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Summary: Surprizingly, certain viruses can make costly long-distance calls using your computer. The best prevention is keeping your machine safe from viruses.
There's a number of things going on in this question. I'll address each one in turn. • Starting with the bottom line, the only real risk is if you open or execute one of those attachments. They're simply the sign of someone else's computer infected with a virus that's attempting to spread to you. A virus scanner won't stop them from coming. I get them all the time myself. The attachments you're seeing that all end with ".scr" are the virus itself. ".scr" is the extension for Windows screen savers which are just another type of computer program. If you were to open the attachment, Windows could run it, thereby infecting your machine. Another email program isn't really going to help here. The problem isn't on your end. In fact, it sounds like you're doing everything right. (By the way, Firefox is a web browser and not an email program. It's an alternative to Internet Explorer. Thunderbird is the email program that is considered an alternative to Outlook Express.) Yes, there are certain types of viruses and spyware that will attempt to dial out to a "900" number or the equivalent where you would get charged an excessive amount for making the call. The best advice is simply to not open attachments that you aren't sure of, don't forward emails that have those attachments, and regularly scan for viruses and spyware (just to be safe) making sure your virus scanner and spyware scanner have up to date databases. Related: Article 953 | Posted December 28, 2004 |
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Just one point about the "others making expensive calls using your computer" : Whether or not your computer has been successfully infected or not, it is possible to know when any device is attempting to dial out from your PC via the modem. There is a FREE download available from British Telecom called BT Modem Protection and it will produce an alert window message if any attempted dialling other than to your listed, (permitted, eg; the ISP), numbers takes place. It does not in itself prevent the dialling but leaves it to the user to interrupt the modem or not.
Another feature from BT, assuming that your phone is from them, is to pay a small fee each month to block all premium calls from your phone.
Together, these methods will both warn and protect against outgoing premium calls.
Thanks, Ron Braidwood, London
Posted by: Ron Braidwood at November 18, 2005 3:28 AMOkay this may sound crazy but can someone make a call from my number without my phone or sim card? I mean how do I explain someone calling someone else from my number when I had my phone with me?
Thanks
Posted by: Lydia at December 19, 2007 1:09 PM