Beware Michael Jackson & Farrah Fawcett Malware Scam

In this article I want to give you a warning about a threat that's going on right now, trying to take advantage of everyone's interest in the Michael Jackson death, as well as the death of Farrah Fawcett.

As you no doubt have heard, both "The King of Pop" Michael Jackson as well as former Charlie’s Angel Farrah Fawcett have passed away.

What does this have to do with computers? Well, a lot in this case.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of very unscrupulous people out there who like to take advantage of major news events such as the death of a beloved star to try to infect your computer or
cause you other problems.

I want to give you a few tips to avoid being taken advantage of, to help protect you from the "Michael Jackson malware scam" and similar ones that will inevitably come in the future.

First thing to remember, is if you get a random email with attached files or links to strange websites that comes from an unknown email address, the safest thing to do is to delete it immediately, or if your email program has a "junk" or "spam" button, use that.

Keep in mind that some viruses and worms will harvest email addresses from an infected computer, and so will "spoof" the return address to look like one of those people in the address book in the hopes of tricking you into thinking it's from someone you know!

I suggest reading any email with a link in it before clicking the link and ask yourself "does this sound like them?"

If the wording in the email just doesn't read like the apparent sender's "voice", then it might not have been sent by someone you know, even if it says their name in the return address field.

If you use a Windows computer (i.e. most any computer made by Dell, Gateway, HP, etc. *other* than Apple) then remember it is *very* important to avoid using Microsoft Internet Explorer (the blue "E" that so many people still use to view web sites).

It has been proven over and over to be highly vulnerable to what is called a "drive by download" where a program is installed on your computer without your permission. Especially if you're using an older version like IE 6 (Internet Explorer 6, which many people still make the mistake of using).

Instead, I recommend using Mozilla's Firefox. It is a free download from Mozilla.com, and I cover step-by-step how to download, install it, and use it safely in my Ultimate Beginners Bundle for Windows (see red button on right for ordering).

If you have one of Apple's Macs, you are at much much less risk from these threats than Windows users, *BUT* you are not 100% safe.

While there are no viruses and worms out there at this time for Mac computers, there are some "trojans", which I talked about recently. These damaging programs are like the famous Trojan Horse from the Trojan War -- no matter how safe the walls were protecting the City of Troy, it didn't matter when people went outside those walls and brought the horse inside, allowing the hidden threat of the Greeks within the horse to make a sneak attack.

Trojans on a computer work the same way -- you let them in -- and even though there are only a handful of them that attack Macs, and there are thousands out there that attack Windows
computers, it only takes one!

Trojans trick you into installing them on your computer by luring you with some "hook" to get your interest. In some cases it's an adult video that says you need to install special software to view it, or in other cases it's major news stories like those of Jackson and Fawcett.

So remember, be cautious when opening links in emails, or anywhere since these things target not just email but everywhere they can including social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook.

Basically they go where the people are -- but understand I'm not suggesting for a moment that you stop using email, social networking sites or anything like that. That would be like me
telling you to never cross the street, when all you need to do is make sure you look both ways before crossing!

And remember these kinds of threats can start circulating for any major news story -- just because I was using the example of the Michael Jackson and Farah Fawcett deaths doesn't mean this is the first time this has happened, and it certainly isn't the last.

So until next time, stay safe, take care, and enjoy,
Worth Godwin
Plain English Simplicity for This Complex Modern World

P.S. if you would like to learn more about avoiding problems, staying safe, and becoming more confident and skilled with your Windows PC or Apple Mac, you may click the following link to
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