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Kudos0

3 days and still scanning

Posted: 15-Jan-2010 | 3:25PM · 4 Replies ·

My dad's Mac was comprimised a few days ago by a virus that basically seems to have taken over his Hotmail email account. Everyone in his address book was sent an email from his address with a note saying that he had gone on vacation in Europe and had run into trouble and could you plese send money to help me out. That's not verbatim but that was the gist of it. The virus also changed his account password and the answers to all his secret security questions. Pretty nasty little problem it has caused him.

I purchased a digital copy of the newest Norton Anti-Virus for him the other day and after installation I initiated a full system scan. This was three days ago and his computer is still scanning. The values keep changing for the progress report that indicates how many files total will be scanned versus the current amount that have been scanned. This is a full system scan and the initial value reported roughly 5 million files would be scanned. As of today that number is up 12 million.

He has an older PowerMac G4 running Leopard 10.5.8.

Thank you for any help you have.

Replies

Kudos0

Re: 3 days and still scanning

Posted: 15-Jan-2010 | 3:25PM · Permalink

My dad's Mac was comprimised a few days ago by a virus that basically seems to have taken over his Hotmail email account. Everyone in his address book was sent an email from his address with a note saying that he had gone on vacation in Europe and had run into trouble and could you plese send money to help me out. That's not verbatim but that was the gist of it. The virus also changed his account password and the answers to all his secret security questions. Pretty nasty little problem it has caused him.

I purchased a digital copy of the newest Norton Anti-Virus for him the other day and after installation I initiated a full system scan. This was three days ago and his computer is still scanning. The values keep changing for the progress report that indicates how many files total will be scanned versus the current amount that have been scanned. This is a full system scan and the initial value reported roughly 5 million files would be scanned. As of today that number is up 12 million.

He has an older PowerMac G4 running Leopard 10.5.8.

Thank you for any help you have.

Kudos0

Re: 3 days and still scanning

Posted: 15-Jan-2010 | 8:56PM · Permalink

Sorry to hear about the virus.  Did your dad's Mac have any anti-virus software installed?

There are some tips and suggestions in this thread as to why a system scan might not stop.

Kudos0

Re: 3 days and still scanning

Posted: 16-Jan-2010 | 10:57AM · Permalink

First, I have a feeling your dad was a victim of "phishing". This is a common scam in which people are tricked into giving their e-mail account information to malicious Web sites. We dont know of any Mac virus threats that would send such e-mails, but it's very likely he was tricked into giving his Hotmail account information to a malicious Web site that then sent these e-mails out. Norton AntiVirus doesn't protect against phishing, but Norton Internet Security does. But it's important that he has virus protection.

Secondly, the full system scan might be stuck because your dad's computer has some sort of cross-link in files. For example, he might have a folder A that contains a link to folder B, then folder B contains a link back to folder A. Make sure he doesn't have any such links.

On Monday I'll try to work with our antivirus team on this to get you some better information, but for now you can try looking yourself. I think it's safe to say it's OK to cancel the virus scan, as it's never going to finish.

Ryan

Ryan McGann Technical Director Norton Business Unit, Symantec
Kudos0

Re: 3 days and still scanning

Posted: 20-Jan-2010 | 6:59AM · Permalink

Thanks for the assitance. It did finally stop scanning on the fourth day. I have resolved the email issue with Hotmail customer service and now my dad's computer is protected. I do agree it may have been a phishing scam but there was additional concern because they had changed the password to his email account and also the answers to his secret questions. Thanks again for the replies.

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