Number 263 - April 2005

Internet Annoyances
by Sherry Zorzi, Cajun Clickers Computer Club, Baton Rogue, Louisiana, and APCUG Advisor for Region 8. ACGNJ News, November 2004
The Internet is full of creepy-crawly beasties. Spam, popups, hoaxes, cookies, spyware -what are these critters and how do I tame them???    Spam - unsolicited, usually commercial email, also known as UCE. You can't stop it; the best you can do is try to limit it.     Don't post your address on publicly-accessible websites (newsgroups, chat rooms, directories). Web "crawlers" harvest these addresses for spammers' mailing lists. You can obtain free, "throwaway" email addresses at sites like Yahoo (www.yahoo.com) or Hotmail (www.hotmail.com) to use in these situations.     When you register for a legitimate website (Microsoft, Amazon, Delta Airlines, etc. ), opt-out of any newsletters or mailings they offer to send you. If opting out is not offered, don't register for the site unless you want advertising email!     Use "filters" in your email program to automatically route suspected spam to a special folder, which you can check periodically and delete. Or use special (free!) software, like MailWasher (www.mailwasher.net) or K9 Spam Killer (www.keir.net/k9.html) to automatically check incoming mail and handle suspected spam for you.     Don't ever follow directions to "unsubscribe" or stop receiving mail, unless you know you are dealing with a reputable source. Replying to the message or clicking a link to supposedly unsubscribe is often just a ruse by the spammer to verify that your email address is valid and that you are naive enough to open spam. You will get more, not less, spam!     Use SpamCop (www.spamcop.net) to report spam. The service is free. They will automatically report, in your name, the true source of the spam to the appropriate ISPs.     Send a copy of the spam, with full headers, to the Federal Trade Commission ((uce@ftc.gov). They keep a database of fraudulent spammers. TOGGLE Ed Note: This was changed to spam@uce.gov in July 2004. But you may find the address www.ftc.gov/spam more informative and useful.     Support strong legislation at the state and federal level to stop the scourge of spam!!! Write, call or email your Senators and Representatives and urge them to support strong legislation.    Popups - advertising that "pops up" in a small window of its own. Some websites pop up an unsolicited ad in a window on top of the page you are trying to view. Others hide the popups beneath the site you're visiting, so that you see it when you finally close your main window. Some sites pop up several, or even dozens of popup ads--sometimes "freezing" the computer. The new popup scourge is controlled by one or more programs hiding on your computer , causing popups even when you are not online! They are all bad, bad, bad!     The best way to squash popups is with free software like Popup Stopper (www.panicware.com). Works perfectly and the price can't be beat!    Hoax - fictitious email forwarded around the Internet by your well-meaning friends. Flesh-eating bananas, large corporations controlled by Satanists, viruses that cause your computer to catch fire--all are fabricated hoaxes. Most of us have at one time been taken in by one of these, forwarding it to everyone in our address book only to be embarrassed to find out it's a fake. Any email, even if it's from your mother, that says "Please forward this to everyone in your address book" is a hoax. Any email that promises you will get something for nothing is a fake.     Never, ever forward anything to everyone in your address book, no matter how "true" it sounds. Even if it is supposedly from IBM, Microsoft, or the government.     Type a few keywords from the email into a search engine like Google (www.google.com) and follow several of the links that come up. You should quickly discover that the mail is a hoax.	Before you hit "forward", check out the "story" on one of the websites that specialize in de-bunking urban legends and hoaxes: Snopes (www.snopes.com), Urban Legends (www.urbanlegends.com), or HoaxBusters (www.hoaxbusters.com).    Spyware - technology that aids in gathering information about a person or organization without their knowledge. Spyware usually comes "hidden" within software you voluntarily install. Along with what you wanted, you also get a small piece of software than installs itself behind the scene and sends back information on your surfing habits to an advertiser or marketing company. You can control spyware with some free tools available on the web. The tools will either prevent spyware from getting on your machine, or remove it once it is there.     Ad-aware (www.lavasoftusa.com)     SpyBot Search and Destroy (http://beam.to/spybotsd)    Cookie - a small text file placed on your computer by a web site you visit. Cookies can be innocent, but some operate as spyware. Spyware-controlling software like Ad-aware will control spyware cookies, too. You can also exercise some control over cookies in Internet Explorer by clicking Tools, then Internet Options. Click the "Privacy" tab to allow or disallow various kinds of cookies on your system. Be aware that some features of some sites won't work properly unless you allow cookies.    Virus, worm - a piece of programming code that causes some unexpected and usually undesirable event, such as spreading itself(in your name!) to everyone in your address book, locking up your computer, or deleting important files. They can be transmitted as attachments to an e-mail, as downloads, or be present on a diskette or CD.     Install antivirus software and keep it up-to-date. Popular brands include McAfee Virus Scan, Norton Antivirus, and TrendMicro PC-cillin. Free antivirus software, which works well, is available at www.grisoft.com. HouseCall, a free online virus scanner, is available from TrendMicro at http://housecall.antivirus.com/housecall/start_corp.asp.     Don't allow "autopreview" on your email programs. When an email message is previewed, it is really "opened," which can trigger a virus.    Then there are chain letters--what can I say? Unless you've signed up for the "chain letter of the day" club, you 're probably not happy to see them. Armed with dire threats or implausible promises, chain letters are an imposition on the recipient. Perhaps once a novelty, especially if they carried interesting paper letterheads and postmarks, with creative handwritten endorsements, emailed chain letters are simply a modern-day irritant. Just don't do it!    Before forwarding anything to anyone, especially to a mailing list or "everyone you know", consider whether your potential addressees really want to receive it. If it' s a hoax, chain letter, or sob story , they probably don't. A better course of action is to quietly discard sob stories and chain letters, and to research hoaxes and send debunking information back to the sender.    This article appeared originally on AARP's Computers and Technology Web site, <www.aarp.org/computers> ( c) AARP 2004. Permission is granted for reprinting and distribution by non-profit organizations with text reproduced unchanged and this paragraph included. Visit <www.aarp.org/computers> for more articles; visit <http://community.aarp.org/rp-computers/start> for a free discussion forum covering diverse computers and technology topics.    There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author. The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.
Number 263 - April 2005