Spam Emails, Phishing Emails and Viruses That Could Hurt You and Your Business

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Spam Emails, Phishing Emails and Viruses That Could Hurt You and Your Business

Saturday, February 6th, 2010 Subscribe To Our Feed

Spam e-mails are not only annoying, irritating and time consuming, but they are also becoming more dangerous to your personal privacy and the security of your computer.Think twice when you’re about to open e-mails from unknown senders, especially if you’re in the office using your computer where all your important business files are instored. Millions of computer users and restaurant owners are getting infected by spam e-mails each month, forcing them to pay heavy fees for cleaning and restoring their computer POS systems back to normal.

Below are the 3 dangers that any computer user should keep away from:

1. An increase in hijacked and spoofed e-mail addresses. Spammers have acquired a new technology that effortlessly allows them to fool you by making it appear as though their spam e-mails are coming from YOUR own computer. This could result in having your Internet connection terminated or put on hold by your Internet Service Provider(ISP) - without you even knowing it. A good spam blocking software blocks inbound spam as well as unauthorized outbound spam from your serves. That’s why it would be a better idea to install one for your own safety.

2. Spam e-mails that carries viruses. Accidentally or intentionally opening an e-mail from an unknown sender can cause you many of problems. Mostly these unknown senders are the spammers who merrily speard their virus-infected e-mails and waits for the unlucky person to open it and/or download its content. This can cause your computer to slow down, identity theft, loose data, endless popping of adult sites or even crashes the system! What’s worst is that the personal data collected from your PC can be uploaded to the internet without your knowledge and use it to comit crime.

3. Phishing spam. Also called phishing scam. The attempt to collect personal information of an individual either to steal money from their bacnk accounts or use the money to spend it online shops without the owners knowledge. A phishing spam e-mail sends some kind of fake notification or warning to an individual asking for his or her online bank account, social security numbers, passwords, and credit card information. To be able to make someone believe that their spam e-mail is from a trusted website, phishing sites copies the exact same look of the authentic website..

What to do to prevent this?

First and foremost, install a sam blocking software as this will serve as your first line of defense, and make sure it’s a good one.

Many retail business owner over look into this, so their restaruant POS system takes serious damages.

Next, you want to make sure you don’t get included on a spammers list in the first place. Once your e-mail gets on a spammer’s list, it will stay there forever and possibly get sent to more spammers; and changing your e-mail address is a major inconvenience especially if you’re using it to keep in touch with your business contacts.

Here are some useful tips you should follow to prevent getting your e-mail on a spammer’s list:

1. Use a disposable e-mail account.

Using a free e-mail address like with Gmail or Yahoo to reduce your chance on getting listed on a spammer’s list. Use this when subscribing or shopping online to avoid your business e-mail address from ending up on their broadcast list.

2. Pay attention to selection boxes or tick boxes that automatically opt you in.

Make sure you don’t check on the box that says “Yes! I want to get other offers from third party companies.” when you shop online. You’ll end up getting your e-mail address can (and will) be sold to every online advertiser.

3. Don’t post your personal or business e-mail address on your web site, web forums, or newsgroups.

Spammers uses a special program that can collect e-mail addresses from web sites without your permission. If you really want to post an e-mail address on your home page, then you better use “info@” and have all replies are forwarded to a folder in your in-box that won’t interfere with your main address.

4. Refrain yourself from replying on obvious spam e-mails.

Opening, replying to, or even clicking a bogus opt-out link in an obvious spam e-mail signals that your e-mail address is active, and they’ll send you more spam e-mails.

The only time it is safe to click on the opt-out link or reply to the e-mail is when the message was sent from a company you know or do business with (for example, a company that you purchase from or a newsletter you subscribed to).

For more information or to have a local POS professional serving the restaurant industry and your location see more information at POS-For-Restaurants.com.

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