Think before you click on Valentine's Day

E-card distributors have been blasted for encouraging the irresponsible use of email systems by offering anonymous Valentine's Day messages.

The messages are a real turn off for internet security company Activis, which regards the use of attachments from unknown sources as highly dangerous to corporate networks. Both Easypostcard.com and pres.net are allowing users to send email messages anonymously.

John Cheney, managing director of Activis, said: "On Wednesday morning staff are likely to be overeager to open emails expecting to receive a message of love from an anonymous admirer. This is the perfect opportunity for viruses masquerading as Valentine's Day messages to strike."

"These irresponsible websites are actually encouraging people to send anonymous emails which are putting companies' networks in serious danger. Company directors must take immediate action and reiterate their email usage policy, stressing the dangers of opening email attachments from an unknown source," he explained.

"Just because it's Valentine's Day email users still need to 'think before they click'. The problem is that you can never tell what damage an attachment will do until you've opened it - and by then it's too late," he added.

Pres.net denied that they were being irresponsible. A spokeswoman told vnunet.com: "Our messages are sent within the body of an email. A user would have to go out of their way to send them as an attachment."

However, Easypostcard.com's message service could only be sent as an attachment.