Computer viruses, Trojans, spyware, greyware, and the like, are never fun but there seems to have been an explosion of them recently. Of course it may just be that I've seen an inordinate number of them, but I think it might just be that the authors of this nastiness are simply getting ahead of the antivirus and antispyware software that tries to keep them at bay. And the tactics they use to get you infected has gotten better too.

Take the UPS spam message that's been going around the past month or so. This message claims that a parcel sent by UPS couldn't be delivered because the recipient's address was incorrect. It then advises you to print the attached invoice and bring it to the UPS office.

Without thinking about this with too much resolve, it's not hard to see that a business owner or someone in charge of shipping items might be fooled. Lots of businesses send parcels by UPS every day. This email message can literally reach 10's -- or even 100's -- of millions of people in a single blast and the odds of reaching many of those 10's or 100's of millions who recently sent packages by UPS are very good.

Here's the twist; when you open the attachment that's supposed to be an invoice you can take to the UPS office, you get infected with the ZBot spyware. ZBot then downloads a list of bank related web sites and the spyware logs your keystrokes if you happen to visit one of them. It then sends those keystrokes - more often than not your bank account information - to a web site where it can be used to rob you. Nasty stuff indeed.

And then there's the MSNBC news alert email message that claims "Mary-Kate Olsen responsible for Heath Ledger's death" or "McDonald's found to breach FDA regulations, suspended from trading" or a number of other "breaking" stories. As you'd probably expect, there's a link in the message to a web page that allegedly sports the full story. That's where things get hairy.

That link leads the unsuspecting "breaking news" reader to a web site that installs malicious software. The malicious software can do practically anything one can imagine and because it's hosted on a web page, it can be changed at any time with very little effort. To make matters worse, the software is often programmed to upgrade itself automatically.

Many of the recent versions have installed malicious software that falsely warns the user that the computer is infected with viruses and tries to lure them into installing bogus antivirus software. This brings us to the next point of interest - and perhaps pain as well - Antivirus 2007/2008/2009.

I've got to admit, this is one of my biggest pet peeves; luring nice, unsuspecting people like my Mom or Aunt Mary with the computer older than the hills, to install malicious software in the guise of legit software that will protect them from malicious software! I know that's a mouthful but that's exactly what Antivirus 2007, 2008, and 2009 do, they claim to fix malicious software when their entire purpose is to steal credit card numbers.

The Antivirus 2007/2008/2009 clan create an almost steady stream of false virus alerts that effectively scare the bejeebers out of an unsuspecting computer user. The software then appears to be a hero by offering to fix the problem if only the user would buy the full version of Antivirus 2007, 2008, or 2009. It happily offers up a link to a web site where the full version can be purchased.

Once the unsuspecting user is fooled into buying the full version, the hook is set. When they enter their credit card information, it is stolen and the user is ripped off. Again, very nasty stuff.

As always, to help protect yourself from these threats:

* Keep your antivirus software (the real one!) up to date
* Maintain a firewall
* Keep Windows updated
* Don't open anything you don't completely trust