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~ Beware ~

Scams
There are many scams on the Internet. One common scam involves an unsolicited email message, in which the sender promises you a huge sum of money. To earn this money, you are asked to pay an advance fee or provide identity, credit card or bank account information. There are many variations on these tales from crude oil and other commodity deals to unclaimed bequests. Do not respond. Never send a check or reveal identity, credit card, or bank account numbers.

Phishing
Phishing (Pronounced “fishing”) is the act of falsely claiming to be a legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam you into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. Phishing is typically carried out using email (or instant messages) directing you to visit a Web site where you are asked to update personal information such as passwords, PIN numbers, credit cards, social security, and bank account numbers. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal your information. Banks never send e-mails asking for passwords or PIN numbers. I would never give my social security number over the Internet.
Viruses
Viruses are computer programs that are written with malicious intent to cause problems with your computer. A virus can corrupt or delete data on your computer, use your e-mail program to spread itself to other computers, or even erase everything on your hard disk. Other viruses are not designed to do damage, but simply replicate themselves and might make their presence known by annoyances such as presenting unexpected text, video, or audio messages.
Viruses can be disguised as attachments of funny images, greeting cards, or audio and video files. Viruses also spread through downloads on the Internet. They can be hidden in illicit software or other files or programs you might download. They are most easily spread by attachments in e-mail messages or instant messaging messages. You should never open a e-mail attachments unless you know who it's from and you are expecting it.

Some signs that you may have a computer virus:
Your computer starts running sluggishly.
Your computer shuts down unexpectedly or crashes frequently.
Your computer experiences memory problems or runs out of disc space.
Strange messages appear on your screen.
Unusual files or directories appear on your system.