txbennett wrote:In spite of my best efforts and reliable software, the trolls manage to infect me
All those "anti-virus" and cleaner programs don't help as such.
On Windows 10, the built-in Windows Defender is quite capable. I personally do not use any additional anti-virus software because it slows everything down.
What I really recommend is an ad-blocker or a browser with a built-in ad-blocker or, for those who are familiar with using the Windows Explorer, a modified HOSTS file.
This is a Windows system file which has a long list of unwanted web addresses which then get sent into digital nirvana when you stumble upon a link and try to click on it.
The modified file can be downloaded here:
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm. This is quite a robust way of blocking ads, malware and the likes.
It's also useful to NOT use HTML mail view in your mail program, or use a mail program that allows for "plain-text" view. Example in difference:
in a HTML mail, you may click on
Iditarod News because you think it's a page with Iditarod News, but in reality you are sent to the Yukon Quest website. In plain-text view, you would see
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<a href="http://www.yukonquest.com">Iditarod News</>
which is ugly, but at least you could see the real link (a href=).
It also helps to have a modern browser. And maybe use a portable installation (Opera portable, Vivaldi portable, Firefox portable) and use different browsers for different purposes. I have one browser for online banking, one browser for online shopping, one browser for only surfing, and one browser for logging into Facebook, if I must. All browsers are cleaned automatically when I close them.
On a smartphone with Android it's much more difficult to stay safe, as many apps don't offer the transparency and functionality of their Windows counterparts. It's more difficult to see whether a link sent in a mail is indeed what it appears to be, which is why I only click on a mailed link on mobile if I absolutely have to.
If you have a personal question regarding this topic, feel free to send me a PM