Beware of "phishing" scams. In recent months, there have been numerous emails circulating the internet that attempt to lure the recipient into divulging personal and financial data. These cunning emails have fooled some consumers into downloading worms and Trojans (programs that allow your computer to be hijacked), while others have masqueraded as security updates from Microsoft. Other phony emails contain links to forged versions of actual websites (Citibank, PayPal), and ask the user to go to that site to update his/her account information (credit card numbers, social security numbers, passwords, etc). In reality this is just an elaborate scam to acquire your private information. Unfortunately, most of these emails take great measures to appear legitimate, and their attachments or internet links often seem like the real thing. 

Most companies will never send you an internet link to update your account information. Typically the only way to be assured that you are visiting a legitimate website is for you to manually type the web address into your web browser, or to search for the company's name on an internet search engine like Google. For now, it is best to be cautious and to avoid email links that ask for any personal data. Also, please remember that Microsoft never sends Windows updates or security patches to anyone via email. In addition, SD Geek also strongly urges you not to open any file attached to an email unless you are 100% positive that the attachment is safe. As an extra measure of precaution, before opening any attachments it would be advisable to perform a virus scan on them to ensure that they are not accidentally infected.