Watch out for the “Free 101 Mini-Articles” email scam

by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Tuesday, 29 April 2008

Page 1 of 2 ! Spammers sending messages laden with malware, be it spyware, viruses or programs to trap our computers in nefarious botnets are getting trickier and trickier in their attempts to get us to not only click on an email, but open the attachment. The latest one is as evil as ever, and could fool plenty of people into clicking. Watch out: the spammers are back with more malware laden emails, with the very latest one guaranteed to fool at least some people. I’ve been receiving a series of emails purporting to be from “NetBizHelpers: Your Guide for the Digital Frontier!”, with an enticing offer of “FREE 101 Mini-Articles” – and an included 101.zip file that I’m being urged to open right away, something that sets off immediate alarm bells – in my head, at least. If there’s one law of email, it’s this: be very careful about opening any unsolicited attachment from a friend, and NEVER open one when it just arrives out-of-the-blue from a person or company unknown. Of course, friends send unsolicited attachments all the time – funny Powerpoint slideshows, funny video clips and more. It’s very easy to start attachments from friends, because they’re your friends, but this is how I was caught, years ago, with the Melissa virus. Even though I had an anti-virus solution at the time, Melissa was ‘too new’ for it to be detected, and because it came from a trusted friend, I opened it. Now, I have to say that over the years I’ve become much more lax, especially as anti-virus software has gotten smarter with its heuristics and overall ability to stop viruses before they attack, and the fact that I look at the attachment before I open it. If it looks safe, like a Powerpoint, I normally do open it, especially if it’s a friend that often sends funny things, but it’s still dangerous, so you need to be careful. If in doubt, don’t open it! So, what does the latest email scam specifically say? Please read onto page 2. << First page <   1 2 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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