by Ellen Cameron
Staff Writer

It was devious. It was cruel. It was mean-spirited, vile, corrupt, foul, predatory, evil, and very, very clever.

It was a new virus spamming emails under the guise. The virus masqueraded as an attachment in an email from the postal service about a package that could not be delivered. It looked legitimate- it had code names and post master names and even a valid-looking email address ([email protected]). The email told me to print the invoice and bring it to the post office to reclaim my un-deliverable package.

Warning signs should have been going off. How could UPS get my email address? Why didn’t they just stamp “return to sender” on the mail and get it back to me like a repetitive Elvis song? Why was there another recipient listed as being sent my invoice?

Except I was a little preoccupied by the date of the mail: March 15th.

I actually had sent something on March 15th, a scholarship application for a local Coppell foundation. That’s the clever part: I know of multiple scholarship applications due that day, and think the vile prankster knew that too, and realized that by targeting teens, fear would overcome rationale.

Which it did.

And so I learned that Kapersky flips a walrus and does all sorts of funny things when it saves your computer from imminent destruction.

So here’s my warning to readers: If you get an email from UPS, don’t open it.

In a broader sense, here’s some better advice: Be careful about what you open online, both emails and their attachments. Don’t freak out and open things without really considering them, even if it does seem like the end of the world as you know.

For more information about the latest scam, click here.

Did you click it? Never click links if you don’t know where they’re going! That was a test, and you were probably too lazy to fail.