How to avoid e-mail scams

We've all done it. In comes the e-mail message from a good friend. Its alarming subject line: Virus with No Cure. A few clicks later, and we've passed it on to another dozen friends. We're being helpful, right?

Not so fast. According to Tom Copeland, chair of the Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP), the button we really need for our e-mail program isn't 'forward'. It's 'pause'.

"Nobody takes the time to research whether these things are true," laments Copeland. "And there are so many resources out there that take almost no more time to verify than it does to send that message to somebody else."

Sure enough, googling Virus with No Cure instantly proves it's a hoax. But still, what's the harm, apart from a moment of embarrassment? There's a bigger, darker picture, says Copeland.

When we participate in passing on forwarded messages, we train ourselves to think they're all okay. We trust them, because they come from friends. But most computer viruses these days also arrive in e-mails sent from our friends' infected computers.

"ISPs spend an awful lot of time dealing with customers who have opened e-mail that they should never have opened," says Copeland. "Those trusting ways really create a bigger problem. If you're careful about all of the e-mail you get, then you'll not only stop the nuisance stuff that carries no payload (virus) but you'll stop the damaging stuff that does have a payload."