Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Fake e-mail Bills on Internet - Virus, Spam, Frauds
Fake e-mail Bills on the Internet
Computer and Net viruses have started taking different avatars. These days, they have started arriving via forged bills on e-mail. While earlier it was rather easy to detect bogus mails earlier, the spammers and hackers of today are far more sophisticated. The images and logos you find these days on fake bills and mails are quite similar to the original and to add to the authenticity, the mails also have genuine-looking telephone numbers you can make calls to.
Typically, these fake bills will have an attachment - a Microsoft Word or PDF document - which when opened will install harmful viruses on your desktop computer.
While scams such as these are conceptually as old as the Internet itself, the authentic looking new-age viruses are very tempting to click on. As a careful Net user, it is advisable for you never to click on an attachment you are not sure about. When in doubt, first call up the relevant entity before clicking on the link.
In a similar vein, you will likely be getting mails with attachments from your acquaintances. Some of these messages even have genuine-looking message topics. Unless you are sure that your friend or acquaintance would have sent such an attachment, do not open it. And again, if you are in doubt, send a response to your friend asking him/her if they had sent you any attachment. You would rather wait for a day to open a document than spend days starting life anew on your computer, wouldn't you?
Computer and Net viruses have started taking different avatars. These days, they have started arriving via forged bills on e-mail. While earlier it was rather easy to detect bogus mails earlier, the spammers and hackers of today are far more sophisticated. The images and logos you find these days on fake bills and mails are quite similar to the original and to add to the authenticity, the mails also have genuine-looking telephone numbers you can make calls to.
Typically, these fake bills will have an attachment - a Microsoft Word or PDF document - which when opened will install harmful viruses on your desktop computer.
While scams such as these are conceptually as old as the Internet itself, the authentic looking new-age viruses are very tempting to click on. As a careful Net user, it is advisable for you never to click on an attachment you are not sure about. When in doubt, first call up the relevant entity before clicking on the link.
In a similar vein, you will likely be getting mails with attachments from your acquaintances. Some of these messages even have genuine-looking message topics. Unless you are sure that your friend or acquaintance would have sent such an attachment, do not open it. And again, if you are in doubt, send a response to your friend asking him/her if they had sent you any attachment. You would rather wait for a day to open a document than spend days starting life anew on your computer, wouldn't you?
Labels: computer-virus, internet, online-fraud
