Freeware App for Checking Trojans/Viruses/Etc.?

[Amie]

Is there a freeware app for Mac for checking your system for trojans/viruses/possible hacks/etc.? I was casually browsing the Internet and I clicked a link and all of sudden this window popped up and started flashing in my face like the world was coming to an end and it said that there were something like 34 trojans and viruses on my system and it even showed my system home folder with all my stuff in it! I am thinking it was an advertisement, a scam to get me to download the program or whatever it was, but at the same time, I wonder because if it was an ad, how was it able to show all my personal folders?

Anyway, I didn't trust it; I clicked off the window. I would rather download a reputable app and test it myself. So, of course, now I am paranoid that there are in fact trojans on my computer. Is there a freeware app for this that will check my system safely?

 

[SGilbert]

ClamXav seems to me the best, however, Sophos Anti-Virus has recently come on scene. Both have caught 'stuff' on my Mac. Nothing serious, but there none-the-less. Both are free.

 

[icemanjc]

ClamXav seems to me the best, however, Sophos Anti-Virus has recently come on scene.

I'll second Sophos, it's always worked great for me.

 

[Doctor X]

AND . . . you do not actually have any vira/virons/wee beasties. This is a scam that plagues the PC World so far: you click linky, you run scan, it places viruses/EVIL! on your PC . . . you cry.

--J.D.

 

[MisterMe]

... I am thinking it was an advertisement, a scam to get me to download the program or whatever it was, but at the same time, I wonder because if it was an ad, how was it able to show all my personal folders?

...

This is not quite a parlor trick, but scams of this type have scared the dickens out of Windows users for decades. The fake ad has no way of knowing what is on your hard drive, nor does it have to. All it needs to do is to execute a command to display your file structure and to setup a frame to display the results. In Windows, this command is: c:\>dir. The command is perfectly harmless. It is executed locally and cannot send its results to an outside user. UNIX has commands that serve the same purpose as the dir command in MS DOS. They are even more harmless when executed by a downloadable script.

 

[Satcomer]

Plus read the MacWorld article How to force your Mac to update its malware definitions. I use the the Safe Downloads application available in the article Safe Download Version Adds Manual Definitions Update.