Things are not always as they seem with virus Warnings

As Expats in Portugal, many of us rely on email to communicate with friends and relatives 'back home' so we check our email inbox regularly. Most us are aware of Computer Viruses being passed around the Internet attached to emails, and if you were not, then you are now.

It is becoming an ever increasing problem, but Hoax Warning messages spread even faster. The problem with the Hoax 'Warning Message' is that everyone thinks they are doing a good thing by sending it to everyone in their address book. As I said in the title 'things are not always as they seem!'

Protect Your Computer and Your Data

You need to be very careful about opening emails these days, as computer viruses are rife, but you can do things to protect yourself;

• if you get an email from someone with a hyperlink only and no words or discussion then it is most likely a virus, do not open it just delete it.

• Have your email software set to 'preview' so that you can see the message without opening it.

• Always look at who sent it, and who else it was sent to, 'undisclosed recipients' or a list of people with the same first name, should ring alarm bells.
  
  
• Do not think it is safe just because you know the email address, as many people are having their email address cloned, then messages are sent out as if they have come from your firend
  
  
• Make sure you have up-to-date Anti Virus software on your computer
  
  
• Do a 'back up' of you computer files regularly and store them 'off' your computer (on a disk, USB drive or online), this keeps any precious or important files safe in case you loose everything on your computer

Is it a Hoax?

We all get emails from friends from time-to-time warning us of the latest email virus, and our first instinct is to forward it on to everyone in our address book, thinking we doing something good by warning them to be careful.... This is great if the message is genuine but when the message is a Hoax, we are making the problem worse. Do some easy maths with me....

I get a warning email so I send it to 50 people in my address book = 50 people get the message
within 4 hours they all send it to 50 people in their address book = 2500 people get the message
within 4 hours they send it to 50 people in their address book = 1 250 000 people get the message
within 4 hours they send it to 50 people in their address book = 6 250 000 people get the message by the end on the day!

Whenever you get a warning email just simply check it with one the many information website that are available. I use the following ones,

Truthorfiction.com
Snopes.com
Hoax-slayer.com

There are 2 warnings going around at the moment, it took me 5 minutes to check their validity on all three of the websites above, then I knew which warning to send on and which one to delete.

One is about Photos or Video of Osama Bin Ladens death - This one is genuine and any photos or video you open will contain a dangerous virus which can wipe out your computer's hard drive in seconds. There are no official photos of his death, so don't be tempted, but do send  this warning to everyone in your email list.

Another one one is about an Olympic Torch Invitation.  This a Hoax and circulates around the Internet every 4 years, if you get this one then email back the person who sent it to you (then tell them about this article on Hey Portugal) and then delete it.

Also consider blind copying (bcc) if you do intend to send anything out to a big list of people - there may be someone on your list that wants to collect lists of names and e-mails. Many forwarded e-mails have been sent on several times, and each time there are a list of recipients further down the body of the text that someone unscrupulous can grab.

Lets stop the hoaxers so we can concentrate on the really serious issue of stopping the virus spreading, by sending out genuine warnings to our friends. Like the maths above, we can warn over 6 million people within a day if we do find out about a new Virus...

written by Wendy Manning - Editor

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