I clicked on a link...

I clicked on a link in an email to say I didn't want any more messages,
& got a web page in Opera asking me to confirm, which I did. Only
afterward did I remember "you should never click on a link...". I'm
using Vista. Is there anything I can & should do to see if clicking on
the link did something undesireable?

John
Mon Jul 21 16:24:20 PDT 2008


"Xeno" <noaddress@fuspammer.com> wrote in message
news:6P8hk.56293$X72.9447@newsfe29.ams2...
>I clicked on a link in an email to say I didn't want any more messages, &
>got a web page in Opera asking me to confirm, which I did. Only afterward
>did I remember "you should never click on a link...". I'm using Vista. Is
>there anything I can & should do to see if clicking on the link did
>something undesireable?

I doubt anything bad has been done to your machine. Hopefully the worst you
have done is confirm to someone that your email address exists, and that you
are 'ready' for a whole load more spam.

Take care with future emails, especially now you've primed them.

JW

Patrick
Mon Jul 21 16:25:47 PDT 2008

"Xeno" <noaddress@fuspammer.com> wrote in message
news:6P8hk.56293$X72.9447@newsfe29.ams2...
>I clicked on a link in an email to say I didn't want any more messages, &
>got a web page in Opera asking me to confirm, which I did. Only afterward
>did I remember "you should never click on a link...". I'm using Vista. Is
>there anything I can & should do to see if clicking on the link did
>something undesireable?

If the page required you to enter any of your passwords, you should change
them, now. Otherwise you may have only confimed your email address to a
spammer, who may well re-use it.

HTH
-pk

Nonny
Mon Jul 21 16:30:16 PDT 2008

On Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:16:03 +0100, Xeno <noaddress@fuspammer.com>
wrote:

>I clicked on a link in an email to say I didn't want any more messages,
>& got a web page in Opera asking me to confirm, which I did. Only
>afterward did I remember "you should never click on a link...". I'm
>using Vista. Is there anything I can & should do to see if clicking on
>the link did something undesireable?

Where did the email come from? What was the web page you confirmed
on.

Do you have antivirus software running? Have you ever installed
anti-malware software like Spybot Search and Destroy,
SuperAntispyware, or Ad-aware?

ceed
Mon Jul 21 17:43:51 PDT 2008

Xeno wrote:

|I clicked on a link in an email to say I didn't want any more
|messages, & got a web page in Opera asking me to confirm, which I
|did. Only afterward did I remember "you should never click on a
|link...". I'm using Vista. Is there anything I can & should do to see
|if clicking on the link did something undesireable?

Good thing you were using Opera, that means that no Active-X crap got
to you. If you think you downloaded "something" that could be a concern
but only if you run what you downloaded. It doesn't sound like that was
the case here. You may only have confirmed that your e-mail address is
a real one and gotten yet another spam problem to deal with, but that's
about it.

If you want to be absolutely safe in the future invest in something
like Avira Premium Security Suite. It will block the bad stuff even
before it is rendered in your browser. And if you still get something
on your computer it will prevent it from running unless you
specifically allow it.

--
//ceed

Xeno
Tue Jul 22 06:39:27 PDT 2008

Thanks to everyone for their advice. I think I'm OK.

Xeno