10-21-2010, 01:06 PM
Sumpter250 Wrote:I got the following warning from the administrator of GCLaser's web site: If you recieve an email entitled "just for you", or, "Here you have it",.....do not open it! it's designed to steal your identity information, and trash your computer.
Our site administrator is an IT professional, so I have a tendency to believe her.
Opening an email will not thrash your computer and steal your identity, if you have a normal email program and a normal anti-virus program with a realtime scanner.
Opening an *attachment* that can contain programs (ie exe files, various microsoft products with macros etc) may thrash your computer. A normal anti-virus program with a real time scanner will usually caution you if you try to open a dangerous attachment, but it is very often a bad idea to open a file attachment you have received without having asked for it from the sender.
"Stealing you identity information" is not that easy to do - it usually happens not because of viruses, but because people foolishly or greedily hand out their information by email or on web pages - falling for things like ye olde Nigerian scam ("I have access to a pile of money no one will miss, and I'll split it with you, if I can just borrow your bank account number and some information from you - keep it hush-hush").
It's not the title that decides whether an email is dangerous. It is not email in itself. It is foolish behavior around attachments and poor judgment when asked for information that is dangerous.
In the case of the mentioned virus, you need to first open what appears to be an unsolicited PDF file, which will redirect you to a web site, which will ask you to download and run a screen save (ie a program).
As I said - risky behavior around unsolicited attachments. But just opening the email won't do a thing to harm you.
Grin,
Stein