Rules to Surf By

Email:
1. If you get an email with a link in it, no matter how compelling, DO NOT CLICK ON IT! Exceptions to this rule are when you have discussed the link with the sender outside of the email. In other words, if someone hasn't told you they are going to send you a link to something, and you haven't asked them about any unannounced links, it's not a good idea. Also, if signing up for a website, it's common practice for them to send a confirmation email containing a link. Since you know that it's coming, this is also OK.

2. If you receive an email stating that you must forward it on for any reason, you will not gain any kind of benefit from forwarding it. For all intents and purposes, it's as if someone whispered a message in your ear and told you to repeat it to all of your friends, and if you did, some other person would give you money. This doesn't work in "the real world", it doesn't work online, either. Unless you get a funny joke or something you just feel like sharing with your friends, it's probably best to ignore the forward button.

3. If you get an email with an attachment, treat it like you would a link per Rule 1.

Browsing:
4. Know what subdomains are. For example: http://mail.yahoo.com "mail." is the subdomain, and "yahoo.com" is the domain. Remember that the site you are at is always the domain. If the subdomain sounds legit, but the domain doesn't, beware! It's a common practice for scammers to setup bogus websites designed to mislead you into thinking you are at a reputable site when really they are trying to gather personal information about yourself.

5. Try to stick to websites that you know are safe. Don't assume that the sites you have been going to are safe just because you have been going there for some number of days/months/years/etc. Safe assumptions are the sites that everyone has heard about(Yahoo, Google, MSN), poor assumptions are sites that have a lot of popups, loaded with ads, or "require" you to install their own software to view the site*.

*These are called plugins, and many of them are OK. Flash, Silverlight, JavaScript are the most common safe ones, and their are others, but it's best to be skeptical when asked to install anything on your computer.

6. Arm yourself! Get a safer browser(Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari), get spyware protection software(Spybot, AdAware, etc.), virus protection software(Avast, AVG) and a good, but simple firewall(ZoneAlarm). All of the programs listed here are free, and fairly effective.

That's all for now, but I may revise this list in the future. Feel free to print out this list and put it up right next to the family computer.