Banish Spam, Scams And Pop-Ups In Windows
As mentioned elsewhere, prevention is often the best way of tackling many problems, and this is particularly the case when it comes to issues on computer security.
Pop-up windows that appear without warning can be evidence of spyware, while junk email that advertises all manner of nonsense can be offensive. Spam, as it is called, can be dangerous, too, as many such emails attempt to trick you into visiting websites used for fraudulent purposes. For example, they may pretend to be from your online bank or eBay, asking you to ‘confirm’ personal data such as your account number and password – a crime known as ‘phishing’.
Don’t worry, though; using Windows built-in defenses it’s easy to set up your PC against spam, pop-ups and scammers. This article will show you how.
Tip 1 – Most of Window defenses against the threats I have mentioned are switched on by default, but there’s no harm in checking. We’ll start with the anti-spam tool in Windows Mail, which is the new name for the built-in Windows email program that was called Outlook Express in XP. Open the program in the Start menu bar at the top of the screen. Select Junk E-mail Options from the list that appears. The main Options tab displays the program’s basic filters. The first option gives you the means of disabling all spam filtering – I don’t recommend this. The option set by default is Low, which filters out obvious junk mail with subject lines such as ‘free Viagra’ and moves it into the Junk E-mail folder.