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connection, not by clicking on some link that was sent to
you.

" Creators of phishing scams are getting craftier all the
time and I’m not talking about pottery! In the one I just
recetved, they’ve obviously taken hold of some of Sue
Griese’s e-mails and are sending e-mails to her contacts,
pretending to be her. It’s still a little rough, but the stories
are getting better and it’s concetvable that one day they'll
craft an e-mail that sounds perfectly credible.

"Beware! Akways confirm an e-mail is from who it says and
they mean what 1s said if it asks for any kind of money
or favour.

Already clicked on a nasty link? Your computer 1s now infected with
some form of spyware or virus. If you’ve followed the rest of the list
above, hopefully, your antrvirus program will catch it or if you scan
your hard drive, it can remove it. If your PC starts to act weird, contact
your computer helper and get some help to clean it up.

If you responded to one of those phishing e-mails, you should report
it and change any userids and passwords that you’ve compromised. If
the scam you’ve fallen prey to involves a credit card, then obviously
you'll need to cancel and replace it.

For those members who haven’t got the antivirus, firewall and
spyware utilities, there are good free ones available for personal use, so
there’s no excuse for not having them installed on your computer.

Everyone that uses a computer should have an antivirus program
loaded to ensure you don’t get infected by those nasty things out on the
Internet and coming through your e-mail. There are a few free ones:

AVG and Avast antrvirus get the top honors. Click or go to http://free.
grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/ for AVG or www.avast.com/eng/
download-avast-home.html for Avast. With Avast, you need to register
as a non-commercial home user to get a free license key to use it for
one year. You'll need to re-register once per year to continue using it
for free...still a great deal.

Tax Time

It’s also getting around to that time of year again: tax time. Here is a
list of useful, tax-related links I compiled last year:

We all want to save a bit of money don’t we? Being the techno geek
that I am, I use tax preparation software to do my taxes. The math 1s
all done for you and if you are just a little web savvy, you can file over
the Internet with the governments Netfile service. File online and your
humongous tax refund (hopefully, you'll get a refund!) will be processed
and deposited into your bank account in a matter of days.

The one I’d recommend 1s Studiotax: click or go to www.studiotax.
com. The best partis... it’s free. If it works for you and you're feeling
generous after your tax refund, you can donate something to the

author.
7 continued on page 8...

“Beware!
Always confirm
an e-mail is
from who it says
and they mean
what is said if
it asks for any
kind of money
or favour.”

y

POTTERS

GUILD

of BRITISH
COLUMBIA