lose? The pictures were free, weren't they?
Unfortunately, however, the viewer that was to furnish the pornographic pictures turned out to be more than just a viewer. It also housed a Trojan Horse that commanded your computer to do a few other things. It shut down your volume control so you wouldn't hear anything coming out of your speakers. Then it hung up your modem line and dialed a phone number in Moldova, a tiny nation you probably rarely called that was one of the former Soviet republics. With the speakers shut off, you couldn't hear that scratchy telltale sound of a modem dialing a number. The call to Moldova was answered by a computer that reconnected you to the adult site and caused a photo of an unclothed girl to show up on your screen. While you were admiring her curves, you were paying big-time for a transatlantic call.
It got worse. There was only one photo, and it wasn't that great, so most people abandoned beavisbutthead pretty quickly. But leaving the site didn't disconnect the call to Moldova. Even when you signed off the Internet and went on to write some poetry in your word processing program, your modem was still talking to Moldova. The hijacking of your modem call didn't end until you shut off your computer, which could have been hours later. If you left it on all night, you were in for a really rude surprise. Some people found charges as high as three thousand dollars on their phone bill. In just six weeks, the scam attracted 800,000 phone minutes to Moldova. Never was the country so popular.
WHAT TO DO
There are plenty of tools designed to thwart Trojan Horses, but it's a constant battle against criminal ingenuity. Anti-Trojan Horse programs and anti-virus software are widely available, but they need to be updated regularly if they're going to succeed against the latest Trojan Horses and viruses. And you need to use some common sense. Don't download attachments from people you don't know, and don't download software off the Internet unless you're sure of the site that's offering it. If you download a program from a website you're unfamiliar with, that's about the same as ordering your prescription drugs from Nigeria. You need to know the source and content of every file you download. Even if the file says it comes from a friend, be doubly sure before you download an attachment.
THE HIDDEN AGENDA
Criminals think differently than most people. To avoid being scammed, you have to start thinking the way a criminal does. For instance, I visited a company while it was going through the frantic preparations for the Y2K rollover, when everyone feared computers might misconstrue dates after January 1, 2000. Everywhere I looked, programmers were scooting around the premises, fixing computer code.
I asked the executives, "Who are you using to prepare your computers?"
"Oh, these guys from India," they said. "They're really sharp. And they're cheap."
"Really?" I'd said. "Did you check out their backgrounds? Did you have them bonded? How do you know you can trust them?"
They looked at me and their jaws dropped. They didn't know if they could trust them.
Their thinking was, these guys know computers and they're inexpensive, as were a lot of other off-shore firms from India, Russia, and Taiwan that were fixing Y2K problems.
But I was thinking, this is a golden opportunity for cyberthieves. When else have so many computers been opened up and touched by strange hands, with the blessings of their owners? I knew that any dishonest programmer could easily implant a so-called "back door" or "trap door," a hidden entryway for him to get into the system whenever he wanted and steal data or funds. I have no doubt that many trap doors were part of the Y2K packages that companies got such a great deal on. Whenever you allow programmers to work on your computer system, for whatever reason, look into their background so you know who they are. A bank doesn't allow just anyone to fix the locks to their vault. The same thinking should apply to your computer.
GOING, GOING, GONE
The number one source of crime on the Internet is online auctions, in large part because so many people use them and they're such perfect settings for deceit. The FBI gets hundreds of complaints a week about them. There are stories of fraudulent paintings and "rare" Barbie dolls that are not so rare, of nonexistent kidneys sold for transplants. There are auction sites that sell suspect dinosaur fossils