Art2ro Posted May 18, 2011 Posted May 18, 2011 (edited) Lately I've been receiving e-mails from a few of my friends with no subject and turned out to be spam mail! Has their e-mail accounts been compromised or hijacked? Is there a potential risk that these spam mail have viruses if opened! Whenever I get anymore e-mails with no subject, I just delete them from the get go and do not open them, because they just turn out to be junk mail anyways!What should one do to prevent this from happening to their e-mails accounts? Edited May 18, 2011 by Art2ro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Lee Posted May 18, 2011 Posted May 18, 2011 Lately I've been receiving e-mails from a few of my friends with no subject and turned out to be spam mail! Has their e-mail accounts been compromised or hijacked? Is there a potential risk that these spam mail have viruses if opened! Whenever I get anymore e-mails with no subject, I just delete them from the get go and do not open them, because they just turn out to be junk mail anyways!What should one do to prevent this from happening to their e-mails accounts? This has happened to me many times in the past, where I have gotten emails from friends email addresses with, "help me I am stuck in whatever country and need money fast" Or some with a link that says check this out, and if you click on that link, then your email account will be one of those they have also been compromised. The only way to stop it, is to do as you do and to not open any attachments or click on any links in any email that does not feel correct to you. Sad that is what life has come to, but if we download off the internet, or click on links in emails, then we too may become victims. Run a good virus protector and you should be OK because it will warn you before allowing trojans and viruses to get into your computer most times, yet new ones keep coming out all the time, so keep your virus protector up to date daily. And that is yet one more reason why this forum does not allow new members posts to be viewed by members until we have looked at them first, that way we are trying our best to protect all our members. I am a member of one forum that I check into once in a while to read, and it has been inundated with spammers lately, so the spammers are out there and thankfully the members never get to see them because the forum support team never lets those become visible to the members on this forum, so yet another reason we do not allow links from new members we do not know. The worse the economy gets, the more of that junk we can all expect, be careful and keep your computer protected the best you can. It always amazes me how many people I meet here in the Philippines who do not use a virus protector at all, and most internet cafes machines are loaded with viruses, so never download anything anyone sends you from one of those machines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Lee Posted May 18, 2011 Posted May 18, 2011 HERE is a news story I just came across on the subject. You can read the whole thing at the link. So I wonder just how many of us click on links we are not sure of, I know of the one that always pops up saying you won a price that I would never click on and that probably is just spam and not a virus.Microsoft: One in 14 Downloads Is MaliciousThe next time a website says to download new software to view a movie or fix a problem, think twice. There's a pretty good chance that the program is malicious.In fact, about one out of every 14 programs downloaded by Windows users turns out to be malicious,Microsoft said Tuesday. And even though Microsoft has a feature in its Internet Explorer browser designed to steer users away from unknown and potentially untrustworthy software, about 5 percent of users ignore the warnings and download malicious Trojan horse programs anyway.Five years ago, it was pretty easy for criminals to sneak their code onto computers. There were plenty of browser bugs, and many users weren't very good at patching. But since then, the cat-and-mouse game of Internet security has evolved: Browsers have become more secure, and software makers can quickly and automatically push out patches when there's a known problem.So increasingly, instead of hacking the browsers themselves, the bad guys try to hack the people using them. It's called social engineering, and it's a big problem these days. "The attackers have figured out that it's not that hard to get users to download Trojans," said Alex Stamos, a founding partner with Isec Partners, a security consultancy that's often called in to clean up the mess after companies have been hacked.Social engineering is how the Koobface virus spreads on Facebook. Users get a message from a friend telling them to go and view a video. When they click on the link, they're then told that they need to download some sort of video playing software in order to watch. That software is actually a malicious program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belle Posted May 18, 2011 Posted May 18, 2011 Art you may need to update your virus filter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art2ro Posted May 18, 2011 Author Posted May 18, 2011 Good info Lee, but what if I'm not an IE9 user? I'm hooked on Google Chrome and Firefox now! Do they provide the same amount of protection on their web browser? I'm not a computer genius so I don't really know anything about it and if I do read up on it, it's all Greek to me! So far I haven't any problems with viruses ever since I got my desk top and laptop! I just try to do all the things what not to do in preventing viruses from getting into my computer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art2ro Posted May 18, 2011 Author Posted May 18, 2011 Art you may need to update your virus filter. I'm a not too bright of a PC novice! What's that or how do I update my virus filter on what? All I have on my PC is the free Avast anti-virus shareware program and it updates itself automatically during startup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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