Chock full of cute animation, upbeat music and sweet sayings, sending an e-card may charm Mom into thinking it?s OK you didn?t get her an actual present. But that cute e-card could also harbor viruses or spam that could charm their way into Mom?s computer system, destroying everything in their path.
According to the Greeting Card Association, 420 million e-cards will be sent this year, and Mother?s Day is one of the busiest times. While that means lots of mothers will be laughing or crying depending on what selection you chose, it also means that hackers are trying to lure you into picking a card that opens a virus, spam or spyware.
The folks at McAfee SiteAdvisor have checked out sites that are safe and those that come with “extras” like nasty viruses. A few sites to avoid: freewebcards.com, funnyreign.com, fukkad.com, celebwelove.com, eForu.com, ecard4all.com and myfuncards.com. Some sites that are safe include hallmark.com, 123greetings.com, americangreetings.com, worldwildlife.org and any subsidiaries from those companies, like bluemountain.com or egreetings.com.
If you are a Mom and receive an e-card from friends or family, McAfee recommends thinking about the following: the sender of the e-card and the company the e-card is from. If this is a normal type of correspondence from the sender, and the company the e-card is from is reputable and well-known, then it?s most likely safe to open. If not, think twice before clicking the mouse.
Although your baby boy or girl would never try to infect your computer, they may inadvertently do so by sending from a virus-infected source.
