Graham Cluley Using Quotations

Sick criminals are deliberately using the mining disaster in an attempt to steal from others, without a thought for the families of the victims, who have surely been through enough anguish. Everyone should be wary of emails such as these, as it is a common trick used by fraudsters to steal money and bank account information.

It could be that more people are using broadband, and that home users are worse at updating their antivirus software,

The question on everyone's lips is - when will we see the next one, and will it have a more malicious payload. Apple Mac users need to be just as careful about protecting their computers with anti-virus software, firewalls and security patches as their friends and colleagues using Windows.

This Trojan horse has been aggressively seeded, using spam technology, to distribute malicious code to as many vulnerable computers as possible, in the shortest amount of time.

Chain letters like this are too easily forwarded to friends, family and colleagues without people using their common sense. Stories like this become urban legends, constantly being repeated without anyone bothering to check the facts. Hoaxes and chain letters like this are not harmless - they waste time and bandwidth, and can be a genuine headache for support departments. Users need to be more skeptical, and ask themselves whether everything they are told by email can be believed.

The e-Gold accounts may have been set up using a false ID.