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Spam and Scams
If you have an email address, you'll be used to receiving spam – unwanted junk email that is sent automatically to thousands of people. There are a number of ways you can end up on a spammer's mailing list, including:
- Signing up for a newsletter from a unscrupulous website, which sells on the email addresses of its subscribers
- Providing your email address on a newsgroup, message board or your personal web page
- Choosing an email address which is then guessed (automatically generated) by software used by the spammers
Sinister spam
Some spam emails contain attempts to defraud you or damage your computer:
- They may infect your computer with a virus. This is a program that does something malicious, such as sending random files (or copies of itself) from your computer to everyone in your address book. More about viruses
- They may contain a Trojan. This is a malicious program that may appear to be innocent (or be invisible altogether), but does something you dont expect, like sending your confidential information to a remote computer. More about Trojans
- They may be phishing which means trying to trick you into handing over your personal details. More about phishing
