Like most people on the planet, I get plenty of 'phishing' emails. Depending on how much time I've got, and what sort of mood I'm in, I either delete them, forward them to the fraud department of whatever bank they're purporting to come from or ... if I've got a couple of minutes to spare, I fill them in. With lots of different silly names, silly passwords and sequences like 1234567 under the account number.
I recall reading somewhere a while ago that some businessman was advocating this sort of practice, because if the fraudsters had to wade through thousands and thousands of garbage responses in the hope that some poor soul, somewhere, had actually given their details - phishing would soon not be worth their while.
However, I sometimes wonder if I'm laying myself open to attack, so I got SPYWARE DOCTOR. And what a pain in the fundament it is turning out to be. Won't let me get around suspect websites (like Birmingham University) or access old email attachments (the sort of thing I've had for years - thought I might move to another folder) and when I turn off the function that stops popups it threatens me with all sorts of dire warnings.
And sometimes it won't let me turn the computer off.
Yep, strictly for the paranoid, this one. And if you weren't paranoid when you first got it, you soon will be ...!
2 comments:
Hi Cathy
Spam emails are driving me nuts these days. I seem to be getting more than ever. I did try setting up a spam filter with my domain server but it is really hard to set the right level of security. It grabbed loads of important emails and dumped them in the spam folder.
How are you? I was 'up country' last week so what have I missed?
Chris
Hi Chrispy! Thought you hadn't been very active this last week - nice to see yer back!
I know this sounds very sad, but when my email thingy says, for the sake of argument '42 new messages' and 5 appear on the Inbox screen, I always check the 'Deleted Items' folder. It's often just as well. I suspect that these spam filters are as susceptible to moods as the people who programme them!
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