Avoiding Internet Dangers, Financial Scams,
and other Online Hazards

While most people assume that they will never fall to any scam, tens of thousands do every year. Americans lose billions of dollars a year to various types of confidence scams. They have various levels of sophistication. Particularly iniquitous are email scams that pretend to be established entities. They will send an email from a well known bank or corporation. They will often go as far as creating a fake website presenting itself as that known corporation. All of this is done in an effort to get PIN numbers and other sensitive information from unsuspecting visitors. The following sites contain valuable information in both recognizing scams/frauds and how to safeguard against them:

http://www.scambusters.org/

http://www.ripoffreport.com

http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/index.php

http://www.stop-scammers.com

http://hubpages.com/hub/Ebay_Scams

http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/Internet_Fraud.shtml

http://www.investorguide.com/igu-article-527-identity-theft-credit-fraud-and-how-to-protect-yourself.html

http://banking.about.com/od/securityandsafety/Scams_Security_Safety.htm

A brief note of caution about Trojans and Malware sent via email. Most Spam and junk email can be spotted instantly. Even those that may slip through email filters tend to be obvious. However, there are times when you may see an email that you’re not 100% certain is Spam. Depending on the mail utility you are using you may well be tempted to preview it prior to fully opening it. This is NOT a recommended plan of action. Worms, Trojans and Malware can be activated be the simply act of previewing. This is especially true in older versions of Outlook. If you have such a message and insist on finding out the content take the following steps:

Scan it with multiple Anti-Spy and
Anti-virus programs
Open it on an isolated desktop that you can afford to lose (one that is not connected to a network), in which case, if it becomes infected you don’t lose any precious data.

If you don’t have a desktop or other expendable PC treat the message as Spam pure and simple. It’s better to error on the side of caution.

If it’s truly a message of great magnitude then chances are you’ll receive another one!

Ks3 (Keep safe, smart, strong)!

Visit these sites listed below for more information about online safety and how you can protect computer

Technology:
http://arstechnica.com/index.ars

http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/index.html

http://www.avast.com/

http://www.webroot.com/En_US/consumer-products-spysweeper.html

For more IT information visit the following site:
http://arstechnica.com/index.ars