[G4] Spammer attack / virus

[Tony Johansen]

I have been getting increasing spam attacks since mid year, shortly after I
let my Anti Virus lapse. Despite the common wisdom that few if any viruses
can attack the Mac itself, I have a problem that as I eliminate possiblities
is starting to look like it is coming from my computer. As a result of this
problem I have now got a blacklisted IP for spam which I am not sending
although it is possible it is my computer doing it without my knowledge.

I write this to bring the issue to everyones attention in light of
discussions suggesting Macs are not vulnerable to attack, and maybe that is
still the case, but maybe not.

I started getting mail that seemed to be from me but to numerous names that
are fictitious. Example stan at tonyjohansen.com, frank at tonyjohansen.com,
stella at tonyjohansen.com etc.   At their peak I was getting about 6 a day,
but they have died down to just a few a week now but in their place have
come mails that appear to be from my ISP and with subjects like 'Warning:
Account About To Be Cancelled' They all have attachments which I don't open
and my ISP says they are not genuine.

At first I thought it was an outside party, possibly someone who has me in
their address book, but now that I have discovered I have been blacklisted
for spam, I suspect it is in my computer. While I have no AV I do have Macro
Virus Protection enabled in MS Office. Additionally I use Hotmail, Mail and
Entourage. I have my 3 main email addresses separate, one on Hotmail, one on
Entourage, one on Mail. Hotmail seems not to be affected, but 2 separate
email addresses, one from my ISP, the other from one of my websites and
hosted away from the ISP with another company are equally affected with each
getting spoof mail from the server connected to that email address. That is
the mail that comes from my website email adress is on Mail only while the
email address from my ISP is on Entourage and that is where I get the spoofs
that claim to be from my ISP.

Anyone any experience in what precisely I am looking for and how to get rid
of it? And protect my self in future?

Tony.
Mac OS 10.3.9  eMac   cable broadband