Dwight Watt - Newspaper Article #36 12/9/2009


Question: I got an e-mail saying I need to register with the government. What should I do?

Answer:

The current phishing e-mail floating out there that also loads the Zeus virus on your machine appears to be from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) or other government agency which requests you click on the link and do a vaccination profile.

The e-mail says the government is building a required database of those that have had and not had their H1N1 shot so to determine how to continue the vaccinations and deal with the pandemic.  There is no program to do this.  The e-mail is just a vehicle to put a virus on your machine and may have a phishing component.  Just opening the e-mail is not going to be a problem, but if you click on the link you will be exposed to Zeus (not H1N1) and depending on your virus protection (notice similarity of human disease to computer diseases like viruses) your machine may be infected.  DO NOT click on the link.

If you already have clicked on the link then run your anti-virus program (after making sure latest updates are installed) or get a anti-virus program if you do not have one (if you don't have one, get one whether you clicked or not). 

Be safe.  In any e-mail before clicking on a link make sure the link is not a spoofed one (going somewhere different that it says.  Two easy ways to watch, 1.  Hover your pointer over the link and see what appears in the small pop-up type box and if different, don't use, or 2. When hovering over the link with the pointer, look at the bottom or the screen and you will see the actual link, make sure it is the same before clicking on the link.  You may see in an e-mail that has a link showing h1n1.cdc.gov but when hover over it (I am creating this from imagination) http://www.foolsareus.com.bg/stealtehiercreditcard/aisoufd8f8duajkcasdu8o/h1n1.cdc.gov/stealitpage.htm