Easy way to avoid virus infection

Check out those hoax emails

Be wary of on-line sales scams

Make you email more reliable

Although not as common or dangerous as they once were, there are still some computer viruses around. Your computer can become infected with a virus in two ways -

1. By installing software programs from virus-infected CDs or memory sticks, or by downloading and installing virus-infected software from the Internet. In general, this can be easily avoided by only using software from reputable sources.
    

2. By installing and running a virus-infected program received via email. This is the most common way for a virus to spread, but by following a few simple precautions, you can easily avoid being infected, even without the use of specialised virus protection software.

Email attachments are used to send legitimate documents and pictures with emails. These are usually shown by a paperclip symbol next to the received email. Unfortunately email attachments can also contain viruses. You cannot get a virus just by reading an email - you have to open the attachment. It is therefore important to be able to differentiate between harmless and malicious attachments.

Be cautious of any email with an attachment, even if it appears to be from someone you know. Virus-infected computers will often fake the sender's address, so an email appearing to come from your friend may actually contain a virus.

Check carefully the type of attachment the email contains. Your computer should display a warning box, asking you to confirm whether you want to open or save an attachment. To check an attachment, click once on the paperclip symbol in your email, then on the name of the attached file. A warning box will display the name of the attached file. Note carefully the ending of the filename (the last three letters, preceded by a dot). This is known as the file extension and determines the type of file that has been attached to your email.

Please note: some virus file names may have a double extension, e.g. snowhite.doc.scr It is the last three letters that count ! In this case the virus creator is trying to fool you into thinking this file is a harmless word document but in actual fact it is a Windows script file containing a virus. Others may use a lot of blank spaces in order to hide the real file extension e.g. invoice.doc                                  .scr

If you are not sure about what type of attachment it is, do not open it. Delete the whole email. If you think it may be genuine, confirm with the sender that they did indeed send you the email before opening the attachment.

If you suspect you have already been infected with a virus, DO NOT start your email program - not even to read incoming emails. Many viruses can spread by sending copies of themselves to recipients from your address book without you knowing !

You can use Internet Explorer to visit the Microsoft Security Essentials website and download the anti-virus software. If you already have this installed, use it to run a scan of your computer. The website will also give help and support in removing viruses. DO NOT restart your email until you are sure your computer is free of viruses.

If you are a Microsoft Windows user, we strongly recommend that you use the Microsoft Security Essentials anti-virus software. This is the official Microsoft product and is specifically designed to be used with Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. You can download this FREE from the Microsoft website. Once you install it, you will not need any other anti-virus software.

Go to www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials

You may, if you wish, use anti-virus software from one of the many commercial vendors, like Norton, McAfee, Symantec etc. but be aware that many of these programs will slow down your computer.

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Hoax virus warnings are very common. You will receive a harmless email, usually forwarded by a friend, warning you that a new virus has been found. This email may ask you to forward the warning to everyone else you know. Sometimes it may also ask you to delete a file from your computer which it claims is infected. This type of message is a HOAX. Almost certainly there is no such virus and the hoax perpetrators are merely trying to cause confusion and panic people into thinking they have been infected. You should NEVER forward this type of email to anyone and do NOT delete any files from your computer !

As a rule, any email that asks you to forward it to everyone you know, is a scam of some kind, a chain letter or an advertising stunt. Ignore it and DO NOT forward it.

If you forward a hoax warning to everyone in your address book, you will be:

• Causing un-necessary concern
• Clogging up other people's mail boxes with junk
• Giving away all the email addresses in your contacts list, for everyone to see

You may also find your email address black-listed by your internet service provider as a source of spam !

Google if your friend !

The simplest, easiest and quickest way to check if an email you have received is a hoax or contains a virus is to go to Google and type the subject heading of your email into the search box. You will quickly discover that there are thousands of other people affected by the same problem.

To check if a virus warning is a hoax you can also visit one of these sites: http://vil.mcafee.com/hoax.asp or www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html.

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Many people buy and sell items on-line, either through adverts on our Forum, or via other internet market places.

Please be aware that, as with all forms of trading, there are always people around who will try to get your money without supplying the goods or get your goods without paying.

There are various types of scam around, but fortunately they can be fairly easily recognised if you are vigilant and take sensible precautions.

One of the most common ways is for someone to offer you payment way in excess of the value of the goods you are selling, without even looking at them or finding out more about them. Often these may involve the payment of extra cash into you bank account, payment to shipping or import agents etc. PLEASE BE WEARY OF THESE OFFERS. Almost all these come from abroad and we strongly recommend that you only buy or sell to people in the UK.

Here are some straight forward guidelines to follow:

• Only deal with people based in the UK.

• If you must buy or sell abroad, make sure you deal with someone you know.

• Contact the person by email or preferably by telephone, not just through a website.

• Get to know them and ensure they are genuinely interested in buying or selling.

• Try to find a mutual acquaintance, who can vouch for their integrity.

• Do not make any deals through third parties - e.g. agents, shipping or finance dealers etc.

• Make sure all payments have cleared and, if possible, transfer them to another account for safety.

• Keep a full record of your dealings and transactions.

Be suspicious of any offers that seem "too good to be true". No-one can resist a bargain and if you follow our guidelines and are vigilant at all times, you are very unlikely to fall for any of these scams.

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Email is becoming one of the most important means of communication because of its cheapness, flexibility and almost instant delivery to anywhere in the world. We rely on it every day, but unfortunately from time to time emails are lost and never arrive at their destination.

The major culprit for this is junk mail. Also known as spam, it now outnumbers legitimate emails and many people receive dozens of them every day. Most business and domestic systems employ some kind of spam filtering, which gets rid of the majority of the junk. Unfortunately the junk-mail writers are cleverly disguising their spam as legitimate mail and the filters have a hard job telling the two apart. Occasionally genuine emails are deleted in error.

Here are some things you can do to reduce spam and to increase your chances of getting your mail delivered.

1. Turn on acknowledgment receipts.

Most email programs allow you to automatically ask for a receipt to let you know when your email has been delivered and read. This function is normally switched off, but can be turned on from the settings menu. At the bottom of this page, we describe how to do this for Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express and Windows Mail programs - the most common email programs in use today.

2. Make sure your outgoing email has the correct name heading

All email programs allow you to insert your name as you would like it to appear in the "From" line on your recipients screen. Spam filters look at this line carefully and if it does not appear to be a legitimate name, they may label the email as junk and delete it. This will result in your email not being delivered.

Make sure your name appears correctly in your program settings - usually under "Email accounts" - more information at the end of the page. Some programs put your email address here by default, but this is NOT correct, the email address appears elsewhere. The name box should only contain your name, e.g "John Smith".

3. Keep your email address safe

The more people get hold of your address, the more chances there will be of you receiving spam. Only give your email address to people you know. One of the worst things is to reply to unsolicited adverts and junk mails, even if it's just to tell them that you do not wish to receive their emails. A lot of them are just a way of harvesting email addresses in order to sell them to spammers.

When forwarding emails that you have received, be careful you don't inadvertently also send with it the entire list of recipients. All their email addresses will be visible. If you need to send an email to multiple recipients, put their addresses in the BCC: box (Blind Carbon Copy) and only put your own address in the To: box.

When forwarding emails, trim the body of the email to only show the relevant information. It is bad practice to leave all the contents of the earlier replies together with the company disclaimers, signatures etc. This only helps to give away information about your contacts to eagerly waiting spammers.

4. Use only one email address

Every email address will receive spam. If you use two addresses, you will receive twice as much spam. Sometimes, more than one email account may be set up on your computer, possibly without you even realising. Check your email account settings in the tools menu and delete any accounts that you don't use. Just be careful you don't delete the one you ARE using, by mistake.

Your email program settings
(for Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express (used with Windows XP) and Windows Live Mail (Windows Vista and Windows 7)

On most programs, the "Tools" menu contains the settings you need to check.

To turn on receipts of email delivery

Microsoft Outlook
Select "Tools" and "Options", then "Email Options...", then "Tracking Options ...".
Then tick the box opposite "Read Receipt" next to "for messages I send, request:".
You can also decide what happens when you receive a request for a receipt. In the same box, at the bottom, either select the first option "Always send a response" or the last option "Ask me before sending a response".
Then click OK three times to close all the dialogue boxes.

Outlook Express - coming soon

Windows Live Mail - instructions coming soon.

To fill in the correct sender's name

Microsoft Outlook
Select "Tools" and "Email Accounts, then select "View or change existing email accounts" and click "Next". A list of your email accounts will appear. If you have more than one that you are using for sending emails, you should check them all one by one. Double-click on the account name. Under "User Information" make sure the box "Your Name" contains your name as it should appear to the recipients of your emails (e.g. John Smith). This box should not contain anything else. If it is a business email, it can contain the name of your business instead of your own name. Click "Next" and if you do not have any more accounts to check, click "Finish".