This page is to help you to know a little more about how these viruses work and how to avoid your being irritated with your innocent friends for no reason from their side!
It is very difficult to avoid these viruses.
However, there can be some ways to limit the injuries to the minimum. The best method is prevention and extreme vigilance.
A. Be careful when you open attachments!
Do not open attachments that end with extensions such as .pif, .scr, .vbs etc. If you find these extensions are not the ones we normally use (such as .doc, .xls, .ppt, .pps, .htm, .jpg etc.),. Chances are that these may be actually viruses.
Even when you see a normal extension like .doc, .exe etc, be sure that these are sent KNOWINGLY / INTENTIONALLY by the sender.
Even if, seemingly, the sender is a friend of yours, PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT HE IS MENTIONING ABOUT THIS ATTACHMENT specifically in the mail.
B. Send your attachments with a personal touch!
C. Watch out for familiar types!
Most of such viruses come in a particular fashion. Mostly they are 20 to 70 KB in size. Their attachments will be ZIP, DOC, VBS, SCR, PIF etc. The actual message and heading will be only a few words such as "your info", "Thanks" etc. As you keep getting such mails, please try to get familiar with their style so you know when they arrive!
D. Keep a good Virus Scanner and UPDATE!
Many believe that they have a good trustworthy anti-virus scanner in their PC. In my experience, I have not seen any PERFECT anti-virus software so far. Even if you have the best, you MUST configure it in detail and you MUST KEEP IT UPDATED on a daily or weekly basis.
With my experience, I would say, the best antivirus is our own common sense and ability to discrete good from bad!
There are many more strategies to avoid viruses in your PC. Hope I will add more to these as the need arises and if i can get some time.
-Viswam