Did you know that right now, you could be involved in the sale
and distribution of child pornography and not know it?  This is
because two things you're familiar with - computer viruses and
spam - are being used by criminals to involve you in their 
illegal activities.
 
It's not surprising to anyone with an e-mail account to learn 
that spam has reached epidemic proportions.  In fact, more spam 
was intercepted in July, 2003 than in all of 2002 combined, and 
now accounts for 50% of all e-mail received! (Source: MessageLabs)
 
The number of virus and virus-like attacks have also increased
dramatically.  On average, they are present in about one in 166
e-mails.  (Source: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-5058168.html)
 
So, what does this spam epidemic and the rise in e-mail delivered
viruses have to do with child pornography?
 
In this scam, Trojan horse attacks are the culprits.  If you 
don't know EXACTLY what a Trojan horse is, you are extremely 
vulnerable.  Read a simple and concise explanation here:
http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/security/trojan.html
 
These Trojan horse programs, delivered and embedded into
thousands of home and business computers via spam e-mail, then
execute their programs to literally hijack the PC's in order to
remotely relay ads for pornographic web sites.
 
Since the pornographic images are not actually written to the hard
drive, the owner of the PC never even knows what's going on...yet
porn ads are being spammed to millions of e-mail addresses from
his/her IP address!
 
Porn is BIG business on the Net, raking in billions of dollars
annually, and one of the most effective way to advertise the
hundreds of thousands of porn sites is by spamming millions of
people every day.
 
Hijackers use the victims' computers to vastly increase the
scope of their spam campaigns.  An additional benefit is that if a
victim's ISP terminates their Internet account because of spam
complaints, the hijackers are unfazed because they have
thousands of additional computers doing their dirty work for
them.
 
And when the hijackers turn into cyber-criminals and begin
using the same methods to engage in child pornography and
exploitation, you could get caught up in a very serious situation.
 
In one recent case "a man accused of storing CHILD
pornography on his computer was cleared after it emerged that
his computer had been infected by a Trojan horse, which was
responsible for transferring the images onto his PC."
 
But before he was cleared of the charges, "Julian Green, 45, was
taken into custody...after police with a search warrant raided his
house. He then spent a night in a police cell, nine days in Exeter
prison and three months in a bail hostel. During this time, his 
ex-wife won custody of his seven year old daughter and possession
of his house." (Source: ZDNet® UK/August 1, 2003)
 
When it comes to the sexual exploitation of children, merely 
being accused of involvement can be enough to ruin a person's
reputation.
 
And for all those who like to share files, it's been reported that
Peer-To-Peer networks, including the music site Kazaa® are
currently being investigated in the US for pornography swapping.
 
As these types of attacks increase, they're likely to expand from
the realm of pornography peddling and child exploitation into
many other illegal activities.
 
Think about it:  a criminal anywhere in the world could remotely
(and without your knowledge) use your home or office computer
for money laundering, extortion, pyramid scams...even terrorist
network communications.  All traceable back to YOUR IP address.
 
An updated virus program and personal firewall can give you
some measure of protection.  Being aware of the dangers and
taking steps to AVOID trouble before it's too late is the other 
and equally important half of your defense.
 
There are two (free) things you can do right now to begin to
protect yourself and your family from online scams like this one:
 
First, you can run a free Trojan scan on your computer.  Anti-
virus programs don't scan for Trojans, so this is a very important
diagnostic you'll want to perform as soon as possible. Just go to:  
http://www.trojanscan.com/trojanscan
 
Second, you can sign up for a free information-packed 7-Part
Scam Alert Course by sending a BLANK e-mail (no subject) to
this address:  mailto:scamalertcourse@cwright.par32.com
 
Ignoring the threat isn't an option any longer.   Automated e-mail
harvesters are stripping e-mail addresses from millions of web
sites and ISP data bases this very minute...and this scam is just
one among hundreds victimizing thousands of people everyday...