suspicious e-mail

smokey2

over the past day or so I've been gettin more and more mail originating from the same address YourGiftCards.com now I'm not sure what to do with it but it keeps asking me to connect to links to collect a prize/claim my award etc etc.... I'm relatively new to this internet thingumy so I'm kinda scared of anythin I aint ordered or directly requested so I'm not goin to open it but if anyone has got/opened it or knows where it's comin from then help is much appreciated! I've been told not to unsubscribe cos that'll let spamers know it's an active address and then I'll be bombarded with spam!

Static M.e.

its spam, just delete or block

smokey2

yeah I've just been deleting it!! just I got worried cos of virus etc and this pc is only new!

briano

Don't even open the emails. Just delete them. And turn on junk mail filters. And change to a different browser. And make sure your av is up to date. And don't open any attachments that you didn't know were coming. And make sure your patches are up to date. And... rah rah rah.

Good luck with the "Internet Thumigiy" but if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get out my old C64 and 9,600 baud modem (about the size of a shoebox) and live out the rest of my days in blissful isolation.

uberwolf

block it and depending on your service provider report it as spam. Believe it or not merely following that link can allow someone access to you PC depending on the precautions you have in place. If in doubt ignore and delete.

Rev Hellfire

Before you do all these things, change your mail client to display text only.

grumpytrousers

Ooh - got a great 'scam' email today....

"Dear Citibank Member,

This email was sent by the citibank server to verify your email address. You must complete this process by clicking on the link below and entering in the small window your Citibank ATM/Debit Card number and PIN that you use on ATM. This is done for your protection --becuase some of our members no longer have access to their email addresses and we must verify it.

To verify your email address and access your bank account, click on the link below:"

Gives a link then which looks like it's www.citibank.com but if you hover over it, you can see it aint

Anybody know if the Fraud squad have a few dummy credit card/accounts set up for the purposes of entrapping f***ers like these lads...

smokey2

that's a good one alright! I'm just so worried bout viruses thad I don't open anythin now! BRIANO should I know how to do all that???? I have mcafee version 6.0 I got with the pc and nearly everytime I go on line somethin gets an update!! is this enough to protect my pc??

briano

Right. This is probably a bit much for stopping junk email, but you'll probably need to do these things eventually. I'm also assuming that you are running the computer from home and are the administrator of the machine.

Do, in no particular order:

1. If you are using Hotmail or Yahoo for your email then there will be a link saying "options" Go in there and set your junk mail to exclusive.

You'll need to check your junk mail folder every now and again to make sure that valid emails are not being delivered to there.

If you are using Outlook or Outlook express to read your emails, do like Rev. Hellfire said and turn off html in emals. You should also turn off previews, so the client doesn't actually open the emails until you click on them.

And again, if you don't know who an email is from, you probably don't want to open it. Never ever EVER run an attachment from an email unless you are 100% sure you know who sent it to you and, more importantly, what it does.

2. If you are using windows (which I reckon you probably are) go to www.windowsupdate.com and get the patches and fixes for your system. The first time you do this it'll take a while, but it should be much quicker after that. Turn on automatic updates. I'm not really up on how well windows updates work and how long they take, but if you go to the windows board someone there will know.(Probably Colm MSFT)

If you are using linux, fair dues, run apt-get or yum or yast2 or whichever program to update your system. But if you are using linux you probably knew all that anyway.

3. Stop using internet explorer. Go to www.opera.com or www.mozilla.org and get a new browser. Then never use IE again. Aside from providing a much better experience, you'll also make your computer more secure

4. If you are using windows XP turn on the firewall. Go into Network Conections, right click the active network port (your modem probably), go into advanced and turn on the firewall.

If you are using windows 2000, 98, 95 or, god forbid, ME then you will need to download a firewall and install it. http://www.agnitum.com/ has a free one called outpost that is meant to be pretty good. I think norton also do one.

If you feel up to it, turn off services running on your pc that you don't need. Google for instructions on how to do it, but be careful when you are messing around with your system like that.

5. Antivirus- sounds like maccaffee is updating itself, but make sure you keep you subscription up to date (it'll probably prompt you to update it) I think is about $30 a year for personal subscriptions, I'm working off memory, so I could be way off.

I'm sure there are other things you could do, and probably clearer instructions then these from people who are better at security than I am, but they should be enough to make your pc a bit more secure.

EDIT: www.lavasoft.com have a good utility called adaware. Dowload the latest version (its free for personal use) and run that on your machine. It'll pick up spyware/adware that may be already installed on your pc and get rid of it for you


Brian

smokey2

done done done done and done!! thanks I should be ok now!! I hope! also got spyball search and destroy v1.3 and ad-aware v6 to help clean things up!!!