What is viruses and hoaxes

I recevied a Bank of the West official-looking email requesting information about an account ... you know the drill. Three things made it suspicious: 1) I have no Bank of the West account (not even any of the banks BW has ever bought); 2) Banks NEVER request account update information via email; 3) the URL was suspicious, which is why I am writing. The URL started off with www.bankofthe west.com/ and was followed by perhaps 120 or so of what appeared to be random characters. I do a lot of banking on ine and I have never seen a URL that looked like this one. Is the very lengthy URL of random characters a give-away that the link is bogus?

This question was answered on June 1, 2005. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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If you are not sure of a e-mail sent to you erase it It's always to be better safe then sorry Here's a tip if there is a email that you are uncertain about scan it Also try to stay away from emails that have and zip file attachment Sending a zip file is a known way for viruses to destroy your computer.

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Posted by Andrew of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on June 1, 2005

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