There has been a significant rise in spam mail, virus and fraud alerts in last few weeks. Some of the stuff in circulation are extremely destructive and a serious security threat to all Internet users. We examine these threats in detail with example and discuss how to protect yourself.

Gone are the days when spam was just unsolicited e-mail. Today spam has become far more dangerous in the hands of hackers, fraudsters and virus makers who regularly use it to distribute trojan virus or send bogus warning mail

Trojan Virus

This is a type of virus that gets into your computer mostly through e-mail file attachment and opens a back-door entry for hackers to get into your PC and steal confidential information. After infecting your PC, it spreads same trojan to all your friends and customers listed in address book.

Example of Spam with Trojan Virus

Here is an example of how hackers use fake warning to infect your PC. We have used infobanc.com as example, you may receive similar mail from other sources.

E-mail account disabling warning Dear user of e-mail server "Infobanc.com", Our antivirus software has detected a large amount of viruses outgoing from your email account, you may use our free anti-virus tool to clean up your computer software. Further details can be obtained from attached file. For security reasons attached file is password protected. The password is "82177". Sincerely, The Infobanc.com team http://www.infobanc.com File Attachment Name: Document.zip Type: Zip Compressed Data (application/x-zip-compressed) Encoding: base64 Plain Text (text/plain)

How to Protect Yourself

The real danger lies in simplicity and believability of the e-mail - with clever choice of 'sender', known to you. Very few would care to check if the mail is genuine or sent by a hacker.

What's important is to look for following peculiarities in such mails that can help you identify the threat and take precaution:

• Any unsolicited mail with file attachment is a suspect - no matter who seems to have sent it
• Emails from your service provider normally address you by your name and/or business. Fraudulent emails often include salutation like "Hello", "Dear User" , "Dear Member" etc.
• Never click at the file attachment to open it
• Inform the 'sender' (i.e on whose name the mail was sent) about the mail and delete it.
• If you are using POP mailbox - set maximum size of an e-mail to less than 20 Kb in your e-mail client. This way, larger e-mails will remain at your mail server unless you opt to download them. You may delete suspect e-mails from server later.
• Install a good anti-virus software - update it regularly.

Failure to take precaution means allowing hackers to take control of your PC, loose personal information stored in it and jeopardizing security of friends with same threat.

Bogus Warning Mails

Hackers use this trick to extract confidential information about you and then use it for identity theft.

In its simplest form - you receive a fake mail from a reliable source like eBay, Paypal, your bank etc. informing you that your personal information needs updation for smooth running of your account. You are requested to click at a give link and update your personal record.

Example of Bogus Warning Mail

Here is an example of fraudster's trick to extract personal information. We have used eBay example, you may find same bogus warning mail on Paypal, CitiBank and many others including even your own bank.

Dear valued eBay member: It has come to our attention that your eBay billing informations are out of order. If you could please take 5-10 minutes out of your online experience and update your personal records you will not run into any future problems with the online service. However, failure to update your records will result in account suspension. Please update your records by January 11th. Once you have updated your account records your eBay session will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Failure to update will result in cancellation of service, Terms of Service (TOS) violations or future problems. To update your eBay records Click here: Another example.... Subject: Security Check For security reasons please re-enter your user ID and password. Your User ID Your Password

How to Protect Yourself

• Any unsolicited e-mail asking for sensitive information is a suspect. E-mail is as public as postcard - any hacker can intercept and read your e-mail. Respected companies never ask for information like credit card number through e-mail.
  
• The mails may come with actual logo image of the company and even the 'Click Here' link may seem to be pointing to legitimate website of service provider. Do not get convinced so easily - its easy to lift logo image from company website and Internet links may easily be disguised.
  
• The surest way to reach a web-site is to type its URL in your browser - clicking a link in an e-mail may take you to fraudster's website.
  
• Do not divulge personal information such as account id and password, credit card number, bank account, PIN number, Social Security Number, mother's maiden name etc. before verifying the requester's identity.
  
• Whenever in doubt - check with source of e-mail (i.e. on whose name the mail was sent). Do not get into panic that your service will be discontinued. Fraudsters usually scare their victims with imaginary threat to act fast.
  
• Choose a password that uses combination of letters, numbers, and symbols. Avoid choosing obvious words such as nickname or dates (e.g. your birth date). Don't use same password for all other online services. Using same password for multiple websites increases the likelihood that someone could learn your password and gain access to all your accounts. Change your password frequently.