Generally speaking our advice is to never open e-cards. Most are based on Active X objects and will prompt you to install some software necessary to view the card. Even with the most reputable e-card providers this software often contains additional spyware and so forth.

More recently we've seen an example of an email claiming to be from a "legitimate" e-card web site but actually pointing to a malicious Active X / Windows Media Player exploit on a completely different web site.

We suggest that you edit your browser security preferences to ensure that you are always prompted before installing software from the Internet (in IE, go to Tools - Internet Options -> Security -> Custom Level and either "Disable" Active X options or set to "Prompt").

Also before clicking on a link to an e-card, look at where it's actually pointing to and make sure the URL matches the one in the email. In fact, rather than clicking on it, copy the link and paste it into a browser.

Also do a quick Google search with the name of the provider and the words "trojan" or "virus" and see if anyone else has had problems. That could save you a lot of time afterwards.

And also don't forget - get yourself some virus software such as AVG and some other useful tools like Spybot and Pest Patrol - see our Links section for details.

Finally, make sure you keep your operating system up to date (http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com), as many of the exploits used to install these nasties are avoidable.