I Have Macbook Pro with the latest OS . Is it possible to be infect with the Win32/FakeSecSen virus via an email from an infected PC?
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012), OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)
There is no windows virus in the world that can infect a Mac operating system. Don’t worry.
There is no windows virus in the world that can infect a Mac operating system. Don’t worry.
That's what I was thinking. But I cant figure out why my cable provider would send me that email (I pasted below.) The email included links to check and then clean the laptop. when this happened to my family member I called a phone number that was supplied via a pop up on their machine with an (844) area code. The person that answered idintified themselves as somebody from Microsoft Solutions, and wanted to know where I was calling from and then wanted to let me know that this was a very important issue, and wanted to call me back and wanted to know if I had the laptop open and was connected to the Internet. It seemed real cagy so I asked for his name and asked to speak to a supervisor. He supplied me with neither, but insisted that he needed a number where he could call me back at and know where I was calling from and an email I could be reached at. I ended the convo right then.
I may just wipe the machine to be safe.
Dear Subscriber,Cox has identified that one or more of the computers in your home maybe infected with the FakeSecSen or "Spy Sheriff" Virus.
Viruses can take control of your PC and gather your personal information such as passwords and credit card numbers, putting your data at risk
The following FREE security tools could help you detect and remove infections from your systems:
Forget it and don't waste time "wiping your system." There are NO documented viruses that affect a Mac running OS X - NONE.
Barry
Beware....!! That was a fake call from a scammer trying to again access into your system. Never try to call or attend such calls.
I have received plenty of junk emails in my time and to be honest a lot of them are very realistic, it's obviously still such a big thing as many people are falling and going along with it.
Be sure to double check the sender of the email. My guess is that it will the similar to an official email your provider uses but it will be different. I use PayPal, I often receive emails from 'Pay.Pal' or other CLOSE but no cigar emails requesting my details/passwords for 'security' purposes. Compare the sender to official emails and you will know what to look out for in future!
Hope this helps.
The pop-up you saw was a scam. As long as you didn't give them access to the computer, you're fine, but in the future don't call the number when pop-ups like that appear. (Unless you want to spend some time messing with a scammer's head! 🙂)
As for the e-mail from Cox, there are two possibilities. One is that it was also a scam, and didn't actually come from Cox. Don't download anything the e-mail told you to.
If it was actually from Cox, there are a couple explanations. First, it may be a false positive. In other words, some legitimate network activity coming from your network may have triggered an automated process erroneously, which resulted in the e-mail. This kind of thing happens all the time with some network providers, especially when they really don't have much familiarity with the Mac.
The other possibility is that a Windows computer that was on your network actually was infected with this malware. Or, an Android device on your network may have been infected with something similar that is being identified as this Windows malware. (That sort of thing happens more often than you'd think.) If there are no Windows or Android devices on your network, check the security of your network. If your wireless network doesn't require a password to join, or if it uses the now-insecure WEP protocol, you could have had someone nearby piggybacking on your network. Lock it down with WPA2 encryption ASAP, not only to prevent this issue in the future, but also to protect all the data you're sending and receiving (which a piggybacker on your network could capture).
At this time, there is no known malware capable of infecting an up-to-date Mac system. So the chances of this being Mac malware are extremely low.
I concur with Thomas....... 🙂 🙂
Thomas, may I know, which are the most historically known viruses (If any) that can infect a up to date Mac....?? Can you name some which you have found through your research.....??
Grane Duke wrote:
Thomas, may I know, which are the most historically known viruses (If any) that can infect a up to date Mac....?? Can you name some which you have found through your research.....??
The most well-known are RSPlug (aka DNSChanger), MacDefender and Flashback. But I've got what I believe is a complete list, including descriptions, here:
http://www.thesafemac.com/mmg-catalog/
That list is limited to only malware that has been capable of infecting Mac OS X, and does not describe anything older than that. It's also important to understand that none of the malware described there is capable of infecting a current Mac OS X system.
(Fair disclosure: I may receive compensation from links to my sites, TheSafeMac.com and AdwareMedic.com.)
Thank you very much. This has helped a lot. I spoke to my father in law and we are taking steps to clean/wipe/better protect his system as well as his PC. I have not used a PC since I made the switch to apple products a few years ago. As for the scammer, I called on a line that was neither a home number or a cell. I did only phone to see what kind of story I was going to get. I have not had to use these forums before, thank you for your help.
Thomas, thanks for the information.
I really appreciate your Zeal for this extensive research on Viruses and Malware's.
Keep up the good work....🙂 🙂
I got this exact same message. I called Cox who said that their Network Security Service had detected unusual activity on my account. I got booted up to "Teir 2" who could not tell me the unusual activity or any further information but wanted to hook me up with their Tech Solutions so I could get help. I just wanted to know what the unusual activity was and how they came by this information. If they really want to help me they can help me identify what the activity was so I can track it. Maybe someone has hacked into my network. Maybe my iPhone, android phone, Mac Mini, Linux, or Windows computer is infected so I want to scan them for infections. They said I have a Trojan Virus. Are the scanning my computers for me? I don't think so. Finally a tech let me know that at 00:55:33 UTC one of my devices attempted to contact a known bad site lp.ezdownloadpro.info and that my device may be infected as a result. So it was a real message from Cox. Now I have to check all my computers (Mac, Linux, Chromebook, and various Windows computers that were idling) to see which one tried to contact this site while I was asleep. So if you get this message, try to get some information from Cox - they said they don't give this information to the general public because they don't understand. It only took an hour on the phone...
THis happen to me today, the same exac email and from Cox too.. I haven't log in in my macbook today since km still at work but i did call cox to see if the email was real and they told me that yes it was, that it detects a malware virus on my macbook, thy said i needed to contac apple for this matter to see how they want me to proceed.. I don't know what to do..
While there is not a lot of viruses or malware for MAC OSX, there are plenty of things that can infect Apple computers. While this is most likely a scam as mentioned, you are always susceptible to items like browser extensions (chrome or Firefox extensions). On the other note there are also apps that the user may install that are of a shady nature that can install malicious software on the customer's machine. I do computer work on a regular basis on both Apple computers and PCs and while PC is by far more venerable, I can't say that a MAC never getting malware. If this were the case they wouldn't have AVAS software or programs like MalwareBytes for MAC. Just search any reputable malware removal site (bleepingcomputer.com) and you will find there is a good amount of items that can still impact a mac.
As for the message the OP was asking about it's likely a scam e-mail. The best way to confirm is to look at the message headers and make sure it actually came from apple and not some other random location.
If you were really causing problems for your ISP, they would shut off your connection in a heartbeat, and wait for you to call and complain about it.
You can safely assume that everything else is a SCAM, to a greater or lesser degree. Your ISP probably just wants a few more bucks out of you, for services, software, or insurance you do not need. (need any telephone wiring insurance?)
Other scammers want your IDENTITY, so they can max out your Credit Cards and get a few more issued in your name and max those out as well.
Letting anyone access your computer after THEY initiated the contact is guaranteed to go badly for you.
Can FakeSecSen infect my MacBook pro
