Efforts to Plant Malware through my Apple Mail

Avast has not rebuffed any virus attempt from the email. It is actually useless and is just giving you a false message so you think they are doing something to protect your security and there is actually nothing that they have done. Trying to prove their relevance is how they maintain users and subscriptions.

As for the SPAM email you are receiving, the sender of these spams just spoof the sending address so blocking one will not prevent the next one from coming in. Anyone that has your email address is going to be allowed to send you an email, but you can use email filtering rules for words such as "Unicorn Bulletin" that will automatically move those emails to Junk or Delete without relying on the false sending address.

Use rules to manage emails you receive in Mail on Mac - Apple Support

nickfromsingapore wrote:

Actually I think Avast is useful and I see it os regarded as one of the best by independent researchers.

I agree that Mac's built-in malware protection is quite good on the whole but know a few people without a 3rd party protection who have bene caught out.

Do you? Were you aware that Avast spies on you and sells your browsing habits to businesses? And they have been fined millions of dollars for doing so, and each time they are caught they say they stopped, but actually continued?

https://www.vice.com/en/article/avast-antivirus-sells-user-browsing-data-investigation/

https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2024/02/software-provider-avast-will-pay-165-million-compromising-consumers-privacy

Avast has three functions:

1. Slow down your Mac
2. Give you false positives so you think it is doing something
3. Earn big bucks for Avast’s executives

That’s it. Neither Avast nor any other antivirus improves on Apple’s built in malware protection.

Get rid of Avast. It does nothing useful and takes your money. It's giving you false positives. Unless you click on links and download things from those emails, they are not dangerous.

Your Mac absolutely has built-in malware protection.

Effective defenses against malware and ot… - Apple Community

You are free to use any service you wish. We have simply seen the issues Avast has caused users here on this support site and you can do the same by using the Search tab on top of the screen. The app along with other Anti-Virus is very difficult to fully remove as it wants to forever live on your computer running in the background. Dragging it to the trash or even using their uninstaller will not remove it from your computer. It will show pop-ups claiming it had prevented something, just so you think it is doing its job and you will continue to support it. That is how it tries to prove its own relevance.

The truth is that it is worthless and instead of protecting you, the company has been caught harvesting your browsing data and selling it to other companies. I would consider that spyware, the exact type of thing it should be protecting you from.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/avast-antivirus-sells-user-browsing-data-investigation/

nickfromsingapore wrote:

Actually I think Avast is useful and I see it os regarded as one of the best by independent researchers.

I agree that Mac's built-in malware protection is quite good on the whole but know a few people without a 3rd party protection who have bene caught out.

Caught out by what?

Did you carefully read the article Bob and I linked to? Or the article Mac Jim ID linked to?

Read this user tip then uninstall all third party apps that claim to protect, clean, etc.

Effective defenses against malware and ot… - Apple Community