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grandma installed software at the suggestion of hackers

We purchased a Mac Pro for my grandmother, apparently someone from "Amazon" called yesterday and had her download and attempt to open several files. What are the risks, and any idea how we can clean her Mac?

Posted on Jan 14, 2021 7:00 AM

Top-ranking reply

Kurt Lang

Level 9

61,884 points

Posted on Jan 14, 2021 7:05 AM

Since there's no easy way to tell what they may have had her install, change sharing settings and who knows what else, your best bet is to:

Can't stress this enough. FIRST, backup important personal data to another drive. Emails, photos, etc. A Time Machine backup is of no use here. At least, not entirely.
Restart in Recovery Mode (restart and hold down the Command+R keys).
Erase the drive and reinstall the OS.
Manually restore the personal data. I think you can use Time Machine for these, but be certain to manually choose what to restore. If you simply merge it in, you'll just bring back whatever the crooks had her install or change.

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grandma installed software at the suggestion of hackers

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