I got a message from tis hitsonline site that I registered with last year, part of my love for music. In the last week a received a message that read:



It's my kid's pc. I showed him the message. He says to just delete it. He has XP and they don't target older OS's like his. They target the newer ones like Vista. I don't appreciate threats like this and it doesn't ring legit, but I don't have the savvy to know for sure. Whaddya think?

It's legit! If you want a free virus just let them know....probably they have a few waiting for you

Generally any email you receive that asks you to click on a link is a scam. Also importantly if you registered with this music site they would be writing to you addressing you by your real name which you would have provided during registration, not just 'hello'
Delete it.

Also 'hello' as a subject title, not likely from a legite site.

XP is the number 1 OS targeted by malware. It's old, therefore full of insecurities and has a massive userbase to scam.

It's a spam mail to get your PC infected by the help of your own interaction.

This text:
> This is an online service that you can use for free spyware removal.
is sent to you just to make you click on the Internet a "Yes, remove my spyware" button and to confirm further actions, i.e. installing software (malware) on YOUR PC! The spammer claims it to be spyware removal software you are allowing to run on your PC, but it is the malware itself you are allowing!

So if you click and confirm, then you are infected with malware.

DO NOT REACT on such e-mails, except they are sent (for sure!) from your Internet service provider!

You can make sure that an email is sent from your Internet service provider, if they know your full an correct name along with some additional information such as your customer number oder login name for the customer service system.

DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINKS IN SPAM MAILS!

Jürgen

Definitely spam email, simple rule is don't open any email, link or attachment that you're sent if you're not certain where it came from. If you've been downloading music make sure your antivirus/anti spyware/firewall etc are all up to date and do a full system scan just to be on the safe side

Thanks for the guidance. The Email has been trashed. If the jerk sends another one it will be flagged as spam.

It's easy to know if an e-mail is a spam: just copy/paste a part of the message on Google. With only the 2nd sentence of the message you got, you obtain about 6000 advices telling you that it is a spam...

I'll remember to do that if it happens again.

Also note that many spam/malicious emails do not come from the indicated sending email address.