Tis the season ... to be paranoid

It's OK to be paranoid if people really are out to get you. And that's the case with "greeting card" attacks. As the Christmas season nears, the number of attacks involving faked greeting cards rises.

The attack arrives in your inbox as a message (perhaps looking like it's from a friend) with a link to a "Greeting Card". If you click on the link, you may even see some sort of online greeting. But along with the greeting comes a Trojan. You have been attacked.

Prevention tips:

• Don't open email messages from strangers
• Don't assume a message from a friend is really from that person, especially if it has links or an attachment you didn't expect to receive.
• If you get a message like above from a friend, send them a separate email and ask if they really sent the one with the link or attachment.
• Don't "reply" to a suspicious message -- you could be replying to the attacker.
• When in doubt, delete.