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Articles for the ‘Anti-Virus Software’ Category

Is this email genuine ?

 Print This Post | Thursday, January 28th, 2010

Don’t download viruses, trojans or get sucked into a scam…

Everyone using email receives mail from unknown sources and we often get asked to check if an email is genuine or not.  Unfortunately, some mails are scams; others carry more sinister viruses which get activated if you click on programs attached to the mail.

Check out the the top 10 email scams currently circulating the web at this link (About.com: Internet for Beginners website)

The most common e-mail scams are the surprise inheritance letters (usually from Nigeria), surprise lottery wins (where you never actually purchased a ticket!), domain name scares (you have to renew your domain name with a particular company before it’s too late) and what are called “phishing” emails which link to phoney web pages.  It is the phishing emails that are the most dangerous because they appear to be sent from a company you know (such as a banking institution) and asks you to verify some details online.  You unknowingly enter your account details and password and before you know it, your well-earned money is sucked out of your account.

Watch out for the disaster relief scams.  Whenever there is a natural disaster and there are genuine bank accounts set up to receive donations from the public, there will also be a multitude of fake emails linked to fake websites ready to receive your money.  When you want to donate to a disaster, visit the bank in person or use the banks normal website.

Finally, there are the chain mails which arrive from your best friends and you have to pass it on to 10 of your friends or else you’ll get bad luck, lose all your friends or disappoint a poor child.  These are what we call time-wasters and Internet blockers.  If you are too worried to delete the mail without carrying through the instructions (and annoying your 10 friends in the process), please pass them on to us and we’ll break the chain!

Here is a simple way to determine if an email sent from your financial institution, facebook, Microsoft or Adobe is real or not.  You should do this to every email you get before clicking on any link.

Sample email:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for your trust in Adobe’s various software and office applications.

Adobe PDF is pleased to announce a new version for PDF Reader/Writer which enables you to view, create, edit  and print PDF documents. Please follow our step-by-step instructions to either download or upgrade your Adobe PDF Reader/Writer application.

1. Visit Adobe PDF website or copy and paste the following link to your web browser: http:// bogus website address.com/downloads.
2. Get instant access, Download new version of Adobe PDF, install and get your application most updated.

Thank you for choosing us, the worldwide leading PDF Reader/Writer solution provider.

Adobe PDF

Hover mouse over the link and you will see its URL (web address).  Does the URL look valid?  If not then delete the email.

Even if the email looks valid I still delete it.  It the company wants to tell me something I am sure they will still tell me when I next log on.   It’s always best to log onto a company’s official website to check out details of any new updates or news; never go via an email link.  Note that all genuine banks never ask for personal password or account details by email.

If you are unsure about a suspicious email you have received, check with us – we’ve probably also received it (and already deleted it).

Posted in Anti-Virus Software, Email | No Comments »

Installed AVG Free, now what ?

 Print This Post | Thursday, January 28th, 2010

Last month we gave instructions on how to install the free AVG virus checker.  Here’s how you check the results of the AVG Virus scan which your computer should be automatically doing when you leave it turned on overnight.

1)  Double click on the little coloured AVG icon which you’ll find at the bottom, right-hand corner of your screen.  (It’s a small square consisting of 4 little boxes, yellow, blue, green & red).  If you can’t see it, click on the “<” icon to display any hidden icons and hopefully the coloured AVG one will be there.

2)  When the AVG Anti-Virus Free screen is displayed, click on the “Computer Scanner” button which is the 2nd button on the left hand side.  Note the date and time of the next scheduled scan.

3)  Click on the “Scan History” button which is found at the bottom of the screen.

4)  A list of the scan results will display.  Anything with a green icon next to it means everything was ok (ie no viruses found).  Anything with a red icon next to it means a virus of some kind has been found.  Note that you are only interested in the last scan that ran.  Double click on the last scan time to see more details.  If it was all ok, you’ll see the words “No infection was found during this scan”.  If a virus was found, you’ll see the number of infections found and whether they were removed or “healed” or not.  If they were removed then your pc is safe again.

5)  Exit the AVG program by clicking on the small red “x” in the top right hand corner of the screen or by clicking on the File/Exit menu item.

If you need advice on any viruses found which were not removed or healed by the AVG program, please give Peter a call on 3374 1361 or 0413 792 448.  He’ll help you get rid of them.

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Free Anti-virus Software

 Print This Post | Thursday, April 2nd, 2009

If you suspect your pc has a virus, we recommend installing:

a. AVG Free (www.free.avg.com)
b. Spybot (www.safer-networking.org)

We also recommend that you:

1.  Manually update both Spybot and AVG Free once a week.

2.  Run a full AVG scan on each PC every week (this should run automatically but you need to leave your pc turned on for it to run).
3.  Run a full SPYBOT scan on each PC every week (you will need to manually do this).

Please call us for more information about keeping viruses at bay.

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