Quite agree Mitzyboy - I use AVG and find it great = free AND easy to use and it updates automatically every day.

Get loads of spam too - just delete them and remember - NEVER give details out in response to an e-mail.

Frank

[QUOTE=Big Pete;4598980]
ha!!!

Yeah, very similar, different wording but similar, but sent from Paypal but connected with Ebay.

I have closed my ebay account. I dont use it much now anyway. Luckily I closed Paypal months ago. Phew.

I've calmed down today. Everything does seem worse when you are unwell and you can't make full sense of everything. They got me when I was vulnerable.

Feeling a bit better today.

Hi Mrs T

I also have free AVG it was recommended to me and I can strongly recommend it to you. It updates every day and hasn't let me down. http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/

Also, if you are worried about safe sites when googling try this HERE

Yes we too had Norton and computer was slow, so we got an expert round who found loads of viruses, we were even paying for updates on Norton. The guy recommended AVG and we now get it free it is much faster and you are protected safely.
I get about 20 of those stupid emails just have to delete them everyday.

Helen

Also get the anti spyware one while you are on the site, its the one below AVG in the lhs menu.

Try Opera as a browser, much faster and has a built in site checker. ;-)

I totally agree that Norton is crap, slowed my computer down and wouldn't allow my son to play online games as it blocked the link. I removed it and downloaded Avast, which is free and updates itself on a daily basis. I have had no problems since.

Nothing will happen so far as your bank accounts and other password protected sites that require a user name and password if you didn't give any details once you followed the link. At this stage all you have done is confirm the email address they sent the mail to (SPAM) is an active account and they may well pass your email address onto other organisations who will flood you with emails trying to sell you all sorts of crap and of course relieve you of personal details should you give them out.

You should have a good program like Spyware doctor anyway if you do your banking online as well a good virus/security centre (I use Nortons) as Spyware doctor will pick up many things that Nortons will not detect. There are free spyware detectors out there if you are a bit short that do a good job so google for them. You should run one soon as a matter of caution and then regularly in the future. Dont be too worried about clicking that link seeing as you stopped short of providing information once you had been redirected to a site. Also everyone should remember to use a web based email address (free one such as Hotmail) for registering with sites and other crap and give your actual email address through your internet provider out to no-one other than close freinds and family this way your inbox keeps pretty clear.

Good point Smarties - have to try that one !

Great advice Smarties!

How do I get a hotmail account then?

You do realise I need you to lead me to drink water, don't you!

Thanks to everyone who has advised me so far - I really appreciate it!

Just shows how good my security system is coz I've never received any spam or these emails! Oh well, first time for everything...

Can always be scary the first time. i have been in IT for many years after the army. But i encoraged my father inlaw to get a pc now when ever he phones it a pc related question thrown in. In fact he brought the pc from england just so i could reload it.

We got rid of Norton and now use AVG, and have now got g mail, really great for blocking spam, but.. I still use yahoo, as can't be bothered to let everyone know I've changed.

A lot of the security is down to the IP, I never got any with Telefonica for about two years, now I get spam from the USA everyday, cos its not illegal to spam there ??????

For many years I've controlled spam effectively by virtue of giving out a different email address to every on-line site that asks for one.

All it takes is to have your own domain registered and have any email to that domain aliased (redirected by the server) into a single mailbox (usually [email protected]).

This means you can give out any username@yourdomain.com.

When you give out an email address to sign up to a forum, a web-site, a newsletter or an on-line shop you make the username part of the email address the name of the site or shop. For example:

britishexpats.com@mydomain.com
paypal@mydomain.com
ebay@mydomain.com

Emails arrive as normal and the To field will tell you instantly where they got the address, and if its not the organisation you originally issued it to you have the choice of disabling that address and telling off the organisation for passing on your details.

An enhancement to this system that is now becoming more common that I've been using for a few years is to issue spam-bait addresses. That is, email addresses you deliberately post into forums like this, and on web pages, in clear text so email-address collecting search robots find it.

When email starts arriving to the spam-bait address the server knows its not legitimate and does two things:

1. Refuses to accept the email at all (never gets to your mailbox)
2. Blocks the computer that tried to deliver from delivering to any other address on your domain, for ever

As I hope you can see, you're effectively inviting the spammers to declare themselves and then stopping them delivering anything to your domain, permanently

The only downside to this, but which is addressed using vigorous spam-server detecting methods on the mail server, is that spammers can invent any username to your domain and the server doesn't know.

So an improvement to the service, although more tiresome to maintain, is to add every email username you give out to a list on the server.

If anyone would like an account like this let me know. I run mail and web servers and often allow friends to use them gratis, although if a domain requires registering I cover my costs on that (I'm a domain registrar so .com's typically cost a little over $10 a year, .uk ~ $13 for 2 years).