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"With some of those emails all you had to do was open them and an actice x component gave the perps a back door to your PC. Don't be stupid, sticking up for criminals by calling the victims idiots is so, so, liberal!"

You mean Active-X? Actually, you should have your copy of Internet Exploder set to not run any Active-X components, and you should have a virus-scanning program examining your email before you have a chance to open it.

You could also use a mail service like Yahoo, which automatically scans your email for you.

Or, I suppose, you could refuse to open any email at all. That would be a sure way to avoid problems. Just don't deal with email.

Most of us, however, must deal with email on a daily basis. It's easy enough to protect yourself, but not clicking on links in email is the easiest thing in the world to do. As long as you make it a habit, you won't ever do it.

Another good habit is to turn off the display of all HTML graphics in your mail reader. That will help, too.

Instead of getting angry at the people giving good advice about email, try getting angry at the ones sending it to you. You're mad at the wrong people.

Most of us, however, must deal with email on a daily basis. It's easy enough to protect yourself, but not clicking on links in email is the easiest thing in the world to do. As long as you make it a habit, you won't ever do it.

Generally good advice. I'll note that it's very unlikely that you would get infected following the links included in a phishing scam. Directing you to a site that might trigger an AV or malware warning would be counterproductive to their purpose.

Or, I suppose, you could refuse to open any email at all

That's exactly what I did after I heard about the E Bay scam. Plus, I use an email program that doesn't allow active-x and it allows me to block images in emails. I'm talking about the little old ladies and old men who don't have a clue about how many virus's and trojans are spread through emails. I have had to wipe hard drives of family members who had their computers taken over by trojans and viruses, that's why I'm a little upset about calling people idiots.