I know everyone says "no spy/malware on macs" but....

Question

...I am almost 100% positive something fishy (phishy?) has infected my system.
A while back I fell for the fake emails that were sent out claiming to be order confirmations for Sony Vaios from stores like Wal-mart and Best Buy.
I unzipped the "pdf receipt" like an idiot... I guess the fear of having a 2000 dollar computer purchased with my stolen credit card number caught me off guard. Once I saw the file was actually an .exe, I realized it was a scam. Because I know .exe files don't run on Macs, I didn't worry much about it.
But ever since this event, I have received a glut of pop-up ads... this is especially odd, because before, I never saw any at all. I also believe that my business email address, which had been clean up to that point, was added to a spam database... since the event I receive clusters of spam every day, which, much like the pop-ups, had not been a problem at all before I opened the email. After doing some research on this particular piece of malware, I learned that these are two of the symptoms associated with that particular malware.
So I know the .exe file didn't run on my system, but it seems possible to me that something else was placed in my system when the .zip file opened. I am finding it difficult to find any possible solutions to this because it seems the default answer is always "there are no malicious files for Macs".
This seems like a crutch and it is very frusturating because I am almost certain the suspicious behavior originated with that email. So maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it isn't malware, but I know one thing: someday soon, if not already, there will be malicious programs written for Macs. The only reason there aren't is not because of superior security on Macs, it's merely because no one is writing them. But as Apple continue to surge in popularity, you know that can't last. And this "no viruses on Macs" mantra that has been pounded into our heads ad-naseum is going to make Mac users sitting ducks.

Answer 1

Welcome to Apple Discussions
You are not seeing any affect from Malware etc. that you would see on a PC system. With that said, is your pop-up blocker (via the Safari Menu) selected? Also, PithHelmet is a very good ad-on for blocking this type of content. Much more feature oriented than what Safari provides.
Also, have you checked your Cookies file (Safari Preferences>Security>Cookies) recently? There may be one or more cookies related to the E-mail you opened. If you find any, single-click, then select "remove.
I use SafariPlus for Cookie management. Much better than the Safari approach.