Spam, spam, spam and Valentine’s Day

Ah, holidays. They inevitably mean you get spammed with malware and we get spammed with press releases from antivirus companies.

With that ridiculously contrived day of love upon us once again, the opportunity hasn’t been missed by any of the spammers, as Symantec has hastened to demonstrate.

“When you find the perfect pair of diamond earrings for your valentine this year at a price too good to be true, think twice before whipping out your credit card, warns Symantec,” warns Symantec.

Diamond earrings? Don’t you people know that diamonds are completely valueless and rather commonplace across the earth? Just get some second-hand ones off of Trade Me if you really want to know the value of magpie-rocks.

Symantec continues: “Various Valentine’s Day spam messages have already started flowing through Symantec’s Probe Network. The top word combinations used in spam messages to look out for include: ‘Find-Your-Valentine’, ‘eCards-for-Valentine’ and ‘Valentine’s-Day-Flowers’.”

Scary; however, the press release comes with some rather unexpected excellent advice: “Beware heavily discounted jewellery, dinning opportunities and expensive gifts.”

Do take that as a general instruction. Avoid Valentine’s Day excess for all it’s worth and take your missus (or mistus, as the case may be) out on a completely random day in any month.

It’s called ‘sincerity’ and it beats the hell out of dancing to the tune played by the money-making Valentine’s machine.

But if you MUST, here’s the last word: “Shopping online is generally safe as long as you stay on trusted and secure sites. Symantec advises users to be cautious when handling unsolicited or unexpected emails and to update antispam signatures regularly.”