Beware the "Thank you for buying from Costco"

[Merman Chatfish]

I want to write a pithy opening to this message but as you all know I can't write so I will just jump into things. Emails like these *1 are always going around, and more so during the holidays when people are shopping even more. The links in these messages will take you to a website which download a zip file *2, the contents of which contain a computer virus, though it looks like a microsoft word document *3. Oh and codos to Google Chrome for noticing it is suspicious *4.

So once it runs it says your computer is in danger *5. This virus actually pretends to be an antivirus and once it gets going you have a bit of a mess on your hands. And by mess we are talking wiping your computer clean, including your personal files, and starting from scratch. Hope you have a backup ready.

Remember if an email has a link or attachment that you were not expecting, don't click or open it without first verifying the sender. Or get Virtual Box and Ubuntu, http://www.wikihow.com/Install-Ubuntu-on-VirtualBox, and use that to view the attachment and link. It will be in a sandbox and protect your computer and personal information. Ask your local computer nerd if you need assistance.

Oh one more thing, gοοgle.com (http://xn--ggle-0nda.com/) and google.com (http://google.com/) are not the same. Look at the spacing between the o's. One of those links the o's are omicron, the greek letter o. Don't believe me? Type into your browser google.com (http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fgoogle.com%2F&h=5AQFAjB02&enc=AZOUYFF49cBAJCeTKDpNp8SrIfotlGA_k3X862F50CR3LZ vUVoOrlnouYF9rIzYdBIHYWd47bMIAH4OWfQKUoWcgGafadFml NiITn0ZDabBLKZ3V5kay15qMk5BWBv1d6HStJ5S90XvN2i-trFsVdFy836G9GT8RQ8KH7pfQNSimWQ&s=1), copy each link and do a google search on each one.

When in doubt type it out.

*1 2582825829

*2 25830

*3 25832

*4 25831

*5 25833

PS. How do you make images appear smaller than the entire screen?

[Lucinda]

Thanks for the warning. It's good to be informed about these kinds of things.

[QueenZero]

I want to EAT people who do this, risk of kuru be damned. This is a good warning, thank you.

[Mermaid Galene]

I've been getting these fake CostCo emails. They're really not very convincing; the English is really terrible, obviously not originating from the U.S. Depending on your email client, you can select View Source or View Header or some such option, and you will be shown the actual address from which the email originated. That makes it pretty clear that they are not who they purport to be.

[Merman Chatfish]

I've been getting these fake CostCo emails. They're really not very convincing; the English is really terrible, obviously not originating from the U.S. Depending on your email client, you can select View Source or View Header or some such option, and you will be shown the actual address from which the email originated. That makes it pretty clear that they are not who they purport to be.

You would think they would run their email thru grammar check, and email address spoofing isn't that hard to do.