Recognizing Viruses in Your E-Mail
Rule 1: Think twice and verify with the Sender before opening any attachment or following any link sent to you by email! "Sender" information is easy to forge. Viruses never come from "nastybug@virushome.com". They come with forged headers that say they are from a "trusted" source. The "from" or "reply-to" field on viruses carried by emails are often banks, credit card companies, and popular sites like Facebook, Amazon, E-bay or Pay-Pal.
If a friend's computer has a virus, the first thing that happens is that the virus emails itself to everyone in that computer's address book. The fact that it came from a friend is no assurance. If the email says it came from you, and you didn't send it, that's a dead give-away! If it says it came from your email administrator, it is a virus.
A sample of a virus-carrying email follows:
