Are you being constantly bombarded with invitations from friends to “view recently uploaded photos”? There is every chance that it is a spam. While registering in a Web site, sometimes you are urged to use your email address to search for your friends using the service. Some also ask for your permission to send invitations to those in your email list who don't use the same service. Unless you click ‘Yes', the service is not supposed to send out ‘invitations'.

But there are several sites that gobble up the addresses the moment you sign up and start spamming your friends with invitations. Your friends are more likely to fall for these emails since they look like they have been sent by you. You wouldn't even be aware that such an email is being sent in your name. Even if you don't use the service, your friends keep getting the emails.

Some sites that host malware go a step further. They use innovative means to force you to click the email. One youngster received an email from her boyfriend with the subject line: Please help me delete my nude photos. The moment she clicked the link in the email, she started getting alerts from the anti-virus software installed in her computer that a malware had been detected and had been deleted. She did not realise that the malware had come from the site. Only when the alerts did not stop did she get suspicious and close the browser tab. The alerts stopped. Fortunately, she had a good anti-virus installed that saved her computer.

It is not only phishing emails offering easy financial benefits that you need to be wary of. You must be on guard even against innocuous-looking emails supposedly from friends and relatives coaxing you to view photos or videos.

Related Topics