Julie Amero was a substitute teacher in Norwich, Connecticut. In 2004, she was arrested for allegedly exposing children in her class to pornography.

According to Amero, a computer virus was to blame. While teaching, she heard some students giggling and looking at her computer screen. “Inappropriate” Web sites had popped up on their own. Amero closed the windows, but more kept appearing.

Not exactly computer savvy (she says she’d learned how to use e-mail just a few weeks before), Amero didn’t know what to do and ran to tell the vice principal. He told her not to worry about it.

But then, angry parents called the school. In response, Amero was fired. But it turned out that wasn’t her biggest problem.

A few days after the incident, police arrested her. She was taken to court and convicted of four felony counts of endangering minors — facing a sentence of up to 40 years in prison.

The case got national attention, and several computer security professionals rose to Amero’s defense. Led by Sunbelt Software, they assembled a team of lawyers and managed to get the case overturned, setting the stage for a new trial.

The second time around, more details about the school’s computer network emerged. Apparently, the network had no firewall, lacked antivirus software and used an out-dated Web filter that didn’t block new inappropriate content. Eventually, investigators found a virus on the classroom computer that could have caused the sites to pop up.

Amero managed to secure a plea bargain in the second trial. She plead guilty to a disorderly conduct misdemeanor, paid a $100 fine and had her teaching credentials revoked.

Similar situations have cropped up. For example, a child pornography charge against a Massachusetts state government employee was dropped last year when it was discovered a virus had been downloading the content without the employee’s knowledge.

Examples like these should give companies even more of a reason to keep antivirus software and other protections up to date. Also, when employees may have violated computer use policies, HR should investigate in close conjunction with IT to see if malware may be at the root of the problem.

The e-mail is almost certainly a fraud that entices the recipient to click to “get the details” of the complaint – and then infects your computer with a Trojan Horse virus. The contents of the e-mail include an EEOC logo under the subject line and contain purported language from the EEOC under a subject heading “Employer Liability for Harassment.”

The EEOC has sent out warnings about the scam and what the body of the e-mail typically looks like:

FROM: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
SUBJECT: “Harassment Complaint Update For”
This is an automated email that confirms the registration of harassment complaint #number…this harassment complaint can lead to law enforcement action. You can download and print a copy of this complaint to keep for your personal records here…Our staff will keep you updated regarding the status of our investigation…To check the status of your complaint access:

Then the unsuspecting reader clicks on a link for details and ends up with a virus.

How do you know if you’re really being contacted by EEOC? An e-mail of any type is the first clue that the contact is bogus. EEOC policy notes that any contact with an employer regarding complaints or violations is always done via the U.S. Postal Service and never by e-mail.