Microsoft Does Not Know Your E-mail Address!

I don't know if you've noticed the recent hullabaloo caused by the Microsoft updates. The company is patching up, which is good, and security experts, such as Sophos and McAfee are advising users to plug the holes to keep anything nasty from happening. So, based on these facts, people are going to bring their software up-to-date, which is not condemnable at all.

The bad part about all this is that spammers have come to exploit the situation as best they can. They know people are aware they should update, but some just postpone, or do not know how to do it, so they're bound to get a virus. Spammers send out their messages, pretending they're representing Microsoft and telling users to update. I just learned about it, while stumbling upon this page where the author even displays pictures of how the e-mails look like.

Microsoft does not know your e-mail address, unless you gave it to them, which is not likely. Furthermore, spammers get any e-mail addresses they can and send messages to them - they have no idea what system you're operating on. In addition, Microsoft does not issue updates trough e-mail.

So, if you ever get an e-mail from someone saying they represent Microsoft and that you should update something by clicking on a certain link, just ignore the whole thing - instead of making your computer more secure, you're going to get a virus. Also, be kind enough to let other people know about this tactic, as Windows updates have been something huge everyone's heard about this month and many users may fall prey to spammers who use this scheme.

You can get more information about how to update Microsoft programs here, and keep in mind that updates should come from official websites, not some (hoax) address that nobody ever heard about!