AOL Greeting Card Scam / Trojan Horse - This type of scam uses an email attachment that claims to be an online greeting card. The file is actually a trojan horse program that asks for your billing information as registration before you can read the "greeting card". Any information you enter is sent by the trojan horse to the scammer.
AOL offers the following checklist to help you spot trojan horses:
The email may have been sent from one screen name to itself, then sent to you. This is one way that scammers send computer viruses and trojan horse programs through email without actually compromising their own AOL account information.
The attached file name ends with ".SHS" or ".EXE". The ".SHS" file type is commonly associated with trojan horses. Trojan horse file names can also end with ".EXE" (which is also a common legitimate file type used by Windows), but can be any file type that is an executable file. Note that Macintosh computers cannot open ".exe" files, but Mac users should play it safe and not attempt to open any such file in any case.
The file was sent by someone you don't know. Never download files sent to you from people you don't know. A true online greeting card would contain the screen name or real name of the person who sent the greeting.
Password or Billing Information Request. You receive a request for your AOL password or billing information in any form (email, IM, window pop-up, or on an "AOL" web site).
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