Fucking gold.

Nope, the Spam police have been here.

If they empty mine they'll get $1.79! Uh, Scoutdog, how about a loan? BTW, I'm trying to get over that flu/pneumonia/curse too........

They get their money refunded by the bank, don't they?

I don't know what to think of viruses/malware anymore. The vast majority of people who use computers click on and join absolutely anything that comes up, with or without a firewall and antivirus, and nothing happens to them. In fact, as a teen I used some standard firewall and/or antivirus, and on a few occasions none at all, and my identity is still mine.

On the other end of the scale, when I have wised up and used a firewall and antivirus, another new antivirus would later tell me I had viruses all along. I scan my computer somewhat regularly, but all I know is that the scanners TELL ME there's nothing and I'm clean. That doesn't mean there is nothing.

Reminds me of the regular repetitive revelations about the crap they put in our food in supermarkets, despite labelling stating otherwise, and when 'A New Study Has Found Insert Food Here Can Lead To Cancer' is followed a year or so later by 'A Recent Study Has Discovered Insert Cancer Food Here Is Good For You And Should Be Eaten Once A Day' usually followed by the first study results, in a new 'study', and so on and so on.

All we can do is use our NOD32s, Kasperskys, Look 'n' Stops and Malwarebytes' and carry on living, because there will always be connective tissue in our sausages, everything causes cancer (but are also important parts of a healthy diet), and there will always be viruses and malware.

P.S. Ironically, my computer crashed during this post. Cursed USB port/BIOS crap...

For some reason I'm not quoting properly, so I'll just remove the quote tags...

"Depends, if the virus/malware/whatever was on the bank's server, then yes you get it back because they failed to keep your money safe.  If it was something on your computer that made you lose your money, that's on you and you don't get it back.  It's like the difference between a bank heist and you adding someone to your account who cleans you out.  The first is of no fault of your own, the second is you failing to be vigilant in protecting your account info."

But what about new viruses that are undetected, viruses that get big exposure because they can get through our security (until the antivirus peoples figure out how to detect it)? Would be hard to argue that it's the user's fault.

I've been using ebay/paypal and have antivirus, a firewall and a few scanners. If I had this virus and it took out £500,000, how would it be my fault if I didn't even click on anything suspicious?

I remember quite recently I got the Banker virus, and I know I got that from going to a link for a competition in my local newspaper. That's it. All I did was go to the home page of the paper and click the ordinary link (which wasn't like 'Win 1,000,000 by clicking this long-winded link from France!').

I detected it with my scanner, being suspicious, and cancelled my bank card and got a new bank card (and changed some passwords). If I had a load of money, yet still lost it all because of that virus, it would seem only right that I am compensated by the bank and law. Otherwise rich people could lose it all because of a virus.

"The biggest reason you get different results is because of how antivirus scanners work and the definitions they use.  They all use heuristics, recognizing patterns of coding used in the past to create and execute viruses and malware.  This isn't perfect so occasionally things get by or you get false positives, a scanner says a file is infected or malicious when in fact it is not.  Most, if not all game trainers fall into this false positive category for example.  Not all scanners are created equal and it's up to the user to find one they trust and feel safe with.  Ultimately it comes down to the patterns your scanner is looking out for that are included with the definitions you get, which is why it's important to keep them as up to date as possible."

But then, it still only finds what it's looking for. That's the problem, one that's hard to blame internet users for. I'm sure I'm not entirely protected despite having NOD32, Malwarebytes, Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware.

Alas, I assumed we lived in a world of logic. Banks have too much money, I assumed they could spare a measly £3,000 to keep a customer happy.

Mindless pre-Borg era methinks. More like Eniac when it was first powered up.

And the government assumed if they loaned the banks hundreds of billions of dollars to keep them afloat the banks would then make loans to the public to keep the economy spinning.  Ooopsie .

Which is more likely. A snowball melting in hell or a corporation taking responsibility for screwing things up.

"Polar ice cap"?

Hmmm, could it be a non-drug, non-medical alternative to Viagra? 

I mean, extreme cold makes everything go stiff, right?

What if you had connected a lie detector to that politician at the time?  Me thinks it 'd be going off like a pinball machine... ping, ding, dang, dong, clang, ding dong, clunk, dang, ding dong, bang, bing, bong, big, bang, wallop......

Precisely, because what a lot of corporate high flyers do and get away with, is positively criminal and needs to be punished in the same way as the lower end of the socio-economic scale is... no high priced fancy lawyers to save their bacon, either.

Yeah, a wind that blows them clean away... off the planet.

Politics and big business should never ever be in bed together.  In other words, businessmen cannot become politicians, and politicians cannot engage in business.  It' s like how we have a separation of powers within the justice system.  Government makes laws, policemen enforce them and judges/courts deem a punishment, but no-one does all 3 jobs.  It's our safeguard against the (greater) abuse of power, and that's how politics and corporations should be... separate the money from the power to help reduce greed and corruption.

Oh, and nobody hold their breath on that one...greed and corruption are too well entrenched in the system.  Corporate big-wig deaths enmasse and wholesale political assassinations might help cure it, perhaps.

That's why we need to abolish parliamentary privilege here in OZ and have our pollies and high ranking bureaucrats punishable by the same civil and criminal laws we are susceptible to. Sadly, that is not currently the case.  As for corporatate power, it should only ever be able to exert influence over the business directly within the company in its immediate sphere of influence.  The buying and paying for politicians should come under treason or some such law and be punishable by life imprisonment.

Well I can dream, can't I.