HOORAY, SCHOOLS IS ALMOST DONE! And now that I have expended my daily allowance of enthusiasm, on to the topic of the day, fraud. There are two major types of fraud (to me anyway), corporate fraud and scamming. Corporate fraud is when you are given an unfair deal or otherwise taken advantage of by a corporation or business that ends up in you losing money, personal info, or just about anything else. Then there is the usual fraud we always hear about. Nigerian princes asking for meager sums of money ($500) in return for larger sums of money. Although fairly obvious (Nigeria doesn't actually have a royal family IIRC), some are more subtle. Getting an Email from skype asking you to download their new client, or microsoft giving free upgrades for your PC (even though you are using a Mac or Linux). Usually, they have you download either an .exe or a .jar file that they have you run. It runs, and the virus is in and is doing what it pleases.
Thankfully, most people don't really pay attention to those emails (skype auto updates, and microsoft offers a prompt when you boot up or auto updates). Sometimes you get viruses disguised as legitimate software that try to sneak in that way. Pop ups or "free_arcade_games.exe" can be signs that you may have gotten something suspicious.
You can always download an antivirus software (don't download free ones unless you can verify that it is legitimate) like McAfee or Norton (shudder). If you are too cheap for those (in which you shouldn't be), then just being smart or taking the hands on approach of "sniffing" your own network is always another option to add on top of your existing options. Basically, if it looks suspicious, it is probably dangerous and should be reported, verified, or deleted. Hope I didn't make you paranoid, and stay safe out there.
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