TODAY'S TOURBUS TOPIC: GOOD NEWS / BAD NEWS

I have good news and bad news for you. First, the bad news. You're not rich, filthy rich. And you didn't win the lottery. The good news? You probably don't have that virus, and Evil Hackers haven't compromised your bank account. In today's TOURBUS, we'll hilight some of the scams, spams and urban legends that just won't go away.

ARE YOU A 419er?

Have you gotten a message from someone claiming to be a representative of the Nigerian government, promising a multi-million dollar reward for your help in transferring a huge sum of money? It's a well-known scam that pre-dates the Internet, but alarming numbers of people are taking the bait in what has been dubbed the "419 Scam".

When a potential victim reponds to the scammer, they are asked for their bank account and other personal information. The fraudster then tries to establish credibility by providing documents bearing Nigerian government letterhead. But invariably a "problem" arises. The victim is then pressured or threatened to provide one or more large sums of money to save the venture. According to the U.S. Treasury, this scam grosses hundreds of millions of dollars annually, and in a few cases scam victims have been killed. To learn more about the Nigerian 419 Scam, check out this link:

http://www.secretservice.gov/alert419.shtml

NEWS FLASH: YOU DIDN'T WIN ANYTHING!

Lately I've been getting a barrage of emails informing me that I've won a huge lottery prize in the Netherlands, Spain or South Africa. Lucky me -- I didn't recall entering any foreign lotteries, but if these nice folks want to send me money, what's the problem? Well, as it turns out, they want YOU to send THEM money. It's a new twist on the old Nigerian Scam. "Send us a couple thousand dollars and we'll send you a couple million." Believe it or not, people do fall for this. Read more about the details of this scam here:

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/lottery.htm

DON'T TOUCH THAT FILE!

Let's file this one under "Too Much Time on My Hands". If you receive a message filled with dire warnings to delete the JDBGMGR.EXE file from your PC, just delete it. The message, that is... not the file! The JDBGMGR file is NOT a virus, it's part of the Windows operating system, and deleting it could cause problems. Learn more here:

http://zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2865855,00.html

I'D RATHER BE PHISHING

Have Evil Hackers compromised your Ebay account? Did your bank really lose your account access password? Did someone use your credit card to purchase a load of stuff at the BestBuy website? Ummm... no. Lots of netizens are getting caught in "phish bait" scams which arrive by email. They look very official, but the common thread is that they ask you to email or visit a website and provide some personal data in order to "verify" or "reactivate" your account. Don't fall for it hook, line and sinker. Check out this article at ScamBusters:

http://www.scambusters.com/Scambusters63.html

THE NEXT BEST THING

Linda from Marlinton, West Virginia recently wrote and said "The next best thing to Tourbus is the Smart Computing magazine that you guys recommend. I've been getting it since last summer and it has solved numerous problems for me and my friends."

Thanks, Linda! We hope other Tourbus riders will discover the Plain English answers to their computing questions that Smart Computing delivers every month. Do you want to speed up your PC? Get rid of spyware and keep hackers out? Try Smart Computing today -- get your FREE TRIAL issue NOW!

http://tourbus.com/smart.htm

That's all for now, I'll see you next time! --Bob Rankin