Spoof email - Anti virus from Microsoft

I received a disturbing email this evening. It looked, at first glance, like it was from Microsoft.

It was telling me that Microsoft recommended this particular anti virus and that I was to uninstal my resident antivirus and download and install the file that I was linked to.

Well I didn't... why?

Microsoft would never ever ever tell me to uninstall my resident anti virus.

If there was a program that they were releasing or recommending then they would announce it the usual way, through the media and on the official Microsoft sites.. they certainly would not email me personally.

As it turned out, the file that I was being prompted to download was a particularly nasty trojan.

Yes you have guessed it, the email wasn't from Microsoft. The address it came from was spoofed so that it looked like it was from Microsoft.

Please take care when you are going through your emails, if you are unsure about the content of an email then go to the senders website by using the link you have in your favourites or by typing the URL into your browser address bar manually. Don't click on any links in the email.

Remember, the world won't end tomorrow if you don't download this or install that. But your computer will probably be a lot happier! :)