Spam: another reason to dislike Valentine's Day

The unattached and luckless in love may already rate Valentine's Day one of the worst days of the year. And now there's a new reason to dislike it: experts blame it  for an increase in computer viruses.

"Even spammers know love can make people do crazy things, so it's not surprising that Valentine's Day is being used as a vehicle to propagate a computer virus," said Erin Nealy Cox, deputy general counsel and managing director at Stroz Friedberg, a computer forensic firm in Dallas.

Since computer viruses and electronic security pose enormous financial risks, she warned it was important to be alert for potential infection from email with Valentine's Day subject lines ."Bone up on computer security practices and review email habits," she said. Avoid opening unsolicited email. And never click on links contained in the messages.

 How can you tell a legitimate website from a potentially dangerous one? VeriSign, a company that specializes in security solutions, said consumers should pay attention to visual clues to distinguish real sites from fraudulent ones.

1. Look for the green address bar and the company’s name highlighted in green at the top of the browser. These indicators signify the site has undergone extensive identity authentication.
2. If the site’s Web address begins with https://, it means information you share is encrypted and secure. Never enter credit card numbers or sensitive personally identifiable information like a Social Security number or your mother’s maiden name on any page that begins with http rather than https.
3. All popular browsers feature a lock icon somewhere in the interface to indicate pages that are encrypted. But the icon has to appear in the actual browser interface and not inside the content of the page itself to be meaningful.
4. Look for a popular trust mark, such as the VeriSign Secured Seal (online security and verified site identity), eTRUST (customer data privacy) or the Better Business Bureau seal (business practices).
5. Check the Web address: Be suspicious of any site with an unknown domain that contains the name of a known site in the latter part of the Web address. For example, if your favorite bank is located at www.myfavoritebank.com, then you should be highly suspicious of a site like www.someotherdomain.com/myfavoritebank.