Free Anti-virus faceoff. Free AVG vs Avast Free vs Microsoft Security Essentials.

Our aim: To pit the free ant-virus products against each other in a gruelling, ferocious, winner takes all battle.

Our technique: To drag out three old warriors consisting of Windows XP SP2 computers with Outlook 2003 installed. They may be dated to some, but to others they are skilled operators.

The outcome: Over the coming week as the warriors do battle, I'll report how the battle unfolds.

Warrior 1: In the first corner we have AVG Free. Well known and mentioned in the inner geek circles.
Warrior 2: Avast Free version. Less well know, but still a very brave warrior.
Warrior 3: Microsoft Security Essentials. The new kid on the block. Will MSE get its block knocked off, or will MSE be the new David.

We don't know the outcome. No behind the scenes deals have been done. What you read is the combat as it unfolds.

Join me on this journey of evaluation. To see what we will see. Enjoy the ride because it will be over all too soon.

Let the journey begin......

The rules of engagement:

1. All combatants will pit their skills against the emails being received. These emails can hold nasties unimaginable. Those weak of heart should avoid reading further. The nasties the combatants have to beat are emails carrying malicious loads. Combatants do not have to pursue links outside of the arena (such as clicking on links), but only fight the fight brought to them.

2. At the end of each round a score card will be presented. It is expected each combatant will receive minor blows, but none are expected to be fatal.

3. A side event will be running in parallel. A little know outsider named OzEfilter, often seen working with a combatant, will be watched. OzEfilter is like a shield for a combatant. OzEfilter fends off the enemy before ever reaching the combatant. But should an enemy get past OzEfilter, the combatant needs to be able to slay the enemy. OzEfilter however has proven to be so effective in many cases, combatants often live a life unaware of enemies.

To the victor goes the spoils.

Round 1: 6 October 2009

The combatants trusty steeds were tended too. Each steed consisting of a Windows XP SP2 computer. Outlook 2003 installed. AVG free and Avast installed easily. MSE's steed was older than the rest and had to be upgraded to XP SP2. Only then could MSE mount and begin the battle. All the combatants prepared, the battle begins. In waiting, 150 plus recent emails, most friendly, but some containing enemies disguised to trick.

Avast was the first. As each email was received, enemies were loudly announced and lay to rest. Avast is not shy at letting the crowd know it is doing battle.

AVG was next. The emails were received silently. Nothing was said. The enemies were captured and put into a separate folder.

MSE welcomed all visitors into the inbox with no fanfare. One by one the emailed visitors were invited into the local computer. One by one MSE slay the enemies and partied with friends.

OzEfilter: The combatants shield. Not to be used without a fellow combatant, but providing extra protection to the combatant. A combatant generally end up doing little as OzEfilter, the trusty friend, deals with many enemies from afar, before they even approach.

CA: An employee of the kingdom, paid to do what others do for free. Is CA worth his weight in gold? We will see.

This test was going well. The first computer with CA received the emails and the result was the following:

Subject/Attachment

Test / mail.zip
Jessica would like to be your friend on hi5! / Invitation Card.zip
You have received A Hallmark E-Card! / Postcard.zip
You have received A Hallmark E-Card! / Postcard.zip
Your friend invited you to twitter! / Invitation Card.zip
You have received A Hallmark E-Card! / Postcard.zip
Jessica would like to be your friend on hi5! / Invitation Card.zip
Shipping update for your Amazon.com order 254-78546325-658742 / Shipping documents.zip
Jessica would like to be your friend on hi5! / Invitation Card.zip
Coca Cola is proud to accounce our new Christmas Promotion. / promotion.zip
Jessica would like to be your friend on hi5! / Invitation Card.zip
You have received A Hallmark E-Card! / Postcard.zip
You have received A Hallmark E-Card! / Postcard.zip
You have received A Hallmark E-Card! / Postcard.zip
excuse me / sexual.zip
Jessica would like to be your friend on hi5! / Invitation Card.zip
Re: Protected Mail System / msg.zip
Jessica would like to be your friend on hi5! / Invitation Card.zip
Jessica would like to be your friend on hi5! / Invitation Card.zip
Jessica would like to be your friend on hi5! / Invitation Card.zip
You have received A Hallmark E-Card! / Postcard.zip
Jessica would like to be your friend on hi5! / Invitation Card.zip
important / textfile_found.zip
Your friend invited you to twitter! / Invitation Card.zip
You have received A Hallmark E-Card! / Postcard.zip
Illegal Website / judge.zip
Mail System () / message22466.zip
ALERT / IMPORTANT-INFO.zip
Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender / Message Part>scu.zip
believe me / important.zip
Your account has been suspended for over usage / SECURE-INFO.zip
illegal... / msg2.zip
Re: my product / product.zip
Re: Message Error / message_audictionary.zip

CA missed 5

Invitation Card.zip
Postcard.zip
Shipping documents.zip
IMPORTANT-INFO.zip
SECURE-INFO.zip

AVG missed 5

SECURE-INFO.zip
IMPORTANT-INFO.zip
Postcard.zip
Invitation Card.zip
Shipping documents.zip

Avast missed 3

Invitation Card.zip
Shipping documents.zip
Postcard.zip

MSE missed 0

Unfortunately something happened such that all the emails on the server were gone before I could perform the receive of emails. Instead I forwarded on all the files CA missed. MSE doesn't check at the time of receiving an email. It checks when you go to save the file to your computer. In the case of a zip file it doesn't check until you extract the files. At this point MSE identifies the file and then takes some time to remove the file. MSE correctly identified all the files as malware.

OzEfilter

Because the emails had been received and removed from the mail server, I could not test OzEfilter, so I had to desk check manually what would have happened. OzEfilter shows a list of emails from people you don't know. You can then review those emails and delete them at the mail server before they ever reach your computer. In this case all emails were from addresses we don't already know and accept. So all viruses would have been deleted before reaching the computer.

Outcome for round 1 

1. MSE
2. Avast
3. AVG
4. CA

With round 1 over the combatants can earn a well deserved rest. Tomorrow is another day, another fight.

Until then.

- Kelvin Eldridge

This blog is available from the JustLocal site under the News heading.

Search Australia now available as a Firefox 3 search engine.

The Search Australia page is proving popular with Internet Explorer users. Now the page can be added as a search engine to Firefox as well. Click on the link at the bottom of the Search Australia page and you can make the page your default search engine.

Now you can have your home page as your preferred page instead of the Google page and you can use the search area in the top right of Firefox to perform your searches.

I've found many people don't realise the search area in the top right of modern browsers is available until it is pointed out by someone. Once you know it is there however, searching becomes a lot more fun because you can add a number of search engines. If you want to check out what you can do with search check out my Fun With Search page.

Enjoy.

- Kelvin Eldridge

Goggle it - Search only Australian sites.

If you want to do a search using Google and only search Australian sites, try our Search Australia page. This page uses the Google search engine and limits the results returned to only those sites considered to be associated with Australia.

The sites associated with Australia are the domains ending in .au.

Previously I used Pages From Australia in Google but now I don't find that limits pages to Australia. By limiting the sites to sites with domains ending in .au you don't end up with large overseas organisations with deep pockets promoting themselves at the expense of smaller Australian organisations.

Please enjoy.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for computer support.
Servicing Doncaster, Templestowe, Eltham and the surrounding area.
 

Virus alert: Subject: ALERT. Attachment: Secure_Details.zip

As part of my review of Microsoft Security Essentials yesterday one malware attachment was not picked up as malware by any of the software packages I was reviewing. That is AVG (free), Microsoft Security Essentials or CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2009 all could not identify the attachment as being malware.

The email had the subject "ALERT" and the attachment Secure_Details.zip.

This attachment has now been confirmed as malware.

You should delete any of these emails that you receive. Do not extract the contents of the zip file.

- Kelvin

Virus: Microsoft Security Essentials gets the thumbs down and thumbs up.

To my surprise I've completed the parallel testing of Microsoft Security Essentials in a much shorter time than I expected. I have sufficient information now on whether or not to recommend Microsoft Security Essentials to my clients.

I have read a review giving Microsoft Security Essentials 9 out of 10. It is pretty obvious to me at least, insufficient testing of the software was performed. All I had to do was to collect one days worth of emails, compare the results and that was sufficient to reveal all I needed to know.

I am hopeful that Microsoft uses the feedback from its user base as they could have a great product in the near future. Full marks to Microsoft for getting this far with their product.

If you are interested in my results they can be purchased for $9.90 from MyAnswers. You can find the solution on the Virus page of MyAnswers. The solution number is 1931.

- Kelvin Eldridge

PS. Based on the Free Anti-virus face-off results Microsoft Security Essentials performed best of the free anti-virus solutions tested. It really is about how you use MSE and what you are happy with whether you consider MSE to get the thumbs up, or the thumbs down. In my opinion it gets both. To use being able to forward on emails to other with malware attached isn't community friendly. But to protect your own computer, MSE performed very well. 

Microsoft Security Essentials: I feel naked and exposed, but all for a good cause.

Microsoft have released their free anti-virus software Microsoft Security Essentials. The current players in the market will use the old argument "you pay for what you get". But the reality is we've tested the leading anti-virus software packages that are generally available to consumers from retailers and we have to say we've been disappointed in all of them.

Is Microsoft Security Essentials good enough?

I support a lot of customers and for my own needs the question for me is: Is Microsoft Security Essentials better than what I'm currently using?" Should I stop paying my yearly subscription and move to Microsoft Security Essentials and save some money.

I decided the only way to answer this was to get naked and exposed, in a virtual sense. That is I disabled the anti-virus software on one of the mail servers, so I will now receive all potential malware threats that are sent to me. I receive the same emails into two different computers. One running Outlook and my current anti-virus software, the other running Outlook Express and Microsoft Security Essentials. The email client isn't important in this test. What is important is how each anti-virus product performs.

I've already received one email with malware attached and I can say the result totally surprised me.

Over the next week or so I will be evaluating Microsoft Security Essentials with the best approach I know how. That is a parallel test of two anti-virus software packages receiving the same emails and noting how they respond to malware.

If you are using other leading anti-virus software packages, I can assure you in many cases they won't catch the very latest malware. You are exposed. Is Microsoft Security Essentials any better? I hope to find out and share the information with clients. The result could be savings of thousands of dollars for those who know me.

If you are interested in my findings, I'll be posting the results in MyAnswers and update the MyAnswers solution as I find information to share. As I said, I am already surprised with the outcome and that's only with the first infected email I received.

I am also happy to parallel test Trend, Norton and McAfee and other anti-virus software if there is interest with paid support.

I would highly suggest that if you look after computer users, you also review Microsoft Security Essentials for yourself. Most of what you read in the media is without substance. The protection the anti-virus software companies say they provide is misleading, because the biggest threat is when you have anti-virus installed, are new viruses and in that area all the anti-virus software packages tend to perform poorly. 

If you are a computer user, the best thing you can do to protect yourself, is to learn some safe computing techniques as well as using anti-virus software. Using the low cost techniques I use to protect myself from malicious emails, I rarely receive email based malware into my computer.

So whilst I feel naked and exposed, I know it is a for a good cause. My customers will end up with the better outcome and for me that is worthwhile.

Kelvin

Property: 8 Sinatra Way, Cranbourne 3977

The Spring selling season for real estate looks like being a good one, so if you're interested in buying a property near one of the following streets of the Cranbourne, check out 8 Sinatra Way, Cranbourne.

• Kirwan Way, Cranbourne East
• Landini Court, Cranbourne North
• Linsell Boulevard, Cranbourne East
• Longbow Terrace, Cranbourne North
• Maculata Drive, Cranbourne
• Maddock Drive, Cranbourne East
• Majestic Boulevard, Cranbourne
• Mannavue Boulevard, Cranbourne
• Maureen Close, Cranbourne
• Maywood Road, Cranbourne South
• Merlin Drive, Cranbourne North
• Merribah Way, Cranbourne West
• Mingay Place, Cranbourne West
• Natalie Court, Cranbourne West
• Nature Circuit, Cranbourne
• Navarre Drive, Cranbourne
• Nesbit Court , Cranbourne
• Ovata Place, Cranbourne
• Penhurst Way, Cranbourne North
• Pepperbush Circuit, Cranbourne
• Peregrine Street, Cranbourne North
• Rebecca Court, Cranbourne North
• Rosebank Drive, Cranbourne North
• Sabel Drive, Cranbourne
• Sancho Drive, Cranbourne
• Seaview Drive, Cranbourne North
• Sierra Boulevard, Cranbourne
• Snowdonia Road, Cranbourne North
• Springmount Street, Cranbourne North
• Stately Drive, Cranbourne
• Statesman Circuit, Cranbourne East
• Stone Court, Cranbourne North
• Sussex Avenue, Cranbourne North
• Tanner Avenue, Cranbourne
• Taplan Crescent, Cranbourne
• Thistlewood Place, Cranbourne East
• Thomas Crescent, Cranbourne
• Tolpis Lane, Cranbourne North
• Tranquil Lane, Cranbourne
• Trevino Way, Cranbourne North
• Valma Avenue, Cranbourne
• Vane Street, Cranbourne East
• Von Nida Drive, Cranbourne North
• Waterbury Street, Cranbourne
• Waverly Park Drive, Cranbourne North
• Weathertop Way, Cranbourne
• Westwood Road, Cranbourne
• Whitegum Way, Cranbourne North
• Prosperity Avenue, Cranbourne North
• Arklow Court, Cranbourne
• Ash Street, Cranbourne
• Blueberry Court, Cranbourne North
• Bolwarra Court, Cranbourne West
• Bradford Drive, Cranbourne East
• Breamlea Way, Cranbourne West
• Circle Drive, Cranbourne
• Dalton Way, Cranbourne North
• Dan Morgan Drive, Cranbourne East
• Daphne Way, Cranbourne North
• Dartmoor Drive, Cranbourne
• Datura Avenue, Cranbourne
• Desert Rose Court, Cranbourne
• Eccles Way, Cranbourne South
• Elcan Avenue, Cranbourne
• Elizabeth Street, Cranbourne North
• Endeavour Drive, Cranbourne North
• Fairbairn Road, Cranbourne
• Fernisky Drive, Cranbourne East
• Flinders Court, Cranbourne North
• Foxglove Court, Cranbourne North
• Foxhound Grove, Cranbourne
• Furze Court, Cranbourne
• Greenmantle Close, Cranbourne West
• Harpenden Terrace, Cranbourne
• Hawkeseye Way, Cranbourne
• Heatherwood Court, Cranbourne West
• Honey Myrtle Way, Cranbourne
• Hunt Club Boulevard, Cranbourne East
• Huntingdale Close, Cranbourne
• Jefferson Avenue, Cranbourne
• Josephine Avenue, Cranbourne
• Kells Close, Cranbourne

Happy home hunting.

- Kelvin Eldridge

MyCrap Version 1.1 now available for FREE.

When I wanted to sell my excess items I considered eBay and other sites. It is said that 30-40% of items listed on eBay never get a bid, so the thought of paying fees and not getting a result didn't appeal to me. So I created MyCrap.

MyCrap is a free program which helps you get your list of excess items together (including pictures) and produces the files so you can upload your information to your free hosting space on the internet. Most ISP's provide free hosting space and you can find many places to host your files for free on the internet.

The first time I used MyCrap I made over a thousand dollars selling my excess items. With Spring just around the corner now is a good time to start thinking about getting rid of some of those excess items. As they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure. 

Now you have the ability to advertise your excess items for free, you can have your excess items available for others to see 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at no cost.

I hope you enjoy using MyCrap as much as I have.

- Kelvin 

Is it programme or program?

* The following discussion has been transferred from my forum as the forum is being retired. The main page for the dictionary project is www.dictionary.JustLocal.com.au. If you wish to check the spelling of a word visit Word Check.*

Hi, 

This topic only applies to the Kelvin version of the Australian English dictionary. Both the words programme and program will continue to be in the full version of the Australian English dictionary.

I am currently reviewing whether or not "programme" should remain in the Kelvin version of the dictionary.

According to the Australian Oxford and Macquarie dictionaries I use as an authoritative reference, in Australia it appears program is now the primary spelling.

I am reluctant to change the Kelvin version as I feel programme is used in situations such as a concert programme, and program is used for computer program.

Although I personally am hazy as to whether it should be TV program or TV programme, but my personal preference would be TV program.

NOTE: This change will only apply to the Kelvin version of the dictionary.

I welcome other's thoughts.

- Kelvin

VPS: Renée's home at Sinatra Way, Cranbourne 3977 is on the market.

Renée's lovely home at Sinatra Way, Cranbourne, Victoria, 3997 is now on the market.

For VPS members this is an excellent opportunity. Renée has listed her home with a local agent, but wants to also advertise on JustLocal (due to our great internet presence) and give VPS members an opportunity to earn a generous referral reward of $400. (Thank you Renée for giving VPS members the opportunity.)

If you know someone who is interested in purchasing a home in the Cranbourne area and aren't already a VPS member, become a VPS member (it costs nothing to join). Then if you refer a person via the online form and they buy the home the reward can be yours. (Do keep in mind the person must be a new referral and the person must not have already contacted Renée or the agent about her property.) 

How good is that! You help a friend find a home and can collect $400 just for chipping in. 

- Kelvin Eldridge

Virus Alert: Your friend invited you to twitter!

I noticed a couple of emails today with the subject Your friend invited you to twitter!. The sending email address is invitations@twitter.com. There is no indication of the friend's name, which makes the email appear suspicious. Attached is a zip file called Invitation Card.zip. The zip file contains the executable attachment.htm ... exe.

Whilst the attachment was not detected as containing malware by either the mail host/s (the email travels through two hosts with anti-virus software), or the Desktop anti-virus software, this is almost certainly malware. We've now submitted the attachment to the anti-virus software company for review.

In the meantime clients should take care and delete these emails. Without doubt these are faked emails, most likely designed to trick you into infecting your computer.

The company I use to review the attachment can be found in MyAnswers solution 1890.

- Kelvin Eldridge

MyAnswers: This operation has been canceled due to restrictions in effect on this computer.

I've recently fixed a computer which displayed the message: "This operation has been canceled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator." The message appears when clicking on a link in an email in Outlook 2007 which is an annoying problem. It was very time consuming to determine a fix this issue.

To our users please don't installed Firefox on a computer. This problem from our tests is due to Firefox. This has been a problem for a couple of years and it keeps popping up. Because there are new releases of software, each time the previous fix doesn't work, so we have to find a new fix.

The fix for this problem is documented in MyAnswers solution 1665.

- Kelvin Eldridge

Wanted: Cleaner, Helena Valley area.

At JustLocal we regularly receive enquiries from people wanting products and services.

If you are a cleaner servicing the Helena Valley  area (Western Australia, postcode 6056) and have police clearance, please contact us using the Contact information on the JustLocal site and we'll pass your information on.

This request was received on the 16th of July 2009.

- Kelvin Eldridge

Version 4.0 Microsoft Exclude file now available.

It gives me pleasure to release the latest version of the Microsoft Exclude file. A great number of people in Australia don't like the way Microsoft products accept the ize spelling in words such as organize.

Microsoft have provided a solution where users can create their own Exclude file, so words like organize, summarize, etc. are shown as spelling errors. Whilst the solution is very easy to implement, creating the Exclude file can take a great deal of time. Now you don't have to waste your time because we've already done the hard work.

We create two Exclude files. One for Word 2003, and the other for Office 2007. The Exclude file for Office 2007 now works across all the Office applications, which is a great update by Microsoft.

Our Exclude file now contains over 2,400 words. Not only does it include a large number of the ize words, but it also includes errors we've found in the Microsoft spellchecker. We're now also including secondary spelling variations, so you'll know you're using the preferred Australian English spelling. 

If you don't like ize spelling, or simply want more consistent spelling in your documents, then check out the Microsoft Exclude file which is available now.

- Kelvin Eldridge

Virus alert: "Memory Of..." from "Independence"

I've been receiving a number of suspicious emails which really don't make much sense.

The emails have the subject "Memory Of..." and come from "Independence" with a faked email address.

OzEfilter lets me know the emails are coming from Korea, so for me, they are definitely emails I wouldn't normally receive.

The email comes with an attachment "memory.rar".  A rar file is often a compressed file, but when I view the contents there doesn't appear to be any attachments. The file is twenty bytes.

I've submitted the file for review by the anti-virus company I use (as detailed in MyAnswers solution 1890) and I'll let everyone know what I hear back.

I would suggest deleting these emails. OzEfilter users can delete them at the mail server safely away from your computer.

- Kelvin Eldridge

JustLocal shortcuts now available.

Hi,

I've decided to trial the use of sub-domains with a number of JustLocal postcode pages. In general the two ways to get to a JustLocal postcode page is to enter the postcode after the JustLocal site address. For example www.JustLocal.com.au/3106 will go straight to the postcode page for Templestowe. The second method is to enter the postcode in the Go field at the top right of any JustLocal page.

For this trial I have set up the following postcode pages as sub-domains.

www.3106.JustLocal.com.au
www.3107.JustLocal.com.au
www.3108.JustLocal.com.au
www.3109.JustLocal.com.au
www.3095.JustLocal.com.au

If you find using the sub-domain to be an easier to access a postcode page, I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts.

Thanks in advance.

- Kelvin Eldridge

Apple Safari under Windows gets the thumbs down.

I have to admit that I am biased. I've been creating and maintaining Australian English spellcheck dictionaries for the last six years. For me one of the most important things I now look for in a browser is whether it can provide a quality Australian English spellchecker. With so much of our writing now occurring whilst on the internet, a good spellchecker is a must have. If the browser doesn't have a suitable Australian English spellchecker, then for me the software isn't worth considering.

From what I could ascertain, the Safari browser doesn't handle Australian English and even doesn't provide British English as a fallback.

A couple of times a year I check the Safari browser in the hope Apple have decided to support Australian English. Perhaps one day in the future.

- Kelvin Eldridge

Update: A number of people have contacted me regarding this post. Please note this post is about Safari running under Microsoft Windows. Safari on the Mac is a completely different story, just as I'm sure it will also be different for the iPhone. This post is only about using Safari under Windows with Australian English spellchecking. Thank you for your feedback.

Quickly check if you're using the preferred Australian English spelling.

If you want to check if you're using the preferred Australian English spelling for a word, you can now use the free Word Check service provided by JustLocal using the convenient URL www.wordcheck.JustLocal.com.au.

Word Check is based on Kelvin's dictionary of preferred Australian English spelling. Kelvin's dictionary (which is still under development, but even now is pretty good) is the only spellcheck resource to provide the preferred Australian English spelling.

Do you know there are three ways to spell leukaemia in Australia and that doesn't include the American spelling? Word Check only verifies the the preferred Australian spelling as being correct.

Many of the free online dictionaries available to Australians use American English. Make sure you use the preferred Australian spelling. If in doubt check the word using Word Check. If you think your word processor might be wrong, check the word using Word Check. You may be surprised to learn 10-15% of the words in Word Check would not be correctly handled in the commonly used word processing package. We certainly were.

Word Check is an Australian English spelling resource being developed by an Australian, in Australia, for Australians and of course, others who wish to learn more about our great language.

Please enjoy.

- Kelvin Eldridge

MyAnswers: Blocking sites such as Facebook.com, MySpace.com and Twitter.com.

Every business knows the internet is a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it offers so many great facilities such as email and browsing to gather information, but it can be a curse if people spend too long on sites. In particular social networking sites are becoming a real issue during working hours.

Recently a client requested a number of sites to be blocked. In the past I've used a security router, but this client didn't have the required equipment. I decided to use a trick I learnt some years ago from a virus I eradicated.

By creating a relatively straight forward text file with the sites to be blocked, it is possible to block sites and reduce the issue of social networking sites for small business owners. There is no additional equipment to buy and the change is relatively easy to implement.

If social networking sites are causing your business a problem, check out MyAnswers solution 1928. You can find MyAnswers at JustLocal, or you can use this link.

Regards,

Kelvin Eldridge

Virus alert: Dear Commonwealth Bank of Australia Customer

Over the last week or so the number of phishing emails I've received aimed at Commonwealth Bank Of Australia customers has increased significantly. Many clients are also receiving similar emails every day.

The simplest way to make sure you don't get fooled from a phishing attempt aimed at your bank, is not to provide your bank with your email address in the first place. If they already have your email address ask them to remove it. That way they can't contact you via email and every email relating to your financial institution is fake. My bank has never had my email address and I've never had a problem with receiving information from a bank.

Today I received four emails with the subjects:

1. Dear Commonwealth Bank of Australia Customer
2. Important information regarding your account
3. Important information regarding your account
4. CommAu Survey - 50$ to your account in under 2 minutes!

I thought I'd review each one of these in case it helps others.

1. This email is a fairly obvious fake because of the incorrect spelling in the following line.

"Your internet banking account is currently locked because a suspicious tranzaction was made."

On the next line it contains a link which is most likely the address of the phishing site.

The advice nearly everyone gives is never click on a link to go to your bank site. Always enter the address in the address bar of the browser. I would probably add, never trust an email which appears to come from a financial institution.

The origin of this email was Atlanta Georgia in the United States.

2. This email was a much better quality phishing attempt. Well laid out. It is warning the user their account may be suspended. This may put people under pressure leading them to make the mistake of clicking on the link.

The text you see on the link does appear to be the correct site address for the Commonwealth Bank, but don't be fooled. The actual address you don't see is to the site ipssd.dyndns.org/error/webapps/XXX (XXX added so site not valid) which will be a phishing site.

These are the type of phishing attempts which are the most concern. Attempts which look professional and I've seen some attempts which are extremely good.

As usual the moral here is never trust an email which appears to come from a financial institution.

This email came from Mount Laurel, New Jersey in the United States.

3. This email contains a graphic and some text "YRKOQYGUIDFYGVQZBEEOXCVEUOQDJUEWMPXUTF" which appears to be nonsense. The graphic itself was suppressed by the email client making this look like an obvious phishing attempt. The graphic is a link and clicking on the graphic would go to the site mbl-109-47-183.dsl.net.pk/webps/XXX (XXX added so site not valid).

Once again this email is an obvious phishing attempt. I don't know of any business that sends an unsolicited email that only contains an image.

This email came from Venezuela.

4. This email is poorly written and includes "50$" in the text, which is an obvious indication the email is not legitimate.

The email contains a link which is to the site girc.nknu.edu.tw/appserv/brepsp.phpXXX (XXX added so site not valid). It is easy to see the underlying site address if you have an email client that shows the address when you hover over the link. For example Outlook shows the link address as a text tip. Free email clients like Google hide this very important information and in my opinion is a serious limitation of Gmail.

Some phishing attempts are so good it is hard to tell they are not real. Checking the address of a link address can help to show the email is fake. Trust your instinct. If the email is suspicious to you, then it probably is a phishing attempt. Don't trust the email.

The origin of this email was Shawinigan, Qubec in Canada.

People I know try to block these emails in their email clients. This is generally a waste of time as those creating these emails continuously change their approach, even on a day to day basis. When collecting email from a pop3 mail server I use OzEfilter to delete these unwanted emails at the mail server before they reach my computer. This is a much safer approach than letting these and other malicious emails into your computer.

I hope the above information helps others. Most people are not tricked by phishing attempts, but since these emails are sent out to vast numbers of people, even a small percentage of being tricked will result in quite a number of people being affected.

Regards,

Kelvin Eldridge