Email Viruses - Stop Computer Viruses In Their Tracks

...information from Internet ScamBusters



Note: This information isn't meant to scare you. It's meant to educate you, so that you can defend yourself properly.

What Is a Computer Virus?

Like viruses that infect living beings, computer viruses infect your computer. They are software, and are often attached to other software or documents you might receive. When you run the virus's software or the file the virus has infected, the virus can infect your computer's software.

There are many types of viruses and terms for them, but we'll use the general term 'virus' to make things easy.

Like the flu virus, a computer virus must spread from host to host to survive. When we get the flu, we cough and sneeze, and tiny particles carrying the virus spread the flu to other people.

With computer viruses, the virus is designed to spread from your computer to other computers. Here are some of the most common ways they spread:

1. Once the virus has infected your system, it may automatically send out emails containing more copies of the virus using the address book in your email program. This type of virus is called an Internet "Worm," because it is a self-propagating virus. For example, an Internet worm crippled tens of thousands of computers and slowed down parts of the Internet on the weekend of January 29, 2003.


2. If the virus is a macro virus (attached to a Microsoft Word document, for example), it may attach itself to any document you create or modify. If you send another document to someone by email, the virus goes along with it.

3. Sometimes viruses masquerade as a fun program (like an electronic greeting card) that secretly infects your system. If you pass the program along, not realizing that it contains a virus, you will be transmitting the virus manually to your friends, family, or colleagues.


Trojan Horses are closely related to computer viruses, but they differ in that they do not attempt to replicate themselves. More specifically, a Trojan Horse performs some undesired -- yet intended -- action while, or in addition to, pretending to do something else. A common example is a fake login program, which collects account information and passwords by asking for this info just like a normal login program does.

Many computer viruses are malicious -- in other words, they can erase your files or lock up whole computer systems. Other computer viruses are more benign -- they don't do any direct damage other than by spreading themselves locally or throughout the Internet.

Regardless, computer viruses should always be treated.

... get more information at CyberSecurity for Seniors

Ontario Provincial Police warn public to beware of fraudulent Internet scam

ORILLIA, Ontario, February 3, 2010 /Canada NewsWire/ - The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Anti-Rackets Branch is investigating an Internet-based fraud scheme and warning the public to exercise vigilance when dealing in business transactions with unknown individuals over the Internet and/or by telephone.

The investigation has revealed that an Ontario resident recently applied online to a job advertisement for an Accounting Assistant/Payment Representative position posted at an employment centre.

The position professed to involve working from home by contacting legitimate companies via the Internet on behalf of a fraudulent company and receiving cheques purportedly from these companies that were mailed to the new employee by the fraudulent employer. A company representative then instructed the victim via email or by telephone to deposit the cheques to her personal bank account and retain a 10 per cent fee for her work and the remainder of the money was to be deposited to a specified account or sent via email money transfer.

Fortunately, both the victim and her bank reported this matter to police when they became suspicious of the excessive amount on one of the cheques.

The investigation also revealed that the cheques received by the victim originated from legitimate Canadian businesses and the OPP have since linked these cheques to reported incidents of cheque theft and cheque duplication.

The OPP is warning the public to refrain from engaging in any business transactions with individuals they do not know, over the Internet, even if they provide a telephone number and email address.

If you have any information or if you are a victim of this scam, please report it to your local police service or contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Call Centre at: 1-888-495-8501 or online at www.recol.ca.

"The very first law in advertising is to avoid the concrete promise and cultivate the delightfully vague." - Bill Cosby

Privacy Commissioner launches new Facebook probe

New complaint highlights dissatisfaction with privacy changes that the popular social networking site has been making in the wake of last summer's in-depth investigation by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.


OTTAWA, January 27, 2010 /Canada NewsWire Telbec/ - In response to a new public complaint, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada is once again launching an investigation into Facebook, the social networking site whose privacy policies and practices were the subject of a comprehensive probe by her Office last summer.

The complaint focuses on a tool introduced by Facebook in mid-December 2009, which required users to review their privacy settings. The complainant alleges that the new default settings would have made his information more readily available than the settings he had previously put in place.

"The individual's complaint mirrors some of the concerns that our Office has heard and expressed to Facebook in recent months," said Elizabeth Denham, the Assistant Privacy Commissioner who spearheaded the original investigation and follow-up.

"Some Facebook users are disappointed by certain changes being made to the site - changes that were supposed to strengthen their privacy and the protection of their personal information."

In July 2009, Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart released findings of an in-depth examination of the privacy issues raised by the California-based site, which now claims 350 million users worldwide.

Key concerns highlighted in the report related to Facebook's transparency and clarity - specifically, the need to better explain how it handles the personal information in its care. The report also recommended that Facebook provide users with increased control over their personal information. In August, following intensive discussions, Facebook agreed to modify its site in ways that would address the Commissioner's concerns.

Since then, however, changes to the site's privacy information, settings and tools have sparked criticism from users who feel that personal information posted to the site is, in some instances, even more exposed now than before.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada will investigate the complaint it has received, while continuing to follow up with Facebook as it introduces new changes to its site. The company committed last August to resolving within a year all of the concerns raised in the first investigation report.


The Privacy Commissioner of Canada is mandated by Parliament to act as an ombudsman, advocate and guardian of privacy and the protection of personal information rights of Canadians.

Joint force operation leads to arrests for debit card fraud

TORONTO, January 22, 2010 /Canada NewsWire/ - The continuing joint force partnership to combat credit debit and credit card frauds between the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau (OCEB) - Identity Crimes Unit and Durham Regional Police Major Crime - Fraud Unit (DRPS) has resulted in the arrest of seven males and two females for point-of-sale terminal "pin pad" tampering.

The investigation which began in the Parry Sound area in November 2009 identified a group of suspects who were responsible for numerous incidents of credit card terminal tampering across the Greater Toronto area and Ontario. The investigation determined these suspects were also responsible for the use of the fraudulent debit card data collected from the tampered "pin pads". The suspects targeted various retail establishments which conduct credit and debit card transactions without the knowledge of the various retailers.

On January 21, 2010 investigators from the OPP OCEB-Identity Crimes Unit and Durham Regional Police assisted by Peel Regional Police, Toronto Police and Canada Border Services executed nine search warrants across the Greater Toronto area. As a result of the warrants, investigators arrested nine persons and seized stolen point-of-sale terminal "pin pads", hundreds of forged debit cards encoded with stolen debit card data, computer equipment used to encode magnetic stripes and over $100,000 in cash.

Investigators have laid charges under the new Identity Theft legislation brought into Canadian law on January 8, 2010.

Police along with the banking industry continue to work together to detect and prevent these crimes, which cost hundreds of millions of dollars in losses each year in Canada.

Anyone with information in relation to this investigation is asked to contact Detective Sergeant Doug Cousens of the OPP Identity Crimes Unit at 1-905-671-6883 or Detective Jeff Caplan of the DRPS Major Crime - Fraud Unit at 1-888-579-1520 ext. 5702.

Police caution the public to always be alert and aware when using their respective bank debit cards.

Anonymous information can be sent to Crime Stoppers where tipsters may be eligible for a $2,000 cash reward.

How to Detect Online Scams

from HowStuffWorks.com
by Jonathan Strickland

"Hey buddy, come over here. Listen, keep this quiet. I've got a friend overseas who's trying to come here. He's filthy rich but he has to go through a lot of red tape on his side and ours. I was hoping you could help me out by spotting me a few thousand dollars so that we could grease the wheels a little. Don't worry -- once he's over here he'll repay your investment 100 times over. What do you say?"


If a random stranger approached you on the street and said something like that, you'd probably ignore him and keep walking. You might even report him to the local police. Who would trust someone they had never met with that much money? But an online scam very similar to the scenario above has fooled thousands of people into giving away millions of dollars to the scam artists. It seems that people who might be able to smell a rat in a real life encounter become more gullible while online... read more at HowStuffWorks.com

Scammers plan to clear out your gift card balance

from Scambusters.org

After the "season of giving" some of us can find ourselves
with a surplus of gift cards from stores where we can't or
don't want to shop.

The Internet provides the answer. Why not sell them -- usually
at a discount -- to someone who can use them?

Looks like a win-win situation -- until you encounter the gift
card scam artists.

Here's how they work: You offer your card on an auction or
classified ad site. A "buyer" asks for an electronic snapshot
of your balance as proof of its value.

They direct you to a bogus site, usually in the format of "My"
followed by the store name, followed by "Giftcard.com" (e.g.
"MyStoreNameGiftcard.com"), where they say you can get this
snapshot.

As soon as you key your card details in, the scammer has them
and will use or transfer the balance as quick as a flash.
That's it. You won't get your money back.

So, if you do have gift cards from Christmas -- or any other
time -- to sell, we recommend you use one of the sites
specially set up for these transactions (do a Google search
for "gift card exchange" -- but, remember, always double check
the credentials of any company you deal with). And recognize
even the legit exchanges often charge a hefty fee.

Or you could just "regift" them.

10 Top Scams of 2009 and 2010

from Scambusters.org

With a likely global toll of more than $1 billion lost to Internet and phone scammers in 2009, it's time to review our Top 10 scam predictions for the past year and throw forward our thinking on what's going to change in 2010.

Our predictions, (unscientifically) confirmed by the feedback we get from the hundreds of thousands of Scambusters subscribers and visitors, official surveys and the regular news reports we scan, once again came pretty close to the mark.

Identity theft and phishing remained the biggest source of scams in 2009, with, as we predicted, a stronger-than-ever showing from economy-related scams, which came in at Number 2.

Looking to the future, we expect many of the old patterns to repeat themselves, though often using new approaches to try to catch us out.

But there's also a growing threat that we've seen more and more evidence in 2009 -- from the "planting" of viruses and spyware -- and there's one newcomer to our list of Top 10 scams for 2010.

Let's take a closer look...at Scambusters.org