Online Greeting Card Scams on the Increase: Win32 Virus Attacks.

The easiest way to wish someone a happy birthday online is to send a greeting card. The majority of people have sent an online greeting card at least once in their lives. If you have never sent an electronic greeting card, chances are you have received at least one. There are various companies online who make lots of money from greeting cards and there are also sites which offer free greeting cards. Online greeting cards are a wonderful way to convey a message to someone, especially with all the additional graphics and sounds which you can use to personalize them. Cyber criminals are now using greeting cards to pass Trojans around on the web.

According to Wikipedia a Trojan can be defined as:"in the context of computing and software, a Trojan horse, also known as a Trojan, is malware that appears to perform a desirable function but in fact performs undisclosed malicious functions. Therefore, a computer worm or virus may be a Trojan horse. The term is derived from the classical story of the Trojan Horse."

Online greeting card tips which will help you not to be scammed:

• Be extra suspicious. Rather be safe than sorry, always be cautious if something doesn't look right.
• Be cautious if the card doesn't have your name on. If the card doesn't even have your full name on don't bother opening it.
• Make sure the name of the sender is in the body of the email. Always make sure you there is a name of someone that you know.
• Be sure the sender is someone that you know. If the card is sent by a random person, just delete it.
• If it isn't a special occasion be cautious. A good sign of a scam is card sent to you for no reason.
• If the card asks you to install a special viewer it's a sign. This is a sign that something is wrong so don't do it.

There is more than one victim of greeting cards scams, one is the user and the other is company. The company may have a good name and their good name may be used against them. Various online greeting companies have been a victim of online scams, inclusive in this company list is Blue mountain greeting cards as well as Hallmark. It may be suggested to all internet users to rather email the person who sent you the card if you are not sure it is authentic. It is also suggested that you rather send the email to the individuals personal email address as opposed to the email address that the online greeting card was sent from as chances are it may be an email address that is fake.

It is alarming to know that the fake online greeting card, attempts to trick you into downloading a trojan. This particular Trojan then attempts to download various malicious files onto your computer. Sometimes the Trojan is even affected with the Parite virus. This virus is also known as: Pinfi, Pate, Win32.Parite.a, W32/Pate.a, W32.Pinfi, Win32.Pinfi.A, PE_PARITE.A, and W32/Parite-A, Win32/Parite.A.It effects EXE and SCR files on Windows 32-bit platforms. It is vital to always use effective antivirus software which is kept up to date on a continuous basis. It is suggested to take as many precautionary measures as you can in order to safeguard yourself against a greeting card scam.