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My mail keeps popping up with kinky adds

07/28/2018 MacOS Mojave vs. 10.14.6


On the top-right hand corner of my desktop screen I have been getting popup notifications for mail coming into my mailbox. This has been going on for years but it has started to get annoying. Two days ago I attempted to do something about this. I went to "Mail' then to "Preferences" and I tried to figure out how to stop this annoyance. I don't remember exactly what buttons I pressed to fix the problem. Since then I have not received any personal mail but I started to get continuous notifications that "My Norton Expired 3 Days Ago", "My Computer Might Be Infected With Virus" and along with this I get a streaming of semi-nude girls requesting me to connect to talk to these kinky girls. I never had "Norton" installed in this computer nor have I gone to any kinky websites. I have not clicked on any of these icons and if I check my mailbox I can not find any of these virus warnings nor the kinky ladies...but neither do I see any new personal mail. Any help in this matter would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.13

Posted on Feb 2, 2020 8:33 AM

Reply
11 replies

Feb 4, 2020 12:59 PM in response to gaucho10

You should not be running any anti-virus applications on your Mac, and Norton is among the worst of those. Visit the Symantec site and apply the vendor's specific removal instructions of Norton, or any other so-called security product. The operating system has all of the built-in security that you need, and there are no viruses on the Mac any way.


No one can detect any infection on your Mac remotely. Common SPAM and Phishing scheme to scare you into parting with your money.


Here is a short AppleScript that will tell you the email address of the sender, and the originating server. I do not use SPAMSieve, but the server address may be useful in its configuration to block these particular emails.


Open Script Editor (Dock : Launchpad : Other : Script Editor), and copy/paste the following into it. Click the hammer (compile buttion). Now, open Apple Mail, and select one of these unwelcome SPAM emails. Click the Run button in the Script Editor, and you will receive a dialog regarding the sender email (that they want you to see), and the originating server (that they don't want you to see).


-- maddr_rtnpath.applescript
-- For selected Apple Mail message, display From and Return-Path Mail header content
-- VikingOSX, 2019-10-29, Apple Support Communities, No warranties expressed or implied.

use framework "Foundation"
use AppleScript version "2.4" -- Yosemite or later
use scripting additions

property NSString : a reference to current application's NSString
property NSRegularExpression : a reference to current application's NSRegularExpression
property NSRegularExpressionCaseInsensitive : a reference to current application's NSRegularExpressionCaseInsensitive

tell application "Mail"
	if not it is running then activate
	
	if not (get selection) is {} then
		set theMsg to item 1 of (get selection)
	else
		return
	end if
	
	tell theMsg
		set theSender to its sender
		set theHDR to its all headers
	end tell
end tell
set rtnpath to my return_address(theHDR) as text
set fmsg to "Sender Address:" & return & theSender & return & return & ¬
	"Return-Path:" & return & rtnpath

display dialog fmsg with title "Current Mail Item Addresses"
return

on return_address(atxt)
	set hstr to NSString's alloc()'s initWithString:atxt
	set pattern to "(?<=Return-Path:|Return-path:)\\s+(<.*?>).*"
	set regex to NSRegularExpression's regularExpressionWithPattern:pattern options:NSRegularExpressionCaseInsensitive |error|:0
	set hrange to current application's NSMakeRange(0, hstr's |length|())
	set matches to (regex's firstMatchInString:hstr options:0 range:hrange)
	
	if matches = "" then return "Not Found"
	
	set matchrange to matches's rangeAtIndex:1
	return (hstr's substringWithRange:matchrange) as text
end return_address




Feb 2, 2020 8:54 AM in response to gaucho10

Those float in notifications are not managed from within the Mail application, but rather from System Preferences : Notifications panel. There, you select Mail from among the applications, and can choose to disable all Notifications from Mail, or disable all banners and Alerts. There are other settings that you may or may not choose to disable.


The first paragraph has nothing to do with your receiving what appears to be wholesale SPAM, and that is managed by carefully constructed Mail rules, or the third-party SPAMSieve application.

Feb 3, 2020 11:09 AM in response to VikingOSX

I purchased and installed "SpamSieve". I also went into Apple-System Preferences-Notifications-Mail. Under "Mail Alert Style" I clicked on "None". Now I am not getting many email notifications but I am still getting a few BUT I am getting many of those kinky icons and several "Your Mac is Infected?", "Norton Expired 3 Days Ago", etc. icons. I have not clicked on any of these icons but it appears to be coming from "kansascity-comiccon.com". They are not getting into my email so that I can not click on them to "Train as Spam" in the SpamSieve program.

Feb 4, 2020 2:26 PM in response to VikingOSX

VikingOSX, Thanks again for your input. I did not install Norton nor any other anti-virus program in my Mac. The banners were trying to trick me into pressing one of the icons.


The first time I tried to fix this problem myself I went to “Apple - System Preferences - Notifications - Mail”.  Under “Mail alert styles” I changed it to “None”.  The banners were still popping up because the mail notifications were just that - notifications and not mail going into my email program where "SpamSieve" could be trained to remove. 


I then contacted a Apple representative and she walked me through to find what I think is the fix for my problem. The problem was actually with "Google Chrome" and not with my email program. We went into Google Chrome.  At the top right I clicked on the three dots “Customize and Control Google Chrome”.  Then I went to “Settings" and at the top I clicked on “Search” and typed “Notifications” "Return".  The word “Notifications” was highlighted under “Site Settings” then into “Notifications” where I found a list of “Blocked” and “Allowed” addresses.  Under “Allowed” I found the address that was infecting my desktop but not going into my email app.  I moved that address into the “Block” column and I think the problem has gone away…at least for that particular adware. The problem was actually in Chrome notifications.


I hope this helps someone else in a similar situation.


Thanks again,

My mail keeps popping up with kinky adds

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