How to Avoid Email Viruses

Many viruses are propagated through simple email programs like Outlook Express and similar other products. Don't get suckered into making the same mistakes thousands upon thousands of PC users make all the time. It can potentially cost you a lot of information on your hard drive. Follow the steps below and you'll be guaranteed a safer email experience by being able to avoid email viruses.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Awareness
• Suspicion

1. ~Never Open Unknown Attachments~
   
   There's no reason for you to open unknown attachments. I'm amazed at how many people I've talked to say that they were just curious, opened up some bogus attachment, and ended up with a nasty worm or trojan on their PC. Avoid suspicious attachments and you can avoid a good chunk of email viruses.

2. ~Don't Open Spam Messages~
   
   Spam messages are often hijacked with all kinds of spyware, adware, and other malware to get information from your computer and spread itself to other computers to do the same. So the next time you receive an email from the Prince of some African 3rd world nation that you've never heard of trying to tell you that you have an inheritance waiting for you, it behooves you to avoid opening the email all together.

3. ~Turn Off the Preview Window~
   
   If you use an email program like Outlook or Outlook Express you know that there is a preview window to view your email through that's on by default. Head into your settings and turn this off (under the view tab on Outlook).

4. ~Be Leary of Abnormal Messages from Friends~
   
   Let's keep this step nice and simple. If you get an email from a friend that looks out of the ordinary from them, don't open it. Instead, contact them and inform them of the message you received; chances are that they could very well be infected with a virus that's spreading through email.

5. ~Use a Quality Anti-Virus~
   
   This is the most important step. It's the most important because we are human and we're going to forget one of the 4 steps mentioned above. Because of that is why we have anti-virus software. There are plenty of good anti-viruses that will do the job. I personally use PC Tools Anti-Virus and PC Tools Spyware Doctor because I like their ease of use. Trend Micro and Kaspersky also have great anti-virus software. All of these companies also offer free or trial versions of their program. I've placed links to them below in the resources section.

Tips & Warnings

• Having an anti-spyware solution is also a big plus when it comes to junk emails. Often, spam mail contains nasty spyware that collects information from your computer that's used to track your habits online. I personally use Spyware Doctor, but many anti-viruses come with some sort of anti-spyware solution built in these days.

Resources

• PC Tools Anti-Virus Free Scan
• Trend Micro Internet Security
• Kaspersky Labs Free Trial
• PC Tools Spyware Doctor Free Scan

[goodselfme]

on 12/20/2009 Tx for the way to avoid email viruses.5*