Email Viruses and Spam



So now that you have entered the world of the Internet and having been emailing all your friends and family with this totally cool new means of communication, there are some things that you need to be aware of – viruses and spam.

  

Courtesy of elisha06.mlblogs.com

Emails can contain computer viruses, worms and spyware.  These are designed to damage your computer.  The sad thing is that the email’s recipient is unaware that his/her machine is being affected.  They open what looks like a legitimate email and Bam! - your computer is affected (Thanks Emeril).  

Courtesy of metrolic.com

Microsoft  warns you to never open an email attachment from someone you don’t know and even if you do know them and are not expecting an attachment, don’t open it (Microsoft, 2011).   Damages include corrupting your files and computer, erasing your hard drive or spreading the virus to all of your email contacts.

Like viruses, spyware can be accessed through email attachments or even from downloads from the Internet (Shelly, 2010).  Spyware differs in that it gathers your personal information and uses it in malicious ways.

Spam is another bad thing associated with emailing.  Spam has become so prevalent because of the ease of emailing and the inexpensiveness (Shelly, 2010).  Some spam is just plain advertising for lower interest rates, meeting singles online and drugs.  Most email providers (AOL, Yahoo!, Verizon) offer spam detection.  The most annoying one I get looks like a legitimate email address.  It is actually my sister-in-laws address.  There is usually no topic in the subject line (that is my first clue that it is not really her).  The other clue is that is has an attachment.  This first time I opened this was at work.  To my embarrassment, up popped an ad for Viagra.  I couldn’t close that attachment fast enough.

The other parts of spam are those people that are trying to obtain personal information from you.  Some of these spams look totally official, like from the government or banking institute.  Known as phishing these are used to gain credit card information, passwords or bank account numbers.  Official businesses like banks or government agencies will NEVER email you and ask for that information.  If you receive something like this, delete immediately. 

I always wonder what kind of people would actually do such malicious stuff.  No one really knows.  Some are hoping to gain from it, such as those looking for bank numbers or credit card number, but others do it just for fun to see if they can do it.

Now I didn’t mean to scare you with this information and tell you to never email again.  Just do your research and learn before emailing.  I know I have – will you?

References

Microsoft, 2011

      Microsoft Support, Retrieved 12 March 2011 from

      http://support.microsoft.com/kb/129972

Shelly, Napier, Rivers  Discovering the Internet  2010

      Course Technology, Cengage Learning, Boston, Massachusetts