I saw this today on one of my newsletter and thought I’d share – good advice: the bottom line: if you get email from someone you don’t know, or haven’t given your address to, just delete it.
The virus/bot folks are counting on the fact that most people don’t really look at the URL of the link when they click on it. So what happens is two things. When the link is clicked, you have just verified your email address. While sending out spam isn’t expensive, there are costs, like bandwidth, so if a spammer can make sure his message is getting delivered, that’s a plus. Worse, though, is that when you click on what looks like a legitimate link but isn’t, you can wind up at a website that downloads software that will turn your computer into a zombie that sends out more of the spam itself.
I always look at the links before I click on them but most people don’t and just click away allowing spam to possibly infect your computer and at least giving the spammers your email address when you do click on the link.
