Watch out for the Internet scams and spammers

[djkimmel]

Malvertising hits The New York Times

Aimee Picchi
Sep 14th 2009 at 2:05PM

It's every Web surfer's pet peeve: those annoying ads that pop up claiming your computer has a virus. They block you from working in the browser and are impossible to get rid of short of shutting down the program. They are the types of pop-ups associated with lower-quality Web sites, which is why it's so surprising that The New York Times (NYT) is warning readers that its site has been hijacked by such ads -- unauthorized, of course. Read more...

[djkimmel]

I put a great deal of effort into trying to stop the spammers and hackers from getting onto this site. When they do get through, with the help of our volunteer moderators, I try to clear them off and report them as quickly as possible.

Of course, the spammers and hackers are constantly adjusting to get around the security measures too. Lately, a few of them have been getting on here very early in their attacks across the Internet making it harder to block them. Maybe GreatLakesBass.com is becoming popular enough to attract more attention? I don't know, but I want to do what I can to make sure your visit here does not put you and your computers at risk.

That is one of the reasons I post this, so you know some of the things going on. You should never get any kind of advertisement on here that tells you you have to buy something because your computer is infected.

You should never get any legitimate email from GreatLakesBass.com saying something similar. Don't click on links in any such email no matter what they say. You can usually place your mouse over the link without clicking it and see the real web address at the bottom of your browser verses just the display text which is meaningless.

This fake Internet virus software purchase scam is just one example going around lately. Another common one going around is email asking you to click on a 'youtube' video link that actually downloads a bad program onto your computer. No matter who sent you the link, you can always hand-type it into your browser address bar if in doubt rather than click on the link though holding your mouse over the link usually shows the real link address is a fake trying to take you somewhere else you don't want to go.