While there is no rhyme or reason to it, there are people out there who are willing to destroy all your files for the sheer fun of making mischief. E-mail viruses have become a plague on the Internet, and they prey on the naivete of people to open contaminated e-mail and forward it to others. Some viruses are so insidious that they can forward infected viruses to your entire e-mail database without your knowledge.

Yet despite dozens of warnings monthly of new viruses, millions of people continue to fail to protect their hard drives and data storage with anti-virus software. The message is worth repeating and hear are some other things you can do to keep from being Internet naive.

Always run anti-virus software.

One virus, just one…. can destroy every record you have and you would not even know it until it was too late. However, with anti-virus software you can laugh each time it detects an incoming e-mail that has a dreadful virus attached. Why?---because you know that with proper virus protection no e-mailed virus is going to affect you. You just click “Repair” or “Quarantine” and the virus is rendered harmless.

Want to have to buy a new computer or hard drive? Then just keep on running without anti-virus software. If you have it, make sure it is on and protecting each e-mail address you use. You have to check the settings to know for sure if it is. Change the settings each time you add a new e-mail address.

Be sure to update your anti-virus software daily. When you install it, you can set it to automatically download daily updated protection against new viruses. If you are not running up-to-date antiviral software this minute, you should shut off your machine until you get some installed.

If you lack virus protection, go to Norton or Mcafee and download antiviral software now. Or you can get boxed software from your local retailer. Be sure to read the owner’s manual that comes with it.

Don’t forward false virus warnings.

Now that you are good and nervous about viruses, the next wave of jokesters are out to get you.

Ever get those “virus alerts” from friends and wonder if they’re real? Well, 99% are not. However, there’s a way to find out. Just go visit the “Hoax pages” of Norton or Mcafee and see if the “virus” you and your friends are panicked about is there or not. If it’s not, there’s a wee chance that it is so new that it hasn’t made the list yet. That is very rare. Don’t waste people’s time forwarding bogus virus warnings.

Don’t believe urban legends.

Breathless friends (and spammers) send you those e-mails that gush great opportunities or fantastic stories, “Bill Gates wrote this secret memo …. and if you only send it to ten people …. your $50,000 will arrive from Microsoft within three weeks.” (False)

Or how about: “Ear lobe repair is booming in NYC because thieves rip earrings off women.” (False). Or, “Guillotined persons may remain conscious long enough to blink.” (True, perhaps for even 13 seconds) Or, “Drunks are more relaxed, less likely to be hurt in car accidents.” (False) Or, Old Walt Disney's dead body was frozen for later revivification. (False) Hey, this is pretty interesting stuff, huh?

You can look up the truthfulness of virtually every wives tale or urban legend you’ve ever heard of at UrbanLegends.com. Then you can decide whether you want to waste someone else’s time by e-mailing and thereby perpetuating tales that might not even be true.

Even if you are “too busy” to take courses in Internet marketing (as everyone should), you can see from the above that you can still learn a tremendous amount by just using the Web itself. First, visit the sites above and in Part I and then do some searching yourself. A fruitful way to find most answers on the web is to go to search engine Google.com and type out what you are seeking in a “how to” format worded similar to this example: How to automatically send an e-mail to another person.

Google would then refer you perhaps to a Microsoft site that is specifically about e-mail. There you would find out just about anything known on sending e-mails.

Published: June 5, 2001

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

Bill Koelzer is a Web marketing consultant to web-proficient agents nationwide. He is co-author, with Barbara Cox, Ph.D., of the Prentice-Hall books, Internet Marketing in Real Estate and Internet Marketing. Bill is also webmaster of Orange County Real Estate, among the most-awarded known Realtor® sites. Visit his website, Koelzer.com or e-mail him at .