Protect yourself from swine flu scams

Ed Zimney, MD

Health and Medical News You can Use

Protect yourself from swine flu scams!

It’s an unfortunate reality, but as a widespread, somewhat mysterious illness that has more questions than answers, the swine flu is a ripe target for scam artists. So along with protecting yourself and your family from infection, you’ve also got to be on guard against unscrupulous and shady marketers. There are three main types of swine flu-related scams:

1. Swine spam
2. Swine malware
3. Swine “cures,” “remedies,” and “vaccines”

Swine spam are e-mail messages that have the words “swine flu” in the subject line. The senders are simply using swine flu as a hook to get you to open the e-mail. When you open a spam e-mail, the sender may be notified that yours is a valid address and that you are amenable to opening messages. At a minimum they can collect these “good” addresses and either use them in other marketing campaigns or sell them to other marketers. Once you’ve opened the e-mail, you may be offered a wide range of products or services, which may not even have anything to do with swine flu. The point is you’ve opened the message and whatever appears is being advertised directly and immediately to you. Most mass advertising is just that - massively distributed - and the marketer hasn’t much idea who or how many people see the ad. When you open the e-mail, there it is, and they are pretty much guaranteed you’ve been exposed to whatever they are selling.

Swine malware is more dangerous and destructive. Malware are computer programs, like viruses, that are designed to infect your computer and wreak havoc therein. The key to malware is that it comes in an attachment, which is why you hear over and over again: Never open an attachment unless you know the sender and are sure the attachment is safe. In addition, keep your anti-virus and other security software up-to-date with current subscriptions that automatically download new protection. Swine flu malware can be quite tricky. The attachment might say something like “Free swine flu information,” or “Swine flu frequently asked questions (or FAQs).” Who wouldn’t want some free timely information? Unfortunately, however, you open one of these files at your own peril because they probably don’t contain any information, but rather some horrendous computer virus that will eat your hard drive. Never open e-mail attachments unless you know the sender and are 100 percent certain of the contents. Read more...