A few months ago, I mistakenly opened a phishing email while I was really tired. I quickly disconnected my Mac from the Wi-Fi and shut it down. It took me a while to get around to formatting it, but since then, I've been hesitant to use it because I don't feel secure about it. Right now, it's just sitting at the setup screen. I've been managing with an old laptop, but I'd prefer to use my Mac again. How can I ensure it's safe to use?
4 Answers
I can see why you'd worry, but opening an email can’t hurt. Just make sure you haven't clicked on anything. If you're still feeling uneasy, you could always reformat your hard drive since there are no real risks from just viewing the email.
No need to stress too much! Just opening an email doesn't harm your computer. It's the links and attachments that are dangerous. Since you just scrolled without clicking, you're probably fine!
You shouldn’t need a USB to wipe your Mac. Starting with Catalina, the OS is on a read-only partition, so there’s a very low chance of issues. Just follow Apple's instructions for formatting, and remember that Recovery options are built-in. You can get back to a clean slate without much hassle!
You're overreacting a bit! Just opening the email itself can't compromise your Mac. The real threats are if you click links or download files from it. So as long as you didn't do that, you're in good shape!
That's a huge relief! I really didn’t interact with any links or files.