While my son is using safari (often on youtube), mail will launch a new window with an outgoing message with nonsensical text but not addressed to anyone. The message can be closed but this issue will periodically return with different text every time. The messages are never sent or seen in the sent folder. Occasionally a Bing search will launch in a different Safari window, again with nonsensical text being searched. Bing is not our default engine. Any ideas? If I restart it seems to go away until my son gets on again. He does play mine craft and has downloaded some mods but I can't seem to find any other cause. Could this be script running from the webpage? Relatively new to mac so troubleshooting has been a bit of a challenge.
Trojan? Mail/Safari issue
- Thread starter Vinsonsl
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Spawn_Dooley
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Firstly, I just want to make sure what level of basic Mac security is in place.
From a security standpoint, and I can sense that you are concerned about security as well as the strange Mail behavior, it is best practice to have an Admin Account but for every day use, the best and safest measure is for both you and your son to each have your own seperate Standard type account.
To install apps or make System changes you will need to supply the Admin Username & Password first so it's very secure.
If you are already following the above practice then next is to make sure that you remove the tick in the box found in:
Regarding Bing, if you reset your default search engine to whatever your preferences are, using the pull-down menu in the search field in the upper right hand side of Safari, does it keep reverting to Bing? Is there any particular action that causes this, if applicable?
Are you able to replicate the launching of a new Mail message window so you can tell us exactly which action causes Mail to do this?
Sometimes on a webpage, clicking a link will launch Mail.app and a new message window but there should be an email address showing in the To: field and the message body should be blank, so I think we need a bit more info on exactly what's going on with Safari in the lead up to Mail launching ....
- Is there an Admin Acct on your Mac?
- Do you and your son share the same or different accounts?
- What type of account do you and your son (if different accounts) use? Admin or Standard type?
From a security standpoint, and I can sense that you are concerned about security as well as the strange Mail behavior, it is best practice to have an Admin Account but for every day use, the best and safest measure is for both you and your son to each have your own seperate Standard type account.
To install apps or make System changes you will need to supply the Admin Username & Password first so it's very secure.
If you are already following the above practice then next is to make sure that you remove the tick in the box found in:
Safari Preferences ~> General Tab ~> Open 'safe' files after downloading
This adds that extra level of security knowing that if you accidentally download something suspicious, then it won't be opened automatically.
Regarding Bing, if you reset your default search engine to whatever your preferences are, using the pull-down menu in the search field in the upper right hand side of Safari, does it keep reverting to Bing? Is there any particular action that causes this, if applicable?
Are you able to replicate the launching of a new Mail message window so you can tell us exactly which action causes Mail to do this?
Sometimes on a webpage, clicking a link will launch Mail.app and a new message window but there should be an email address showing in the To: field and the message body should be blank, so I think we need a bit more info on exactly what's going on with Safari in the lead up to Mail launching ....