Of all the sinister things that Internet viruses do, this might be the worst: They can make you an unsuspecting collector of child pornography.

Heinous pictures and videos can be deposited on computers by viruses — the malicious programs better known for swiping your credit card numbers. In this twist, it’s your reputation that’s stolen.

Pedophiles can exploit virus-infected PCs to remotely store and view their stash without fear they’ll get caught. Pranksters or someone trying to frame you can tap viruses to make it appear that you surf illegal Web sites.

Whatever the motivation, you get child porn on your computer — and might not realize it until police knock at your door.

What is this world coming to?

Phishing scam is what crooks and hackers do to steal your personal information. Once they get all the information they need they can use it to steal your cash. Whenever there is a request for your personal data, whether online or not, should make you vigilant and set yourself that it can be someone trying to steal your personal identity!

By now, most of you may have already heard of phishing scams. This can happen not only online but also anytime outside so you should be on guard against it. But criminals today are very creative and imaginative in coming up of new ways to trick us and trying to con us out of our hard-earned money.

Scareware is one of methods that they have been using for quite some time now. It works by screen pop up when you are online showing you a warning message that your computer has been infected with a virus. Usually they make the box similar to Windows dialog box that you are used to so you wont get suspicious that it was a hoax.

They also include a site or a link where you can buy software that you can use the said virus or malware. But if you buy that software and run it in your computer, it will not solve the problem but install viruses and spyware on your computer. The malware installed in your system can fetch for important personal data such as credit card numbers, passwords and bank login information. Once the hacker has your credit card number he can use it and leave you with a pile of bills.

Usually those pop-up windows get into your computer when you may have unconsciously victimized by a phishing scam. Another way of getting it is when you visited a well-known and respected site that had been attacked before. There are malwares today that can be installed in your computer without any action from your part. This happens when you visit an affected site that caused a malicious program to be downloaded and installed on your system. There are many ways an attacker can use to infect your system that’s why it is important to know how to avoid being a victim of such attacks.

When you encounter a pop-up box warning you that you were infected with some kind of malware of virus remember not to close it using the red X button on the upper right of the box because some hackers have ingeniously initiate a malware to download on your computer when you close the dialog box that way. A simple press Ctrl + Alt + Delete will be able to close that box or by right-clicking the pop-up’s tab on the Task Bar which is located at the bottom of your screen then click Close. Another way to do it is to close your browser in the list of running programs then clicking End Task. You should also remember to disable pop-ups in your browser to prevent it from happening again.