I would like to think I didn’t have to tell folks this, but my instincts say otherwise, so here:
If you get an email, or a Tweet, or a Skype message, or a Facebook post offering you a link to stolen celebrity nude photos, just move on. Don’t stop and think about it. Don’t hover your clicking finger over the mouse button. Just move on.

As an IT professional, I recognize that I’m wasting time, air, and ink saying this, but this is for everyone and no one. Everyone will deny it, no one will do it, and in the end, I’ll have to nod and smile and say “Of course – I know you would never do that”. But you will, and I’ll have to clean it up.

That’s if a cleanup is even possible. The fact is, a mere internet link could fill your computer with ads. It could delete your data. It could encrypt everything you have access to with an encrytion so strong that the NSA couldn’t crack it. It could capture your login data. It could wipe out your bank account. It could do all that, and still lie in wait to build a huge credit mess on your record. And it can spread to your family and friends to do the same to them. Oh, sure – you’re smarter than that. You know the link is probably a scam. You know that there are probably no pics. You know that if there were any pics, they would be something you were never meant to see. You know that if you were actually to see them, you’d be contributing to the perpetration of massive internet invasion of privacy. And yet…

So I know you will just move on. You won’t click that link. You won’t try to find non-existant treasure at the end of a scammer’s URL. And you won’t admit it when you go ahead and do it anyway.

But you also know that one day, I won’t be able to clean it up. You know.