I have entered it anywhere in my phone. I have "fetch new data" set to off. There is no account listed under "mail, contacts, calender," either. I should also mention that mobile mail starts up when I disconnect from calls as well and I cannot make another outgoing call until I terminate the process with an app that I found through the app store, then I am able to receive cellular service and call out.

That is bizarre. I'd suggest doing a restore in iTunes and see if that corrects the issue.

Whats the App that allows you to monitor whats going on in the background called please ?

Yes, its a pain in the bee-hind. I did do a restore, and unfortunately still the same issue. Which is why I was thinking it might be a carrier, server or network thing. If mobile me is designed to push your mail somewhere then what is it pushing on my phone? How does that whole process work because maybe I have something set up on my iphone that I am not aware of and its causing this little glitch.

I've never used mobileme so I'm not sure how it is designed to work.

I don't know if I have MobileMe on my iphone. It just says Mobile Mail in the process tree. I've never used MobileMe and I've never purchased it so I have no idea how it works either, I'm just wondering why my iphone is pushing mail while I am on calls and almost exclusively when I am on calls. Calls where this process is running sound distorted and echoey, plus I seem to lose my reception until I terminate background apps, which is a quicker fix then rebooting the phone. Also, I don't text or send MMS. Could it be something other than email or push causing this to happen? Any Apple engineers on here! 🙂