This week’s proof of the fast-acting, opportunistic nature of today’s spammers and cyber scammers:

While the phrase “swine flu” has reportedly not been seen in spammed messages prior to the start of this week, an estimated 5 percent of junk mail clogging inboxes around the world now refers to it, according to industry stats cited in a Guardian.co.uk article.

As the level of global concern over the swine flu outbreak rises, we can expect that scammers will continue to capitalize on your fear or curiosity to get past your defenses online. Keep an eye out for this: always get your news from a reliable source, and don’t open unsolicited e-mail or click any links/open attachments in messages from unknown senders!