I think I accidentally downloaded a worm or virus opening an e-mail
Is there anyway to find out if I downloaded a virus/worm/malware when I responded to an e-mail survey?
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.5)
What symptons are you experiencing?
4 replies
Simply responding to an e-mail message cannot infect you with malware. Neither can opening an e-mail message. Opening an attachment could, if the attachment were a malicious app that would run on a Mac and you "clicked through" any warning that you got from the system, but the only Mac malware being distributed by e-mail right now is highly targeted. (If you're not a member of a Tibetan human rights organization, you probably won't ever see it.)
So you really don't have much to worry about. Note, though, that responding to silly things like surveys does open you up to things like spam, being scammed, revealing personal information to someone who may use it to hack your online accounts, etc. Be extremely cautious what you respond to online.
I clicked on a link to the survey (which didn't include any request for personal information), but I have heard that this may be 'phishing' to get my personal and financial information from my computer. My computer doesn't otherwise have any other symptoms. Does apple provide any way to be certain that something wasn't left on my computer, or do I just assume because this is a Mac it is very unlikely that the survey was something malevolent? Thank you for your help
If it would make you feel better to run a scan, you can. Use Sophos for that. I'd also recommend reading my Mac Malware Guide.
I think I accidentally downloaded a worm or virus opening an e-mail