Email from Apple will not delete from Apple Mail - is it malware?

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Level 1

9 points

Email from Apple will not delete from Apple Mail - is it malware?

I received an email from Apple on July 29th 2019, after downloading Catalina, with "Introducing... 0%" in object description. Since receiving this email (sent to my iCloud email) I noticed my Apple Mail Smartmailbox created for Apple Invoices kept increasing continuously (100s+ per minute). Like the next morning it showed I had more than 7000 emails in this folder, but they were "fantom" email because they did not appear.

I sent an email to Apple, reporting possible scam of phishing email but have received no response.

Since last mini update for Catalina, I don't see these emails anymore, except when I want to delete something (6-7 emails, for example), pop up window asks me if I'm sure I want to delete these 300s emails...

I have just know tried again to delete the "Apple Introducing 0%" email and noticed that although the message at bottom left of screen says Deleting... it was followed by receiving... 100s emails.

I quickly closed Apple Mail. I have searched online to any other persons having problems with this but to no avail.

Is this a malware? I ran disk utility but no change.

Do I have another choice than scraping my OS and re-installing. (Of course, my last backup was too long ago...)

Marie

MacBook

Posted on Aug 13, 2020 5:58 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

lakingsfn2004

Level 1

100 points

Aug 13, 2020 6:42 PM in response to Mochai

I've not seen this on a Mac/Apple Mail setup but I did see something years ago when I worked for Qualcomm on their Eudora mail app. I know it was designed for Windows but I believe there was a Mac version as well.

Try checking your Apple mail on iCloud.com, that is basically looking directly at your mail server so you should be able to see what messages are actually there. I'd advise deleting the message in question from Apple there (by the way, do this with Mail app closed). Might be a good opportunity to clean up any unwanted messages as well.

Re-launch Mail app and see if this clears the issue.

PS, from the outset I don't think this is malware either.

Hope this helps!

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Answer 2

Mochai Author

Level 1

9 points

Aug 14, 2020 2:43 PM in response to lakingsfn2004

It worked! I just did what you suggested and re-opened Mail and, for the first time in two weeks I wasn't bombarded with "Apple Introducing 0%..." I hope it holds! (I don't foresee why it should not, but you never know...)

Thank you Thank you Thank you!

It was for sure a good reminder to Backup my files!

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Answer 3

Mochai Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 10, 2020 11:39 AM in response to Mochai

Update 2020/09/10:

Received "invitation" from Apple, sent to my iCloud address and same problem reappears. Again, I had 4200 emails deleted when pressing on Delete button in Mail. This activity was immediately followed by a "ghost receiving" of 566 mails (the 566 emails don't actually appear as emails in Mail, only in number of emails received...). I went online into my iCloud Mail account right away and saw indeed that the same email was repeated 566 times... Selected all and deleted all. Closed Safari window and a few seconds later received notice that Mail (which I had forgotten to close beforehand) had crashed. Sent report to Apple. I will have to unsubscribe to these Apple emails... if am I allowed to? LOL

I don't get why it seems I am the only person having this issue...

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Answer 4

Mochai Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 21, 2020 11:57 AM in response to Mochai

And a couple of weeks later (I only receive emails from Apple in my iCloud account), self-multiplying f&*(*&*(?ng emails! This is 3 emails, self-multiplying for a few days: 6308!

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Email from Apple will not delete from Apple Mail - is it malware?

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