Congratulations!
You just purchased a brand new pc, and got it hooked up with a broadband connection. You take a quick glance in the owner manual, but hey, you got everything connected so why do you need to continue reading? You know the whole system cost about $1,000, but you got a good brand so you won't have any problems. Why would I need a backup of my operating system? Now you are all set to start surfing. If only those stupid little warnings reminding you to sign up for 3 months of the free anti-virus software that came with your new pc would stop bothering you. Finally, you decide to to load and update the software. 3 months from now, you are reminded to start your paid subscription, but that doesn't mean you, does it? After all, you haven't had problems! And all of your friends say spending money on that stuff is a waste, and they are your friends, after all.
At this point, you have been busy emailing folks with jokes, links, etc. You also send emails to folks that have displayed their pictures on websites letting them know what you think. It is always great fun opening those that have been sent to you as well. It is so convenient of Microsoft to place these email addresses you send to and receive from into your address book automatically. It would be a lot more fun if those stupid pop-up pages would stop, of course, but everybody gets them. It is part of the fun! One day you open your email, and you received one from one of your best friends. You wonder why they sent you an .exe file. You wonder what an .exe file is? Of course, you click on it, but nothing happens. :) You mention this to your friend who denies ever sending it to you. Gee, that's strange, huh? Even funnier is that your pc is running slower all the time, and you can't figure out why. Good thing you didn't read that manual that told you how to clean up your hard drive using software that is resident on your pc. Not that it would necessarily help, as you have been completely infected with trojans (no, not the condom), worms, snooping software, cookies, advertisement software, and lots of other things. You would go to the emergency room if you felt this poorly.
In the past 2 days, I have received over 400 infected emails, and I am quite sure my 2 anti-virus programs caught them all. Many of them were sent to me from the webmaster at gaynboston.com. I think I would have remembered sending myself email, and I do know that my pc is virus free, so how could this be happning? By following the above steps, you have opened your address book to any virus that comes your way, and tons of emails are now being sent using those addresses as the sender, without you ever knowing they started from you. I, personally, would like to thank you for your kind consideration towards the rest of us.
TIPS!
1. Purchase the updates available from a reliable anti-virus software, such as McAfee or Norton. Your software is only as good as the day you last updated. If you cannot afford to purchase it, there are lots of free ones out there. You might have to deal with some advertisements, but it may also save your hard drive, and those of your friends. Do a Google on free anti-virus software, or if really lazy, try this list:
http://www.thefreesite.com/Free_Software/Anti_virus_freeware/
2. Run Spybot. It is completely free (although the authors accept contributions, and I would suggest sending a few dollars for this great freeware), and is available here:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html
3. Run Ad-Aware. They have a for purchase version that is second to none, but their free download version will certainly clean up the bulk of your pop-ups. You can get this at:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
I will almost guarantee that use of #'s 2 and 3 will make your time online more enjoyable, and I will guarantee that use of #1 will protect yourself and others. Come on guys, if we all take care of ourselves and our equipment, things can only get better. At least it is a start.