1. Don't ever click links in emails, social network sites or links on suspicious web pages
2. BACKUP all the data you can't afford to lose: Photos, videos, music, documents, passwords, serial numbers, maybe emails too
3. Run a decent anti-virus, anti malware software on your computer

That is really basically it. Most infections arrive through email, so this is a major source of concern for you.

If you're backed up, you can wipe your hard drive of any infection and start again. A pain, yes, but the only sure way to remove anything nasty (and hidden)

If you run a good anti-virus, it can detect things that aren't even known yet. there's so many on the market. Do some research and spend the time to find the best one for you. But remember, it's no guarantee to prevent infection.

The weak link in your online security is YOU.

Best of luck people.

If you're looking for more information on wireless internet, please check out http://www.wirelessinternet.net/

They offer a huge resource for all things wireless related, with everything from help on choosing a wireless provider to all the latest technological developments in the wireless world.

Do go over an have a look:

After some research it seems as though these have been doing the rounds for a number of years now.

This has since been reported to O2, but our advice is to never interact with these types of unsolicited texts, nor text back STOP as per their request.

These are almost NEVER real. If the email contains urgency, asks for personal details, has bad spelling/grammar or is addressed to Dear User or similar, you know it's a scam. Delete these immediately without clicking any links.

2)A large sum of money is due to you.

These are NEVER real. Honestly, why would a person you've never heard of want to give you a vast sum of money? These take the form of an email saying you are the beneficiary of a will, a compensation, or from somebody who needs to transfer some money to your account. Delete these immediately without clicking any links.

3) You've won something!

Surely you're not that gullible, especially if you never entered the completion in the first place?!

These often take the form of news that you've won a lottery or sweepstake and they need you to call a certain number (which will cost you a fortune if you do) or they need your personal details. Delete these immediately without clicking any links.

4) A sudden emergency

There's a lot of these emails doing the rounds recently. They take the form of an email, usually from somebody you know (because your email address has been scraped from your friends infected computer) saying that they are in trouble, have been mugged or have lost all their money and would like you to wire transfer some money to them to help them home. You can spot these are bogus by the very fact that you probably know if your friend is abroad or not, but more importantly by the language the email uses, not tallying with the type of language your friend uses. You can always call your friend and check! Delete these immediately without clicking any links.

5) The Disaster Fund

Whenever there's a major global disaster like an earthquake or famine, scammers will send out emails pretending to be from charities. They will ask you to click a link to make a donation. Don't do it, charities will never cold email random people asking for money. If you're subscribed to a charity's mailing list, then they might send you information, but these emails will always address you by name, and you'll know that you support that charity. Be suspicious, always.

6) The Chain Email - 'If you don't send this on to your friends something bad will happen'

Any email that asks you to forward it to a number of others is always bogus. Even if it pretends to alert you to some terrible scam.

These often take the form of free services or products from major vendors, free discount vouchers, free phones etc., or are medical appeals for sick children, petitions or news of an impending computer virus. Don't EVER forward these emails. Firstly go to Snopes.com and search for the email you've received. You'll almost always find it here. Secondly, delete the email without interacting with it.

We hope this page has been useful. If so, please please let your friends and family know (but not by mass email asking them to forward to all their friends!)

Sent to us recently, but good examples of why they are obviously bogus.

Firstly, as we've always said, the email is not addressed to a single person by name, but as a generic "Valued Customer" for example.

Secondly, the addressed to line: One is addressed to some random person, the other to 'undisclosed-recipients'. Banks will never send a mass email or even include the email address of somebody else.

Thirdly, and most importantly, if you hover your mouse over the link they supplied, you can see clearly the real URL hidden in the link, which is very obviously nothing to do with the bank. In fact in these two examples, it is clear that they are coming from the same source, even though they are different emails received on different days.

And finally, the language used is fairly obviously not 'bank speak'.

Notice the little '?' where an image should be? That's because we have our Mail client set up to not automatically download images (to prevent malicious images being downloaded): In Apple Mail, Go to Mail, Preferences, Viewing tab and uncheck 'Display Remote Images in HTML Message'

If you want to view an image in an email from a trusted source, you can always click the 'Load Images' button in the mail preview pane.

It's completely free, and allows you to backup up to 2GB of data. You can pay for more, but 2GB is a great amount for small files you'd like to keep offline. It's secure, and best of all, allows you to synchronise files between computers.

A response was counted as opening the spam, clicking on a link within it or opening an attachment within the spam.

This is a worrying statistic. If you come to this site, hopefully you'll know not to even open the message in the first place, let alone, heaven forbid, opening an attachment, which will almost certainly lead to your machine contracting a virus, trojan or other exploit.

Apparently half of those who responded, did so on purpose, meaning that there is still a market for enhancing male genitalia.

This is what they say about themselves:

"The goal of the WhatApp project is to establish an online resource where experts and other users can assess, discuss, and rate the privacy and security of mobile and Internet-enabled applications. Now in Beta, the website combines traditional consumer reporting and review tools with wikis and news feeds to allow users to make informed choices about the applications they download.

We want WhatApp to be a useful tool for both savvy Internet experts and novices to pool resources and share insights about the privacy features of a wide variety of applications, including Facebook and iPhone Apps, office suites, online maps, toolbars, and media players. The project’s aim is to fill the current market gap between consumer demand for privacy friendly applications and anti-privacy practices employed by the developers and thereby to foster better privacy practices Net-wide."

Go have a look:

WhatApp

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From The Desk of Reverend James Michael,
Director Inter-Switch Unit.
Direct Tel: +2347092623554.

Attention

Based on our investigation of your payment, we want to find out if you're still alive or did you assign any (Grace Jackson) to receive your fund, reply to us with:

Your Full Names:
Your Home Address 
Your Cell Phone
Your Occupation:
Your Age/Sex:


This is because US$7.1 Million has been approved, so provide the above information unfailingly today or your fund will be released to Mrs. Grace
Jackson.

Regards,
Reverend James Michael, 
Direct Tel: +2347092623554
Chairman, Investigation and Debt Settlement Committee 

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 Please do NOT ring the above number. This is a real scam.

I'm sure we've all had them, but it's hard to imagine that anybody could ever be taken in by this.

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Hello Dearest, 

I know this might come to you as a surprise, but please do accept it in good faith and treat as a matter of urgency with utmost confidentiality. 

I am Miss Ariana Hani from Khartoum-Sudan; Northeastern Africa, now seeking political asylum in Dakar Senegal under the UNHCR as a refugee. 

I am searching for a true friend, kind and honest to stand as my foreign representative to help me receive my inheritance funds so I can leave this camp and come to your country to continue my education. 

Please kindly reply if you know in your heart you would want to help me. Remain Bless. 

Ariana 
*kisses**

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