# Yahoo virus?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yahoo-virus/583558>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 28, 2011, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yahoo-virus/583558 "2011-05-28T13:48:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yahoo-virus/583558/1 "2011-05-28T13:48:31Z")

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Last week I checked my Yahoo mail. There’s a mail I get daily by subscription, but I never read it because I don’t need to at the moment. So I clicked the box and hit delete. I was taken to a page that said my Mac is infected, and it listed a bunch of files. All I have to do is click on the OK button to get rid of them. I searched for some of the files in Finder and, as expected, found none of them. I Force Quit Safari.

This morning I went through the same delete-the-email procedure and got a different page that had a dialogue box saying I was infected and that I should click OK. I tried to Quit Safari and got another box that said ‘Are you sure you want to leave this page?’ Force Quit.

1. Do I really have malware? Or was this an attempt to install some by getting me to click OK?

2. My Mac always warns me before I install an application – when I download a file. I need to enter my password. Would I have been warned if malware was being installed?

3. Does anyone else use Yahoo as one of their mail servers, and have you gotten this ‘virus warning’?

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**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yahoo-virus/583558/2 "2011-05-28T14:15:13Z")

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[It ain’t just you.](http://skattertech.com/2011/05/mac-defender-malware-scam-plagues-os-x-users/)

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yahoo-virus/583558/3 "2011-05-28T14:25:09Z")

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> [@Larry\_Mudd](#):
>
> [It ain’t just you.](http://skattertech.com/2011/05/mac-defender-malware-scam-plagues-os-x-users/)

From the link:

> [@](#):
>
> It works by putting malicious links at the top of search results and tricks users into accidentally clicking them. After doing so, a fake virus scanner pops up on the screen. It then falsely informs the user of potentially harmful software on their computer and recommends downloading an even more dangerous application: MacDefender. The scam soon gets even worse when it prompts the user to provide credit card information before downloading the fake anti-virus removal tool.

Well, that’s worrisome. It says that I do have malware, and that MacDefender is trying to install something worse. On the other hand, the image is not what I saw the first time. I got a window that listed several files and a small pop-up window. So maybe I don’t have that particular one. And again, I did not click anything, but force-quit Safari.

As I think of it, I may have gotten the first window (the one that listed the files) after clicking on an article on MSNBC. But the one this morning (which was different – blank page that did not finish loading, and the small pop-up with ‘OK’) was after deleting an email in Yahoo Mail.