In an effort to help my West Cobb neighbors safeguard their computer systems, I wanted to let you know about an email scam I am seeing.

I, like many other computer technicians, have recommended not opening emails from people you don’t know. However, this new scam puts a new spin on this. This email scam looks like it is from someone you know, and identifies them by name. However, if you look closely for the email address used and compare it to your friend’s real email address, you will notice they do not match.

I guess my warning is while you still need to not open email from someone you don’t know, the necessity now is to know you friends’ email addresses as well. I know this is not easy, but it is really important.

If you were to open these scam emails (please don’t do this) and click on the link inside, your computer would immediately become infected. The virus would then start sending your personal information back to a database to be used to make fraudulent credit card charges, used in identity theft or sold off to the highest bidder.

I have opened one of these emails in a test environment and it unleashes a serious virus. You don’t want it in your computer system.

I have received two of these so far and my spam filters caught them both. I recommend immediately deleting these emails—without opening them of course. Also, as always, make sure your virus and spyware protection programs are up to date.

I hope this information helps protect your computer systems.

James Phillips
Always On I T Service LLC
www.AOITS.com