What are junk emails, prizes, and contests?
Junk emails are any unsolicited advertising, promotional material, or other forms of solicitation masquerading as email messages. In addition to being a nuisance, junk mails can carry dangerous Trojan horse programs. These programs come to your mailbox in the form of email attachments disguised as software, screen savers, photos, or some other offers of free products. If you mistakenly download one of these attachments, the Trojan horse program captures your password and mails it back to the hacker’s email address. Contest scams try to trick you into providing your credit card or personal information in order to receive a prize that you have allegedly won. Often the scammer will claim to need the information to cover the shipping and handling costs for your prize. With this information, the scammer can make purchases with your credit card or even alter your credit information, and you never receive the prize that you supposedly won.
